Authors: Victor Methos
43
Riki Howard was released from the hospital in the capital city of Suva after only a day of observation. They had been worried about shock, but that didn’t appear to be an issue. They gave her a sedative to help her sleep and sent her on her way. She threw the sedative into a trash bin and left the hospital.
She called a cab and asked for
Nausori Airport. The cabby drove her there in silence, and she preferred it that way. She didn’t feel like saying anything to anyone right now.
That
morning, she’d read the news reports online. They were calling it the “Disaster of Kalou Island.” A massive earthquake had rocked the small island, the article said, killing scores of people and injuring scores of others. VN had sent in hundreds of crews to assist in the clean up and humanitarian aid, the article continued. Doing its part to help those in need.
Humanitarian aid
.
The article had made her physically ill. She felt nauseated all morning and
consumed some crackers and Sprite to calm her stomach after that. In the end, it didn’t matter. They would say whatever they were going to say, and slowly, stories would come out from survivors questioning the veracity of VN’s version of events. At first, they would be considered conspiracy theorists, viewed as crazy or with an agenda. But as more and more came out, people would start questioning what happened. And then investigations would open up, and at some point, someone in VN wouldn’t be able to take the guilt anymore. The whole thing would come out. The truth always did.
As they passed the beach on the way to the airport, a group of children gathered on the shore staring at something farther out. “Stop here
, please,” she said. The cabbie pulled over.
The children were fixated on something off the beach
, and Riki could see it, too. A whale—a humpback, it looked like—with her calf. The massive tail lifted and splashed down to the delight of the children, their laughter and squeals filling the air.
Riki
smiled. “Okay. Let’s go.”
At the airport, she
entered the terminal and saw a figure standing by the metal detectors. Mark, leaning on a cane, smiled at her. They hadn’t wanted to release him from the hospital, as he’d suffered some serious burns, but she had a feeling he wasn’t about to miss this.
As she approached him, she couldn’t help but grin. “Hey,” she said.
“Hey.”
With that, he took her
hand and wordlessly led her outside. The elation was like a fire in her belly, somewhere between excitement and anxiety. She had never been a spontaneous person, and about a million things that could go wrong rushed through her mind. But in the end, none of that mattered. It felt right, and that was good enough for her.
As she
walked out of the terminal, she threw her plane ticket back to the States in the trash, never letting go of his hand.
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OTHER BOOKS BY VICTOR METHOS
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Copyright 2014
Victor Methos
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Please note that this is a work of fiction. Any similarity
to persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental. All events in this work are purely from the imagination of the author and are not intended to signify, represent, or reenact any event in actual fact.