"You're going where?" Douglas asked, for once quite surprised.
Martin looked at the clouds ahead; he couldn't cope with Douglas' shocked looking eyes. It was too not-Douglas to endure it.
"Alaska…" he murmured, continuing to stare at the sky.
"It's all prepared… tonight when we reach Anchorage it was my last flight with MJN, Carolyn seemed quite happy. You're picking up the new pilot there, a proper co-pilot for you…" Martin explained monotonously, trying to hide his true feelings and for once it worked.
He didn't tell Arthur, it would rip his already shattered heart into one million little pieces.
So here I go
I'm gonna miss you
You don't even see me
I guess
You gonna be happy
I know
I won't look back
I swear
I'll miss you
I thought of you as some sort of dad
Don't ask me why
I know you won't ask
You never saw me as a son
So I gotta run away
They had landed, nobody had spoken.
Douglas too shocked to say a word, a situation to shock Douglas that much had never occurred before, Martin too confused and frightened to say something. This wasn't the sarcastic reaction he had expected and it had broken his heart.
Why couldn't Douglas be happy?
He was doing it for Douglas, for the airline but especially for Douglas.
He was a nuisance to everybody, a burden to Douglas.
Why wouldn't he be happy?
Maybe he hadn't realized yet…
As they reached the end of the gangway, Martin stopped Douglas by touching his shoulder briefly and then he handed him the captain's hat and removed the stripes from his arms.
Douglas took them, not knowing what else to do, too speechless to react in a proper way.
He stood still as Martin walked past him and crossed the taxiway, heading for the bigger house at the side of a hangar.
Douglas watched as the young man went away.
Little boy
An airplane you wanted to be
To fly in the sky
So goddamn high
I wish I would have had a dream like you used to have
Has nobody ever told you that planes could crash
Now you're broken
Don't think I don't see
Like a son
Like a chance to make things good
You were shining with a light so bright
Now it's dying and I know where I went wrong
Where's my time machine for a second chance
Where's the wonder to make things right
Why can't I get things right
Now you go
I can't say no
I don't know why
It's not pride
Maybe it's shame
Oh, son, I'm gonna miss you
But I gonna run away
Five years later there had been this terrible storm in Alaska.
The lives of thirty hikers had been saved by a pilot as he brought those poor people blankets and other warm stuff with his little plane, but on the way back he died because his plane crashed.
"This pilot, the one who saved all those people, it was my dad, yeah?"
"Yes, that was your dad, Amelia", Douglas told the little girl and tried to smile at her.
He adopted Martin's five year old daughter after her mother had died.
She had had cancer and the death of her husband had made it worse. She died six months after him, leaving Amelia Carolyn Crieff.
In Martin's testament was written that they should ask a Douglas Richardson if he would take care of Amelia if something happened to Martin.
It hadn't been a question that Douglas would take the girl.
This was the last thing he could do for his old friend.
And Amelia Carolyn was a wonderful child, who wanted to be an aeroplane when she grew up.