Okay I get the picture Mom said and turned the nose of the floatplane back toward the tiny bottlenecked bay they called home Kaylee pressed her forehead to the window gazing past the main body of the lake below toward the thick boreal forest beyond an army of jack pine and poplar tamarack and birch warriors with green wool tunics tattered and worn from battle each leaning on the next for sup port The wild wild woods went on past forever and she and her mom lived smack in the middle of the whole tangled mess of them Kaylee breathed deeply in through her nose out through her mouth Within minutes they were back over the narrow channel that joined Booker Bay to the larger lake A year ago Kaylee had loved flying never got sick from it and she desper ately wished that time back Ever since she could remember when the leaves began to 2
turn she and her parents would fly their small float plane south to St. Lucia a hot fertile island on the eastern edge of the Caribbean sea Dad would make it an adventure taking a different route each time stopping along the way in the United States in places they had never been St. Lucia was home for Dad though it wasn't where he was born the Donally family had immigrated there from Ireland when he was eight Papa Donally worked for the Air and Sea Ports Authority and would often visit St. Lucia's two airports Dad went with him whenever he wasn't in school watching through chain link fencing as planes landed and took off hanging out in briefing rooms where pilots filed their flight plans No one was surprised when he grew up to be a pilot He was flying a charter for a tourist company when he met Mom She had been sent to Florida by the provincial govern 3
this was ment for special flight training before she started flying the big CL 215 water bombers and decided to enjoy a vacation in the Caribbean before head ing back home Dad joked that she had liked his air frame and that the rest was history Living in two countries wasn't a problem for Mom and Dad After they got mar ried they'd fly people and freight around St. Lucia and other nearby islands from September to May When the rainy season arrived in the Caribbean the forest fire season was just beginning in Canada so north they'd go to fly water bombers They said that they flew for hire and for fire that flying was in their blood and probably in Kaylee's too Okay Hon hang on The nausea tightened to a hard nut in the pit of Kaylee's belly as her mom angled the plane nose down on short final Her heart pounded in her ears her chest and neck 4
