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September

In each South Carolina tohere I’d lived—and I’d lived in a lot of them—the trailer park was next to the airport After one more move when I was fourteen, I made a decision If I was doomed to live in a trailer park my whole life, I could complain about the smell of jet fuel like my mom, I could drink myself to death over the noise like everybody else who lived here, or I could learn to fly

Easier said than done My first step was to cross the trailer park, duck through the fence around the airport, and ask for a job For once I lucked out The town of Heaven Beach was hiring soas, a hard co to work on the taras on their hands A hungry-looking fourteen-year-old girl would do fine

I answered the phone, put chocks under the wheels of visiting airplanes, topped off the tanks for s and required no skill In other words, I ran the airport There wasn’t more to a smalltown airport than this No round-the-clock staff No tower No air traffic controller—what a joke Nothing to keep planes fro into each other but the pilots themselves

My reception counter faced the glass-walled lobby with a view of the runway Lots of days I sat on the office porch instead, taking the airport cell phone with me in case someone actually called, and watched the planes take off and land Behind the office were sars for private pilots In front of the office, so but a hurricane or a tornado would hurt them when they were tied down To e corporate hangars To as puars The closest hangar was covered in red and white lettering, peeling and faded fro in from the ocean:

HALL AVIATION

BANNER TOWING: ADVERTISE YOUR BUSINESS TO BEACHGOERS!

AIRPLANE RIDES WITH BEAUTIFUL OCEAN VIEWS

ASH SCATTERING OVER THE ATLANTIC

FLIGHT SCHOOL

In August I had watched the tiny Hall Aviation planes ski banners that unfurled behind theer than the planes the to the men who drank coffee and shot the shit with Mr Hall on the office porch, I’d gathered that Mr Hall’s oldest son was one of the banner-towing pilots Mr Hall’s twin sons ether theand blond and looked like the nice, wholesouy Mr Hall seemed to think he hereas Grayson was always in trouble He was slightly taller, with his hair covered by a straboy hat and his eyes hidden behindat me across the tararette, but I iined he was My whole body suddenly felt sunburned even though I was in the shade

They were gone now—the twins an hour and a half up the road to Wilton, where they lived with their e The tourists had left the beach The banner-towing business had shut down for the season It was the perfect time to approach Mr Hall about a lesson Hall Aviation brochures were stuffed into plastic holders throughout the office for visitors to take I knew the high price for a lesson without having toMr Hall in person

But saving the o with it, had taken me a whole ed on the sar with the oo of SCHOOL painted across it When Mr Hall hollered fro the airplanes and tools to a tiny office carved out of the corner I’d sat in the chair in front of his desk and asked hiivenn

She hadn’t been hoht I had lain awake in bed, trying to figure out the right way to present the form to her She still hadn’t co All school day, I’d worried about what I would say to her I could point out that flying was a possible career someday She talked like that so of myself I was afraid her support would disappear when she found out I’d been savingit to her

The scraggly coastal forest out the school busstill seee now that I’d spent a month in Heaven Beach As the bus approached the trailer park, I hoped against hope et this over with Even if she said no, at least my torture would end

I slid one hand down to touch the folded perh the pocket oflesson added beneath that Losing the money at school would have screwed me, but I’d been afraid to leave the ht find theot desperate for funds, like she did so

As Ime from across the aisle He knew about my money somehow He could tell that’s what I had in ered it, and he would take it fros stolen from me on a lot of school buses

But I forced ut reaction Mark wasn’t that poor He was riding this bus because he worked for his uncle at the airport after school, not because he lived in the trailer park And as I glanced over at him, his look seeht he’d caughtmyself

I was getting this kind of attention lately, and it was still new Back inland near the Air Force base, the last place my mom and I had lived, I’d flown under the radar I hatever clothes she found for ht as well have been black except in the brightest sunlight It tended to lorious day last suirls needed to ood cut, use some product, and let it dry naturally I did what I could with a cheap salon on my side of town and discount store product The result was much better, and I’d made myself over completely in the weeks before we’d moved