“Holy sweet Jesus!” he practically shouted. “Did you see that?”
“See what, babe?”
“How freaking fast that was! That was amazing! And look how high we are already! Wow! This is un-fucking-believable.”
Over the years I had flown so many hundreds of thousands of miles that flight was just a giant chore to me. But once again that morning, as I held my boyfriend’s hand, I was seeing everything that my partner was observing. I was so delighted that I was able to be part of this experience. It was like everything old was new again, and it was glorious.
As on our first flight, one of the flight attendants noticed Kyle was excited about something. She cautiously looked to make sure there was nothing she needed to worry about in the eight hours ahead. I explained, “First time,” which once again got a knowing smile from the woman.
People around us settled in for the long flight ahead, but Kyle kept his eyes glued to the ground below. I was starting to feel a little slighted until I figured out, Oh, right, he’s hoping to see his former home. Quietly, I rose from my seat and approached the bubbly gay flight attendant with a simple request. He was only too happy to help. After I had returned to my seat, he picked up the intercom phone and spoke with the pilot.
After about twenty minutes, we heard a voice on the public address system. “Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. I’d like to add my greetings to those you’ve already received as you came aboard this morning. Weather forecasts are looking good, so for now the Fasten Seat Belt sign is off. Our flying time today is eight hours and thirty minutes since we’ve got a bit of a headwind. I understand that we have a passenger who wants to know when we’re over Oklahoma. Our route today doesn’t take us over Oklahoma, but in about thirty minutes, if you look out the windows on the left side of the airplane, way, way off in the distance, you’ll see what you’re looking for.”
Kyle looked at me. “You didn’t!”
“Moi?” I said, feigning innocence.
“Innocence doesn’t work with you, babe,” Kyle said with a smile.
“Hey, I was innocent—once—a long time ago.”
“In a galaxy far, far away?”
“Bite me, bitch. And look out the window.”
Kyle kept his eyes glued to the ground that passed beneath us en route to Hawaii. When we passed as close to Oklahoma as our route would take us, we couldn’t see his house or his farm or anything else he recognized. Nonetheless, I enjoyed watching the delight on Kyle’s face at seeing everything from a new perspective.
When Kyle tore himself away from the view out the window, the flight attendants had served breakfast to everyone else in the cabin. I watched as the smell of the food finally caught Kyle’s attention. “I smell food,” he said.
“Yeah, babe. We all ate while you were watching the ground go past outside.”
Kyle got a disappointed look on his face at the thought that he had missed breakfast. I couldn’t stand to see my guy looking upset, so I pushed the flight attendant call button and told them that my boyfriend was ready to eat breakfast. Kyle was surprised and delighted to find that they were willing to bring him something even though everyone else had already finished. Flying was still a new experience for him, including flying first class, where good food could appear at any time you wanted on long-haul flights.
Kyle ate, I read, we talked together a bit about the islands and some of the things that we could do while there. I’d made some plans but had deliberately kept some time unscheduled for us to add things that we encountered by chance along the way. At one point I slept a bit, but Kyle was too excited—even though nothing different than the last several hours was happening. The view out the window by that point was simply clouds and water. He had been excited to see California for the first time and couldn’t believe how dry and brown it looked. He had always pictured California as a lush, green tropical paradise, so he was surprised to find that it looked more like a desert than a tropical paradise. There were pockets of green, but the dominant color was brown.
When he asked about what he was seeing, my answer was simple. “A lot of California is desert. It goes through big cycles of drought and deluge, but even in wet times, there are times of the year when it never rains. A lot of the water for irrigation in the Central Valley comes from the Colorado River. So much water is siphoned off the River that by the time it reaches the Pacific, it’s just a little trickle. Without that water, California couldn’t survive.”
“So you’re saying it’s all artificial, in a way?”
“Yes, to some degree.”
“Huh. Didn’t expect that. Don’t tell me Hawaii is a desert too.”
“No. Hawaii is definitely not a desert, although there are places on the islands where it looks like you’re in a desert. Parts of Maui are bone dry, the southern coast and inside the volcano crater especially. Same with the Big Island.”
With nothing but clouds and water outside the window, Kyle and I pulled out our books. It wasn’t long after that that a flight attendant made an unexpected announcement. “Excuse me, ladies and gentlemen. I’m sorry to disturb you, but if there is anyone with any medical training on board, please identify yourself to a flight attendant. Thank you.”
Kyle immediately unbuckled his seat belt and rose to get the attention of the nearest flight attendant. Not knowing what was happening, I did the same and followed my boyfriend. I heard him tell the attendant, “I’m an emergency physician.”
“We have a man in the back who might be having a heart attack.”
“Take me there,” he ordered, so she led us back dozens
