Perplex Vision 2000

"You say something, Vaton?" Peter asked, turning towards him.

"Just talking to myself, Peter. I just came to realize that this trip was a beautiful thing, after all. In spite of all our losses and the hardship you guys had to go through."

"I don't know about the 'beautiful thing' part of it, Vaton, but other than that, I'd say that it's been a rather exciting journey so far," Peter said and turned his head to watch the lights of a new small town flashing under the belly of the plane.

The plane landed safely at a small airport on the outskirts of Miami.

"I didn't know you could land a float plain on solid land," Diane said to Guss after the plane rolled to a safe stop.

"I got special landing gears attached to the floats, Diane. She's a good little plane," Guss laughed, tapping the instruments on the dash of his plane.

It was then that she realized that they didn't have any money on them. Diane explained the situation to Guss. He laughed understandingly and Diane took a small slip of paper from Guss with his mailing address.

"We'll send you the money as soon as we get home, Guss. Don't you worry. We owe you a lot."

"You folks have a safe trip home, you hear?" he said in his thick southern accent.

"It was a great flight. You're a wild pilot, Mr. Vercourt," Peter said excitedly.

"You come down here one day with your folks, Peter, and I'll teach you a few tricks," Guss said in a deep voice, and shook hands with Diane, Vaton and Peter.

An hour later they were seated in a cab travelling towards the city. They could see the city lights displayed in a panoramic, flickering fair, which stretched out in front of them. The lights seemed to go on forever, but when the cab finally pulled up at the front gate of the Henshaw residence Diane punched in the code to open the gate and door they drove through.

At the main door she let them all into the house. Grabbing some cash from one of their cash boxes she paid the cabby, who thanked her for the generous tip and drove away.

The house was the same as usual, neatly kept, warm and cozy, but this time, after all the hard barracks and machine rooms they'd spent their last few nights in, it was even more welcoming. The carefully designed soft lighting brushing the interior enveloped the place in a welcoming intimacy. The large wall-to-wall windows gave them a perfect view of the night's splendour.

Just as they closed the main door and walked into the large foyer, with the vaulted ceiling, the soft metronome of the ancient pendulum clock chimed eleven times. The lazy, chiming sound of the ancient clock snapped Diane instantly into her "old self", and her old life in this home which harboured many happy times for her and Geoffrey.

"I can't believe that we're all back here, safe after all this bloody chaos," Diane said smiling as she went to her packed pantry and well-stocked fridge to find something to eat. "There's lots of food in the fridge, boys, if you're hungry. I'll call the hospital and then I'm taking a long, hot bath. I must have things crawling in my hair, by now," she said, walking to the upper levels of the house.

The hospital personnel thought that it was in poor taste when she spoke with the switchboard girl and identified herself as "Doctor Henshaw".

"You shouldn't joke about serious matters like this, madame. The whole hospital is still in mourning for Diane and Geoffrey Henshaw. Please..."

Diane learned from Clara, the switchboard operator, that she and Geoffrey were two of the missing and presumed dead, of the gas-station terrorist aftermath. It had been all over the local and national papers.

It would be too much for Clara to handle if Diane tried to explain that herself and Geoffry were still alive, so she hung up the phone and sat down in one of the chairs thinking over the past events. "And the police, too," she said to herself out loud, foreseeing the declarations and questions coming from the police when they found out that they had survived the terrorist attack.