“Worrying about your grandfather was always so exhausting and you turned out just like him. Will I ever be able to rest?”
“You can rest now, Mom,” I say as I hug her again. “I’ll be fine. I’ll see you back in Florida in a couple of days, okay?”
“You stay over the water,” she says with her finger in my face. “It’s a seaplane and I don’t want you having to make an emergency landing in someone’s pool.”
“I’ll stay over the ocean,” I promise. “The world’s largest runway.”
She gives up, knowing that arguing with me is a lost cause.
“I’ll pack some snacks,” she says as she begins to walk back to Gramps’ house. “You’re going to need them.”
“Thanks, Mom,” I say as she goes.
Now, where do I start with this thing? I pull open a flap on the wing and a snake falls out.
Okay.
Step number one: Get rid of the animals.
“Bye, Ethan!” my parents, aunt, uncle, younger sister, and some other family friends shout as I start the plane and start to skip along the ocean. My sister Annie runs down the beach, waving frantically at me.
“Bye!” I shout back, even though they won’t be able to hear me over the roaring of the engine.
The plane looked bad from the outside, but Gramps kept the engine in pretty good order. It only took a few hours before I got it running.
I laughed when I realized that he removed the transponder, which is the part of the plane that allows it to be tracked by radar. I always knew he was a bit of a conspiracy nut, but I didn’t think he wasthisbad.
The radio is also barely working, but I have my phone for that with the GPS and the…Shit!
My phone! It’s not here either.
I’m looking around frantically, but I already know that it’s in Annie’s hands right now. That’s why she was running after me down the beach like a crazy woman. She was trying to give it back. She borrowed it to take one last picture of me with the plane before I left.
I’ve already been flying for about an hour and a half, so turning back isn’t really an option.
Not only was my phone my only reliable means of communication, but it was also my GPS. I told my mother that I was good with a map, but that wasn’t entirely correct. Reading aerial maps is a bit of an art form and one that I never really kept up with. I always had access to GPS in the planes I flew, so I never saw the need to use one. In fact, I haven’t even unfolded a map since flight schoolyearsago.
“Oh, well,” I say as I reach into the back and pull out Gramps’ old maps. “I guess we’re going to do this the old-fashioned way.”
Three hours later and I’m completely lost. Not only am I completely lost, but the radio isn’t working at all. It doesn’t even click on.
I’m trying not to freak out, but it’s getting harder and harder. This old engine guzzles up gas like crazy and I’m almost out.
There’snothingaround me but blue ocean. I haven’t seen any land in over two hours.
I desperately look at the map, but it might as well be a restaurant menu for all it’s helping me. I’m so fucked.
I should have listened to my mother. Those are some famous last words right there.
Gramps was always reckless. He was a little unhinged too. I should have paid for the plane to be shipped by boat and bought a first-class ticket home. I groan, thinking about it. I could be sipping on champagne and watching the latest Adam Sandler movie on a tiny screen. Instead, I’m about to plunge into the ocean when this dying piece of junk finally runs out of gas, which could be any minute with the way it’s eating it up.
I can’t die now.
My purpose has finally become clear.
My Gramps’ death made me realize what’s important in life. It’s made me yearn for more. The past week, being surrounded by family, talking with him about my grandmother before she died, it made me realize how much I’ve been missing. It’s made me discover that I want more out of my life.
We had a heart-to-heart on his deathbed and he told me that marrying his girl was the best thing to ever happen to him. He told me about the first time he saw his wife and how magical the moment was.