“You reckon it’s driveable?”
“I think so – just about,” Jason replied, looking – for the first time since Samuel had met him – panicked and worried about something. “Look, I’ve gotta get her to a shop quick. Sorry pal, will you be alright from here?”
“Yeah, I’ll manage,” Samuel nodded, reaching into his pocket and pulling out his wallet. “Here,” he handed Jason a wad of bank notes, half expecting the man to now tell him to forget about it and put his money away.
“Thanks,” Jason said doing quite the opposite and snatching the notes from Samuel’s hand to stuff them in his pocket. “Gonna need this to fix her up. I can’t believe this. This is my livelihood!”
Samuel stood beside Jason politely and quietly for a few more moments, not really sure what to say to the cab driver. The man clearly didn’t understand what had changed with the Trident collapse. He doubted whether Jason would be able to find anyone willing to spend the time and effort fixing up his cab at a time like this, but there was also no chance Samuel was going to argue with him. He’d been lucky to get a ride this far out into Long Island. It should only take him a couple of hours on foot now to reach his parents and he was grateful for that, no matter how out of touch Jason Myers seemed, Samuel was glad to have met him.
“I hope you manage to get it fixed up,” Samuel said as Jason made his way back to the drivers’ seat. “Good luck.”
“Thanks pal, and to you. Come and find me on the cabstand when all of this blows over, I’ll be the one with the shiny new bumper.”
Samuel laughed. “You can count on it!” He had to hand it to Jason, for all his faults the positive outlook on life was certainly something Samuel could get used to. Jason was like him in a way there, always trying to find the positives in a world where people were all too often bogged down with what was going wrong. Sure, it was hard in the current predicament, but there was a lot more to life than money. As he waved Jason off, he made a mental note to try and focus on what he still had. It wasn’t like this disaster had just happened to him alone, the whole country had been affected and they were all going to have to get through it one way or another. Samuel for one, was going to try and be positive about it.
Chapter 9
He pulled his cell from his pocket before he remembered the battery was dead. Without it, Samuel tried to get his bearings and figure out which direction to head in. The airport was only about a fifteen-minute walk away and he knew he could still make it to Freeport on foot. But, after hitching a ride just about half way, the idea of finding another car to continue the journey was a lot more appealing. Plus, he couldn’t deny the childlike curiosity inside him that wanted to find out what had happened there. Jason’s story about a plane sort of capsizing on the runway was so implausible, Samuel had to see it for himself.
So, he began to walk. On two occasions, cars zoomed past him and both times Samuel fought the urge to stick out his thumb and ask for a lift. Now that he had started walking toward the airport, he really wanted to see what had happened there. Airports were almost like micro-communities from what he had experienced in the past. They were somewhere that time didn’t exist, where people came and went at all times of the day and nothing was ever regarded as peculiar.
Samuel had spent a decent amount of time in airport lobbies for work – though not nearly as much as people in some of the other departments – and he always found his time there quite soothing. There was something that relaxed him about knowing he could travel anywhere in the world almost in an instant. That he could board the next flight out and end up anywhere in the world, nothing but a flying metal box to bring him back home if he should so choose. Exactly like his sister had done several years ago.
Out of everyone he knew, Samuel imagined that his sister Jessie would handle it the best. He had been so impressed and incredibly proud of her when she’d taken the leap of faith to move out to Hawaii, going despite her parents demands and reservations. Jessie had always been the more adventurous of the two of them, following her heart rather than instruction and doing what made her feel happy instead of what was expected from her. That’s why her moving to Hawaii hadn’t come as much of a shock to Samuel. When she found the man she wanted to marry and signed up for his life out there, he knew that his sister was gone. Their parents had other thoughts of course. At first, they threatened to cut Jessie out of their will if she went, then they moved on to bargaining and desperate pleas, before finally, quietly, letting it happen. Not that they could’ve stopped her if they wanted to. When Jessie set her mind to something, you could almost guarantee that it was going to happen. Samuel wished he was more like her in that sense, his overpowering need to please people and follow rules
