Ruby Island

by Anita Rodriguez

  "Come on, Reynolds," he said, pointing to the copilot's seat.

  "What are you doing?" Amy asked incredulously.

  "I'm flying us to Ruby Island."

  "This isn't a video game, Matt. You can't just fly the plane. You’re not playing a video game on your couch here." She pestered him even though she knew that he was a good pilot because he bragged about it. She had only flown with him at the controls once before in Alaska with the airplane's real pilot seated next to him. "And besides, no one flies to Ruby Island."

  Matt started flipping switches and checking instruments. "Well, we do now."

  "You can't fly us there, Matt. You might have read, if you did research, that no one flies there because it’s in the Bermuda Triangle. There have been too many malfunctions in the last decade. That's why Bill bought the island. The paparazzi won't even dare try to fly over anymore."

  Matt took off the headphones and turned to face Amy. He smiled, his eyebrows doing their devilish pull sideways. "Reynolds, I am a pilot. I have more hours than half the airline pilots out there. Aren't you up for a little adventure?"

  "Yes, when it's adventure and not stupidity." Amy was mad now, and she crossed her arms in protest. She was not going to get killed flying to Ruby Island.

  "I've rented the airplane, and I've planned a direct flight. But if you are too chicken..." He let the word hang in the air, and Amy knew that he knew he was having fun with her. "You can take the boat over." Matt turned back to the console and flipped three more switches and pushed a button, and the engine on the left wing sputtered to life.

  "Matt," Amy said in warning. "Don't you have to file a flight plan or something?"

  "Done," Matt called back as he pulled a map from a pouch on the console and studied it.

  Everything in her screamed 'don't get on the plane', and Amy decided to listen to her inner voice and let Matt go it alone, but as she turned back toward Matt to bid goodbye, he balked like a chicken right in her face.

  "B-galk! B-galk!" he crowed at her, and Amy's cheeks turned red. "Come on, Reynolds, I'm just kidding," he said when he realized that she wasn't taking this as a joke. He flipped a switch and the engine on Amy’s side of the plane sputtered to life.

  "I'm not a chicken," Amy called over the engine, her hair blowing around her face.

  Matt's face softened into his perfect smile. "It's okay, Reynolds," he said just above the noise of the engines. "If you're afraid, take the boat. I’ll meet you there."

  Amy grabbed her gig bag and stuffed it on the floor of the back seat before climbing into the copilot's chair next to Matt. She pulled the seatbelt over her shoulders and clicked it tight. She didn't know what she was thinking, only that Matt had dared her, and she was taking that dare. She was glad that the loud prop noise covered her nervous exhale. This was scary and she hated it, and it was exciting and she loved it. She was confused, but that was typical around Matt Cole.

  He picked up a green headset and handed it to her, and Amy put it on. "You look good up here, Reynolds. You look the part." He smiled and pointed at her sunglasses and she nodded calmly, but her smile was less convincing.

  Amy watched as Matt handled the controls, pushing the throttles forward as she had seen in the movies. When they were in the Arctic, he'd sat where she was now, and the pilot had let Matt take the controls. They had bored Amy with their chatter about airplanes and hours flown, and now she wished she'd been paying attention to those details.

  They rolled down the runway, and as they jumped forward and took to the sky, Amy admitted that it was exhilarating. They were over the water in no time, flying level and with no turbulence, and her nerves began to calm.

  "Maybe you should have been a pilot for a living," she said.

  Matt nodded in agreement. "It definitely comes easier than writing."

  "That seems to have worked out for you, though."

  "What, you mean because of Sarah?" he asked. She wasn't talking about his fiancé. She meant the interview he was about to do, but Amy kept quiet.

  "I guess marrying the boss' daughter helps. Look who I'm going to interview right now." Amy opened her mouth to protest, but she couldn't let him know that it was her who got him the gig. "And, you know, I'm not getting any younger."

  His words made Amy sit up taller in her seat. He sounded as though he was settling with Sarah Robinson. Of course that was ridiculous since she was a gorgeous successful news anchor whose star was on the rise. Amy couldn't help herself. "That sounds cynical."

