Chapter 2 | Adam
“I feel horrid abandoning you at the airport, Adam,” Sehela said as she swerved around the donkey cart plodding down the single lane road that led to the small airport.
“There’s no need to apologize,” Adam said. He practiced his deep breathing. Sehela drove far too rapidly on a road that could easily end up overturning their aged Mini. It coughed when she shifted into fourth as she opened up for the straight road ahead.
“I hope we don’t miss your flight.” She glanced at her dashboard clock and then jerked the steering wheel to avoid the pothole that yawned out in front of the car. Two wheels on the shoulder made for a bumpy ride until she bounced back onto the roughly paved road again.
“It’ll be fine. Gran taught me years ago that I am exactly where I need to be, at the time I need to be there. I can’t imagine there are exceptions.” Adam smiled at the village’s wise woman.
Decades earlier, when Adam’s grannie had set off on her path of learning about the art of herbal healing, she'd studied for many years alongside Sehela.
And now Adam concluded his own stint of residential study. He'd stayed with her for six months. In that time, he’d learned more than he ever could’ve imagined. Not just about herbs, but about how life and the universe—whatever one called the mystical force that imbues life, and how it brings together people and events—operates on its own timetable and for its own agenda.
And how humans, if they were in tune with it, could open the pathways to a destiny greater than they imagined.
At least, Adam interpreted it that way. It became his philosophy on life, and he made sure to hold tightly to it when things started to look glum and bleak or just not so good.
Right now, he focused on keeping his breathing smooth and even as Sehela drove like a crazed woman on roads that weren’t intended for such speed.
They were racing the clock.
The rainclouds on the horizon were so dark, they were almost green. Adam knew what that meant back home in North Carolina. On the island of Maona, it meant something similar.
Only there would be a lot more of it.
Situated in the Atlantic Ocean, nestled in a small string of archipelagos off the coast of the Bahamas, Maona had started to open up to tourism. Not as popular as its sister islands in the Atlántida Archipelago, the tropical lifestyle still remained traditional, unhurried and relaxed, which made it most attractive.
Maona epitomized a tropical paradise.
Except in that moment with the impending rain. Not just rain, but a storm which threatened access to the remote village home of Adam’s current hosts and increased the pressure to get home and indoors as quickly as possible.
They had been ready to leave on time to get to the small, rural airport. They'd delayed to tend to a family with a sick child, and so they’d left much later than they anticipated. And now, not only did they need to make sure Adam got through the small airport's process which stood in for customs to meet his flight, but Sehela needed to get back to the village before the rains washed out the roads.
As the airport came into view, three small twin-engine airplanes sat on the tarmac. “It looks like I’ll make it in time,” he said, a soft sigh of relief escaping his chest. As much as he loved the tiny island and his time spent with the wise woman, Adam was ready to go home.
He missed his hometown, Dreamer’s Folly, and his own house; he missed his grannie and his brothers. Reliable electricity was a bonus, as well as inside running water. And his bed. He really missed his bed.
Never more so than the last few nights.
And mornings.
Recently, his body had sprung to life with renewed vigor and the hardest morning wood.
With little to no opportunity to meet men on the island, Adam's sexual self had shut down, up until a few days ago. Suddenly, it was as if his libido knew he was going home and his sex drought could be about to end.
Not that he hadn’t had a good time. Staying in the house with his mentor was amazing. The small house felt a little cramped with a lanky American guest in addition to Sehela, her husband, and three children. Nevertheless, at no time in the past six months did the living arrangements feel too crowded. Much of their time was spent outside due to being in a tropical zone. And with their mutual interest, they roamed the countryside in search of wild herbal flowers and tended to the small garden which grew the rest of Sehela’s herbal staples.
After learning much about herbal cultivation and preparation, Adam was ready to go home. Even so, he was no less thankful for the opportunity to learn from someone his grandmother held in such high regard.
Breaking to a hard stop, Sehela killed the engine outside the drop-off curb. She leaped from the car to drag the bag from the trunk and met Adam as he climbed out of the small vehicle.
“I’ll miss you, Sehela. Thank you so much. For everything.” Adam set his backpack next to the bag on the ground and pulled her into a fierce hug.
When they separated, she held his hands and pulled them to her forehead. “You have been a good student, Adam. I am glad to have met you. May you have a safe journey to your home and may your life's path take you to the place where wishes and dreams come true.”
The weighty words threatened to make Adam cry. His eyes pricked as he blinked them back. For all that he wanted to go home, the sudden desire to not leave her struck him. He hoped to return. He intended to return.
“No, don’t give me that face. You feel in here,” and Sehela placed her hand over his heart, “that your time here is at an end. A new place waits for you now. Rise up to greet it.”
She was right, of course.
“I’ve never been good at saying goodbye.”
“Then let’s say, until another time.” She smiled and rose to her toes to kiss his cheek. “Now. Make sure you have your boarding pass and ticket out before you go. Send your grandmother my love.”
Adam ducked to pull his wrinkled ticket out of his backpack. It had seen better days. It'd been printed a month ago when they went into the main town on the island. Holding onto it for so long meant that it'd taken a bit of a beating as he’d shuffled his things in and out of his bags. Ink splotched where he’d been caught in a downpour, just like the one coming, as he'd tried to get from the car to their small house in the village. If he squinted, he could still make out what it said, mostly. The island only had one small airport; there really shouldn’t be any confusion.
