134.
“Can any of you fly an airplane? She is a very small and simple plane.” The priest led us out the door and behind the
house where we found a bizarre sight, a plane like an overgrown dragonfly with only a
nose prop and a couple of seats in an open cockpit. “This is my very own stealth plane.”,
said the priest reverently. “She has a body of bamboo and wings of snakeskin. You will be
invisible to radar and look like a large bird from the ground. Her propeller is made of bat
wings and moonbeams. You will be where you want to go before you think of it.”
The four of us climbed aboard and crammed into the cockpit. The priest put his hands on ours. “She is light as a soap bubble. She is a fleeting thought in a child’s mind. She is the air I breathe. She is my mother, ‘Nyokap’.” The propeller began to turn slowly and without a sound. “She runs on the hope of the future and you, cousins are that hope.” He took hold of my hand. “A wise man once said we have it in our power to begin the world over again.”
In a heartbeat we were airborne. Conrad tilted Noykap’s wings to the priest, a speck now in the verdant terraces below. As we flew higher, I could feel the land of Indonesia itself breathe a sigh that gently lifted the plane and urged us on our way. Pat leaned out from my lap. “Bat wings and moonbeams? Give me a break.”
A fog bank clung to the edge of the island. We lost all visibility when we entered it but Conrad seemed unconcerned. I had no idea how long we were in the fog before it finally dissipated.
I looked below.
The four of us climbed aboard and crammed into the cockpit. The priest put his hands on ours. “She is light as a soap bubble. She is a fleeting thought in a child’s mind. She is the air I breathe. She is my mother, ‘Nyokap’.” The propeller began to turn slowly and without a sound. “She runs on the hope of the future and you, cousins are that hope.” He took hold of my hand. “A wise man once said we have it in our power to begin the world over again.”
In a heartbeat we were airborne. Conrad tilted Noykap’s wings to the priest, a speck now in the verdant terraces below. As we flew higher, I could feel the land of Indonesia itself breathe a sigh that gently lifted the plane and urged us on our way. Pat leaned out from my lap. “Bat wings and moonbeams? Give me a break.”
A fog bank clung to the edge of the island. We lost all visibility when we entered it but Conrad seemed unconcerned. I had no idea how long we were in the fog before it finally dissipated.
I looked below.
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