  Matt nodded. "Maybe it is. How old are you, Reynolds?"

  "Thirty-two."

  “Sometimes you just get to a point in your life when it's time to settle down. When you get to my age, you might feel the same way."

  Amy slumped a bit lower in her seat. She was sad to hear his words. He was too great of a guy to settle for anything, yet he was lacking at his job, and he was engaged to someone he was settling for. Amy realized that her crush on Matt might have been causing her to misjudge him. He seemed to have it all together, but if she was reading him right, his statement was just plain sad.

  "You're thirty-five, Matt. What, is your clock ticking?"

  "No, my clock isn't ticking. Not in the child way anyhow. Sarah and I are both focused on our careers, and I don't even know if she wants kids."

  "Do you want kids?"

  "I don't know. I don't think so."

  "That's a shame," Amy said, thinking that he was too gorgeous not to have children.

  Matt turned to face her. "Do you want kids, Reynolds?"

  "Watch the road," Amy said, pointing out the window. Matt smiled and looked back out into the blue sky.

  "Maybe," Amy said noncommittally, but she knew that she did. She didn't like the conversation being about her though. "So why are you marrying Sarah if you don't love her?"

  "I love her," he said, and Amy was certain he did by the tone in his voice.

  "But you're not madly in love with her. Why would you want to marry someone and spend the rest of your lives together if you don't love her to the core of her being?"

  "To the core of her being?" Matt asked with a guffaw, and Amy regretted pushing the conversation.

  "Have you ever loved someone to the core of your being?" he asked, still chuckling.

  "Once," Amy admitted.

  "That's right, you were married before."

  "No," she snapped back. "We didn't get married, but we lived together for a couple of years."

  "So then he wasn't madly in love with you." Matt winced after the words came out of his mouth, but he didn't apologize.

  "I guess not," Amy admitted sulkily. "But then, I guess it was a good thing we weren't married," she added, driving her point home. Matt adjusted the controls but didn't answer, so Amy pushed. "Okay, let me put it this way. You are married and it's five years down the road. You're in an ice cream shop, and the woman of your dreams walks in. What do you do?"

  "An ice cream shop? Are we hypothetically in 1952 here?"

  Amy swatted Matt's shoulder with the back of her hand but pulled back quickly, afraid she might make him crash the airplane.

  "Come on, just answer the question. What do you do?"

  "I jump her bones."

  "Jump her bones? Are we in 1985 now?"

  "You're the one who said we were in an ice cream shop. Shouldn't we be in a bar or something like that."

  "You're avoiding the question."

  "Okay, here’s my answer. I do nothing."

  "Nothing?" Amy asked. "The woman of your dreams is right in front of you, and you do nothing."

  "That's right. I watch her order her ice cream and I go home to my wife."

  "That's admirable," Amy said, but she couldn't leave it alone. "You're so calm about it, Matt. Doesn't that make you feel sad?"

  "Lighten up, Reynolds! I'm thirty-five years old and Sarah is gorgeous, intelligent, and fun to be with. Don't feel so sorry for me."

  Amy tried to smile. Maybe Matt was right about this, and she sho
uld lighten up. At least then she wouldn't be living with her mom still licking her wounds or harboring a crush on an engaged man.

  "Hmmm," Matt said as he tapped the altimeter. He sat back and tried to look calm at the controls, but he was worried. For the past ten seconds, three of the gauges had been bouncing back and forth. He was glad that Reynolds hadn't noticed it, but the warning that no one flies to Ruby Island passed through his head. He looked out his window at the water below and grit his teeth, and then the oddest thing happened.

  The ocean of water below them was replaced by a fog that came out of nowhere. He pulled back on the yoke to try to rise above it, but the fog moved with them, like it was a hand holding up the small aircraft. Matt shook his head and looked again. They should have been flying into clouds at this altitude, not fog. Matt hoped that would be the worst of it as he flicked the altimeter again, but he lost his breath as the aircraft was struck by lightning.

