Page 122 of Cavern of Silence
"Long story. Are you on the ten-forty flight?"
"No, the eight."
Axel nods. "Good. We're almost there. When we get to Bermuda, we will have to swap stories before I leave."
"Leave?" I ask.
Penelope's face falls. "We need to keep looking for my daughter, Millie."
"Do you know where she is?"
"Not yet. But once we have a base, we can look into a few things," Axel says confidently.
"Can we do anything to help?" I ask.
Penelope takes a deep breath. "I don't know, but if there is, I'll let you know."
"Okay. Anything I can do to find your daughter and help her get to safety, I will. Promise."
Tears well in her eyes. "Thank you. I'll take any help I can get. She's been gone for so long."
I hug her. "Let's get to Bermuda, and we'll all figure it out together."
She wipes her eyes then bravely smiles. "What have you two been up to?"
"Boarding for Wade International Airport, Bermuda will start in five minutes," a lady informs us over the loudspeaker.
"We came over from Honduras with a deep-sea fisherman and swam with piggies," Ryker says.
Axel's head bounces backward, and he laughs. "What did you do?"
"It was super cool. And we marked it off our bucket lists," Julieta claims.
"Ahh. It's about time you made a dent in yours," he says to Ryker.
"Do you have one?" I ask him.
"Mine's pretty short. I've been crossing them off for a while. Ryker has some catching up to do."
"On it." Ryker grins and pulls me closer to him. "Have you been in Honduras this entire time?"
"No, man. Nicaragua."
"What? Why?"
"After the earthquake, we had to get passports and..."
The woman returns on the loudspeaker and announces it's time for people in our section to get on the plane.
"That's us," Ryker says.
"See you on the other side," Axel replies, and they embrace.
Penelope and I hug each other, and Axel kisses me on the cheek.
"See you tomorrow," I tell them, and Ryker and I stand at the back of the line.
If I had been paying attention, I would have seen the airline employee taking pictures of us.
