First Flight
"And if your mother asks what we were doing all day?" His father asked him, not smiling and kneeling so they were eye level. His father asked with the very serious voice, which meant not to joke by saying they were replacing the vase Father had broken or that Big Sister's mid-level applications had been lost because Father had left them on the bench where the kath hounds had gotten them.
"We went to Kal'Reegar's to go fishing." He said dutifully. Because there was no joking about this. This was important. He was going to be a grown up.
Father grinned and picked him up, and helped him climb into the seat of the skyhopper that still smelled like the chemicals-that-killed-the-bad-bugs and chemicals-that-killed-the-bad-plants. The skyhopper creaked as Father got in behind him, and Father's legs made a barrier between him and the skyhopper.
"Alright, Carth. Before you ever start her up, check these gauges right here, that means there's enough fuel in the tank…" He watched as Father's hands point to various buttons, arms and shoulders vanishing at the corners of his sight. Father talked about unimportant things like safety and air pressure and he waited this out because when he tried to get Father to go faster, Father would go slower instead and an extra five minutes about why that glowing button was important was like forever.
But then Father finally adjusted their flight goggles, made sure they're strapped in, and turned the skyhopper on. His excitement is quickly knocked down by the scary-loud noise the skyhopper makes. Like the monsters he could never see in his dreams but there's no going back now because boys don't jump out of moving skyhoppers. Even if he wanted to, which he didn't.
Even if he could, though he couldn't because Father had strapped him in and Father controlled the belts.
They rolled out from the shade of the garage and he was glad for the goggles because the sun was bright and he couldn't see for a few moments. He could see the birds flying away from the noise but he couldn't see the ground and when they roll across the blacktop he wondered if all flying was was not being able to see the ground.
Eventually the noise of the skyhopper wasn't too bad and he stops trying to hide from the thing he's inside of. For a moment. Because it lurched forward and pushed him back into Father, and his stomach fell out through his toes and into the earth. For a moment he wondered where Mother was because Father was clearly crazy. The treetops vanished and wind roared by, but not nearly as loud as the skyhopper.
And a bug nearly went up his nose.
"Carth!" Father's laughter was in his ear. "Stop covering your eyes, boy! What do you see?"
The worst of the jerking had stopped and his stomach had rejoined him. So he looked, and saw what forever was. It was the horizon just within reach, and the green ground (the divide between the swamp and the farmlands clear) that curved away without ending. It was knowing that if he fell, he wouldn't alone and he could stop himself whenever he wanted.
Father did not repeat the question, as he often did when no answer was given. Perhaps Father knew what he saw and understood. Eventually, his own hands were placed on the driving wheel with Father's hands over his own in case of accidents and they flew.
Years later he would fly without Father's hands, but every time he flew he knew Father was with him.
0000
Carth carries Dustil on his shoulders. Morganna's gone to visit his sister for the weekend for some much needed 'girl time,' leaving Carth to watch Dustil, because if Carth couldn't keep an eye on a seven year old, what on earth did she marry him for?
Clearly, she'd married him so he could teach her son how to fly. Subconsciously, of course.
"Now, what are you going to tell your mother when she asks what we've been up to all day?"
Dustil is quiet, because he is pondering this very serious question that could determine the days events. "That we went fishing?"
"That's right." Carth lifts Dustil into the cockpit of the tiny crop duster skyhopper, and climbs in after him. Carth makes sure his legs are between Dustil and the hard sides of the skyhopper, because even though Dustil will be strapped in, it's only enough to keep Dustil from being thrown free of the skyhopper, not enough to keep him from rattling around the insides like a loose hydrospanner. "Now, Dustil, before you ever take off in a skyhopper, or anything else that flies, always check the fuel gauge"
Carth knows Dustil is bored with this part, and probably won't remember it until Carth tells Dustil that he can't fly again until he remembers it. But for now, Carth doesn't think about Mandalorians, or how Dustil might need to use what Carth is teaching him far too soon. Instead, Carth thinks about teaching his son how to fly.