  Matt clenched his teeth and waited for the electric shock to zap him, but it didn't. He didn't hear the crack of thunder, and the blinding light didn't flash and then disappear. The light was on them and he could feel it getting under his skin, and Reynolds was holding her hands in front of her face screaming. Matt gripped the controls and then he too was screaming.

  "Make it stop!" Amy yelled at Matt, but she knew that the bright light had nothing to do with the airplane. The light was energy and she could feel it under her skin. She felt like she was falling and wondered if it was a UFO beaming them up, but that was ridiculous because she didn't believe in aliens. She screamed again and heard more screaming in the aircraft which terrified her. She thought it sounded like kids yelling, and Amy's heart panicked at the noise. Then the light was gone and they were all still screaming for a moment before Matt sat up in his chair and checked the gauges. He looked out his window and took a deep breath. They were still flying, they were still on course, and the fog was gone and he could see the clear Caribbean water again.

  "What the hell was that?" he said out loud, and then there was a bang and the aircraft shook. A buzzing alarm sounded and Matt flipped a couple of switches and pressed the flashing red button to quiet the noise, but he felt a tension in the controls.

  "Matt?" Amy asked shakily. "What's going on?"

  Matt looked out his window and swore under his breath. "It's nothing," he said.

  A young voice called from behind them, "Dad, there's black smoke, and I think the engine is on fire!"

  Amy jumped out of her seat and with her hand clasped over her mouth, she turned around to see three boys in the back seat.

  Matt did a double take to the back seat. “Aaah!” he yelled when he saw the boys, and his arm hit the yoke and the aircraft started a dive to the left.

  “Matt, fly the plane!” Amy yelled, and he returned his attention to the controls to level out the airplane.

  "It's not on fire," Matt yelled, seeing that there was a trail of black smoke coming out of the engine. He reached up and pulled the fire extinguish handle for Engine Number One. He then looked slowly over his shoulder and blinked at the three boys seated behind him. Matt's mouth hung open and he shook his head. He blinked his eyes closed for a long moment and when he opened his eyes, the boys were still there.

  “Do you see them?” Amy yelled, wondering if the white energy that had gotten under her skin was causing her to hallucinate.

  “Do you see them!” she yelled again as she clasped his arm.

  “I see them. Let go of me, Reynolds. I have to fly the airplane,” Matt said, shaking off her grip and turning back to look at the gauges.

  “You see them too,” she said in relief. "Where did you come from?" she asked the boys. “Did you just call him dad?" Amy asked the oldest boy. He looked like he might be a teenager.

  The boy looked quizzically at Amy. She had no idea where they had come from, but they looked familiar. Amy squeezed her eyes closed, but when she opened them, the three boys were still there. She felt as though she might be sick and then she wondered if the white light meant that she had died.

  “They’re not talking. Matt. I don’t think they can talk.”

  “Of course they can. They already have.”

  “And you see them, too,” Amy said again. She pulled her hands up to her cheeks and looked at Matt, but he was moving levers and looking out the windows all around.

  Amy turned to the back seat to appraise the stowaways. They were clean but were wearing barely any clothes. They were tan and each had mid-length curly hair. Amy turned to look out her side window and she unconsciously ran her hand through her own curls. There were three boys in the small back seat of the airplane, she was certain. She just had no idea where they had come from.

  She tapped Matt on the shoulder and he looked back to see the boys with a face of incredulity. She knew he could see them, but she couldn’t believe they were real. They were there, out of thin air. They had been made of the white light that had come over the airplane.

  "There's land," a small voice said.

  She looked down at the water. "It's Ruby Island!"

  Amy pointed frantically as Matt turned back to the controls and seemed to remember that he was flying a failing airplane. "See? I told you we would make it," he said as he flicked at the instrument panel again. The small craft jolted several times and Amy squealed.

  "I'm scared," she heard a small voice say behind her, but she didn't turn back around. Even though Matt said that he could see the boys, Amy was sure that she had suffered some sort of trauma and that she was hallucinating.