“I should go.”
She waved to him one more time and climbed back into the Mini. With a cough and a sputter, she zoomed off. With a little luck, she’d be back home before things came to a head and the roads turned into streams or rivers.
With a pang of sadness, Adam watched as the small car disappeared along the long road. Back to her home, her family and her soulmate. Sehela had talked at great length about how the universe had set her upon a path to meet Agwe. He appeared at her time of greatest need. They'd been together ever since.
Adam hoped that one day he’d have that.
Although he didn’t hold out hope it would happen for a while yet. He had his own path to walk, and with the door closing on this chapter of his life, it was time to move on. Within a few weeks, he’d be working with his grannie in her herbal practice, establishing himself as a healer before taking over the business completely in a few years.
Rain started to fall. Great fat drops of water splashed. The sky wasn’t quite ready to open up fully, but it was close. The clouds were rolling in quickly. Hopefully, it wouldn’t delay his flight.
The raindrops splashed on his ticket and boarding pass, and he didn’t dare wipe it and smear the ink further. The entire thing would be a smear if he did.
Flight 4something2. If he remembered right it, a puddle jumper of a plane, flying into Miami International, leaving at 1:30 p.m. local time. From there, he’d catch a connecting flight to Atlanta, then to Raleigh-Durham. At least, that was what he remembered when he first got his return flight information.
He’d go with that.
Darting into the airport, he moved as quickly as he could to the security checkpoint. Getting through security wouldn’t be an issue, not in a small island airport that wasn’t deluged with tourist activity yet. There’d been rumors circulating in his host village of a big company wanting to come in and build a resort. Feelings were mixed about what that would mean for the area and the economy.
Frankly, it would be a shame if the modern world intruded on the quaint island population, although he supposed they needed the infusion of money just like the rest of the world. Hopefully, Maona wouldn’t end up overdeveloped like many tourist destinations and would be able to hold on to its small island charm.
He made it through security with no problems, the guard waving him on as he shouldered his backpack and the other bag and sprinted to the nearest information board to check his gate details. He grimaced at his smeared ticket and made a best guess. Gate number three. Another flight was due to leave in five hours. If he missed this flight, he’d have another chance.
The anticipation of getting in the air and arriving home started to build. He could almost feel Grannie’s hug and taste her prize-winning lasagna. He grinned to himself as he redoubled his efforts to get to the gate.
The gate attendants were letting the last of the passenger line on when he jogged up. “I made it!” he exclaimed, triumphant.
The attendant just glanced at him, bored, before taking his copy of the boarding pass. She tore off her half and returned his seat assignment before gesturing down the jet bridge.
There would be only one flight attendant on the plane. She waited for the final straggling passengers at the bulkhead door. “Welcome aboard. The captain would like to get in the air soon to avoid the severe weather front which is coming in, so as soon as you can get settled, we’ll be taking off.”
She closed the door behind him and secured it.
“Is the flight full?” he asked. Turning to look at the small cabin area, clearly it was not.
“No. So feel free to take a seat anywhere.”
Now the anticipation grew to fever pitch.
There weren’t many people on the flight. Every passenger had their own row to themselves. Those were the best kinds of flights. Far enough apart that bumping elbows wouldn’t be an irritation, and close enough together that conversation could still be held comfortably, even over the roar of the twin props.
As the engines whined to a start, Adam stowed his carry on in the overhead bin. Since he could pick his seat, he left his backpack down to access it during the flight to Miami.
He set his backpack on the seat next to the window in an empty row, and dropped himself into the aisle seat, ready to buckle in. An attractive man pressed up against the outer bulkhead in the window seat across the aisle. Distracted, he was watching out the window while the plane taxied on the runway for takeoff.
A businessman, no doubt, and far younger than the cut of his suit implied.
What businessman came to a tropical island in a suit unless to work? The heat and the humidity wouldn’t allow him to stay comfortable for long. Perhaps he worked for an investor or developer seeking opportunities on the island.
Moving through the cabin, the flight attendant made sure everyone had buckled up, and the overhead bins were secure. She gave the safety speech about the flight. Adam paid attention, mainly because he forgot to pull his book out of his other carryon. And with so few passengers, it seemed rude to do otherwise. He snapped open one of his two bottles of water and took a drink as she explained where the emergency doors were and how to put on the life vests in the event of an emergency.
It probably wasn’t necessary to listen to the safety review. Planes rarely went down anymore, save the more catastrophic tragedies. They were the outliers, not the norm. Air travel was safer than crossing the road or driving a car, or so he'd heard. And yet, he wasn’t forced to watch a safety film every time he caught a bus.
The anticipation of going home, of moving into the next chapter of his life kept Adam keyed up, and his heart thudded heavily as the plane taxied into position.
The sudden acceleration to takeoff speed pressed him back against his seat as the cabin jostled and shook.
The bumpy ride soon smoothed out as they rose into the air. Gravity pulled at them as the plane climbed higher, looking to get above the storm clouds.
Adam was finally on his way home.