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“Oh, baby. Visibility is nil in this pea soup. Hold on, Li’l Britches,” you say, sharply yanking the control yoke back while simultaneously increasing the throttle. The seaplane climbs to twelve thousand feet. Fifteen thousand feet. Twenty thousand feet. Twenty-three thousand feet. At last the fog dissipates. You are high over the mountains. So high that they are barely visible. In fact, you are flying over the clouds. A loud raspy gasp brings you back to your senses. You look over and see your navigator gasping for breath. That scares you, and you’re a bear who’s not easily scared. Making sure that there aren’t any obstacles in your path, you set the autopilot - a crowbar slung over the steering yoke and under the control panel. You scoop up Kit and rush back to the cargo hold. Somewhere in an old battered trunk are two oxygen tubes. You silently curse yourself for not having them in the cockpit within easy reach. Desperately, you throw object after object over your shoulder onto the cargo hold deck, trying not to panic at Kit’s labored shallow breathing, or the odd coloring of his face. Finally, you find what you’re searching for - an oxygen tube: an oxygen dispenser consisting of a hose attached to a pipe stem that is held between the user’s teeth. You gingerly place the pipe stem between Kit’s blue-tinged lips. The boy inhales deeply with a few violent coughs. Then you find one for yourself and take deep, refreshing breaths. You breathe a sigh of relief when you see color returning to your navigator’s cheeks. Kit smiles at you wanly and gives you a thumbs-up. Tousling the boy’s hair, you and your navigator head back to the cockpit; both of you still have the oxygen tubes clenched between your teeth. Kit plots a course for Port Talbot. After he repeats the coordinates several times in an increasingly louder tone because it’s difficult to speak around the tubes, you turn the seaplane in that direction. You make it to Port Talbot with time to spare. Congratulations. You deliver the aspirin without a single headache, and Rebecca rewards you for your timely work with a weekend off. The End
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