  "Well, don't fly over the runway, land on it!" Amy said as she frantically pointed out her window while the water got closer and closer.

  "I wasn't lined up with the runway from the other direction, Reynolds."

  Matt was annoyed. He’d missed lining up because he didn't know what the hell was going on. He was pretty sure that the crazy bright light had messed with his head because both he and Amy saw three boys in the backseat.

  He focussed on the controls. He’d landed an aircraft on one engine before in practice, but that was a craft that he had flown dozens of times, so he was nervous about this landing. He glanced sideways and saw that Reynolds eyes were so bulged that he thought she might jump out of the plane before they landed.

  "Look!" Matt heard a boy's voice call behind him and he tried to ignore it. Matt was certain that there was nowhere for three boys to hide out of site in this small craft. He had glanced around the cabin when he was doing his pre-flight check, and he was positive they weren’t on this airplane when he’d taken off. His eye twitched, and he tried to focus his attention on landing safely.

  "It's Bill!" Reynolds called, pointing out her window. Matt took a double-take out her window and saw someone expertly weaving on a crotch rocket motorcycle along a one lane road that moved with the rolling hills. The bike was almost at the runway.

  "Is that Bill Ruby racing toward us like an action hero?" he managed to say sarcastically while he was flying a plane that was trying it's hardest to crash.

  "Just fly the plane!" Reynolds yelled.

  "Bill Ruby, where?" one of the boys chirped from the backseat.

  "Never mind," Matt said. He flew out past the end of the island and turned the airplane back on a wide arc, trying to fight the engine on the right wing that was starting to die out. "Everybody hold on," he said trying to sound confident but not feeling it.

  Matt didn't know what the hell had happened. He was flying a perfectly good airplane that now felt like it was going to fall out of the sky. And who were the boys in the backseat? He banked to the right and lined up with the runway as the second engine sputtered. He put his hand on the fire extinguisher lever for that engine but didn't pull.

  "Mom, should we assume the crash position now?" a small voice asked from the back seat.

  Amy spun around, trying to smile to comfort the boys. They were making no sense. Why were they calling her mom? They had to be addressing her because she was the only female on the p
lane, but how could they be her children? She had never met them before.

  "Hold on," she said as she felt the aircraft sink lower. Her eyes looked back out the window and swept the ground for the motorcycle, but she couldn't see it. Then she saw a small hanger door open and an old fire truck begin to race to the end of the runway. She was glad to see the fire truck because she didn't know how long this aircraft could keep together. The engine was no longer on fire, but Matt was usually confident and now he was sweating as he wrestled with the controls. This scared Amy.

  The aircraft gained one last burst of lift when it transitioned from ocean to the ground, and Amy could see two SUV’s come over the hill. She knew that would be Bill's staff following him to the runway. She was sure the staff must have been in shock because no one flew to Ruby Island.

  "Mom!" two boys called out from the backseat, but Amy didn't respond. Her life was too busy flashing before her eyes.

  "It's okay," Amy heard the older boy say.

  They all held their breath and held on for dear life. The wheels touched down on the perfectly crafted runway, and Amy was glad that Bill Ruby kept it in pristine condition even though no one ever used it. The plane jumped back into the air for a moment and Matt corrected with the yoke and then finally touched down for good. He pressed the brakes a little too hard and with one engine pushing the aircraft, they were all jolted sideways for an instant before Matt brought the throttle back. Amy's body snapped sideways and she hit her head on the window. Stars covered her eyes for a moment and then she blacked out.

  Chapter 4

  International movie superstar Bill Ruby lifted Amy out of the plane.

  "I'm fine," she muttered, half in and out of consciousness.

  "Just let the doctors take a look, Amy."

  Matt sat frozen, still gripping the yoke.

  Once Amy was on the stretcher, Bill Ruby turned to look in the back seat. "Are you okay? Is anybody hurt?" He was yelling even though there was no engine noise, and Matt let go of the yoke and turned around slowly.