Paper Planes Back Home

DEPARTURE . FIVE

He is awash with the feeling of disorientation when he opens his eyes. Where am I?

Eyes blurry, Skylar shuts them tight and opens them again. There is a soft breeze against his skin, and he hears soft fluttering nearby. Paper planes?

"Oh, thank God, you're awake."

Only then does he notice the hand on his arm, firmly holding him. He doesn't need to see who it is as he's recognized the voice right away, but he cranes his neck anyway, shooting her an incredulous stare. Before she gets to say something, Skylar suddenly turns, finally realizing the situation.

He has imagined this moment since the old man, Sam, successfully boarded his giant paper plane and left his cloud a while ago. He often wondered how long the trip back would be, what he'd be seeing, hearing, feeling.

"Skylar? Are you all right?"

He's still taking all this in; him, being lifted by hundreds—perhaps thousands of Gianna's linked paper planes, while the blue expanse he has so far grown accustomed to begins to crack open. Flying on each side are even more paper planes, and when he looks behind then, he sees a trail of them tailing their ride. A cold draft begins to overcome them as they approach the fissure on the seemingly endless blue space, and it terrifies him to see how pitch black their destination is. Could he have been wrong believing this journey was a way back home?

"Sky—"

"You didn't have to, Gianna."

"No one gets left behind." Her smile is faint, but sincere. Skylar figures she must be scared as well, so he holds her hand, partly to soothe her and partly to thank her. He doesn't understand how the heck he got here ("Did she actually carry me to her plane?"), but she has presented him a second chance, and he isn't about to blow it.

"You sounded more like a soldier than I am just now," he says, a soft smile lighting up his features.

She hugs him, and Skylar remembers just how good it felt to be held. Allowing himself a moment of refuge, he lifts his hands reluctantly, and finally holds her too.

Gianna sobs. "I thought you were going to die..."

"Well—guess I'm lucky someone is looking out for me...in the most unexpected of places."

She pulls back from the embrace, and the smile she flashes him is the kind that reaches her misty eyes. "Someone definitely is."

His expression is curious, questioning. Gianna doesn't say a word and merely tilts her head to the side, her eyes encouraging him to take a look at the paper planes flying beside them. Skylar narrows his eyes, unsure about what she's trying to tell him.

She picks up on his confusion and just tells him outright. "They're yours."

* * * * *

"Mister..."

A small hand reaches for Aaron's arm. "Mister...?"

Aaron's eyes flutter open, but it takes him ten more seconds to realize he has fallen asleep on a chair at the hospital lobby's waiting area. Blinking a few times, he sees a young boy holding a big tortoise plush doll looking up at him. The gauze bandage wrapped around his little head makes Aaron conclude that the boy might have had some head trauma or surgery very recently. "What is it?"

The boy holds his other hand out, revealing a mobile phone. "Is this yours?"

It definitely is. "How'd you get this?" Aaron asks back, reaching for the gadget that blinked as soon as he put his hand on it. There is an incoming call.