Why did it always work this way? Just as I was about to get started, my phone buzzed with a text message from someone I hadn’t heard from since Easter. My son.

  

  hey dad. back in ca. game chat me at Handrail

  So much for getting work done. He was more important. We hadn’t talked much lately with how busy he’d been. Being an Air Force colonel in charge of a fighter squadron does that. Add in his family, and I knew how much time that used up. His squadron could get sent anywhere in the world on almost no notice.

  [William of Brinsford:] [Handrail] [What’s up? What class did you take? How’s Carol and the kids?]

  [Handrail:] [William of Brinsford] [Just back in CA. Posted to AK for a month. They’re doing fine. Carol says Libby’s doing real good in school and Billy’s doing good in pre-school.]

  [William of Brinsford:] [Handrail] [Good to know. He starts kindergarten in the fall?]

  [Handrail:] [William of Brinsford] [Yeah. Saw you on TV with the President. You’re moving up in the world. I need some help.]

  [William of Brinsford:] [Handrail] [What kind of help? I know enough about what you fly to recognize it if I saw a picture. That’s about it.]

  [Handrail:] [William of Brinsford] [Same lightning for a while now. New block number with upgrades. I need some help.]

  [William of Brinsford:] [Handrail] [Sure. What kind?]

  [Handrail:] [William of Brinsford] [Game help. I played enough with you that it wasn’t hard to start. I wasn’t in the air when it happened. Couple guys were, and they had to go auto while they figured it out.]

  [Handrail:] [William of Brinsford] [Took Air Mage. I saw the spells and they’re great. Have you seen Air Step? Don’t need the crew chief to get in or out of the plane anymore.]

  [William of Brinsford:] [Handrail] [Yeah. If you saw the big fight we had, or the President fighting, the cameraman is an Air Mage too. He has that spell.]

  [Handrail:] [William of Brinsford] [Good. Problem is, brass coming down hard saying everyone has to create their character from the Game. They also want us to take things to be better fighters. Half the squad’s complaining it doesn’t apply to us. One guy said, you can’t land a jet just anywhere and go tank something.]

  [William of Brinsford:] [Handrail] [I agree. Not sure if a Shield would stay up at the speed you fly. Air friction might take it down. Have you tried that?]

  [Handrail:] [William of Brinsford] [Yes. You’re right. Gone as soon as it goes up. Any other ideas?]

  I paused for almost two minutes, thinking through the rules and mechanics. I almost came up blank. Almost.

  [William of Brinsford:] [Handrail] [Only thing I can think of is a Shield around you in the cockpit until you get AIR ARMOR. Or if you have to eject. But any Shield that does damage, like Fire, or would flood it, like Water, won’t work. Checking rules.]

  Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

  [Handrail:] [William of Brinsford] [We figured that out before we tried it. Other services have it easy. How is working with the grunts?]

  [William of Brinsford:] [Handrail] [Not bad. Most are good people. Helpful too. Advantage I have is being able to look further ahead in the rules. Air is best for caster pilots. Eventually being able to fly is your thing.]

  [Handrail:] [William of Brinsford] [I know. That’s why I took it. Flying without a plane. I dreamed about that as a kid.]

  [William of Brinsford:] [Handrail] [I remember that. You wanted to fly since first grade. Rules have some modifiers for Shields in the low teens that’ll help. Getting there will take time. There’s a spell modifier called Friend or Foe. Lets specific people through the Shield each way, designated when cast. Level 14. Shield doesn’t damage friends. Won’t help with the rest of your plane though. Only works on people with Character stats and their gear.]

  [Handrail:] [William of Brinsford] [That’s gonna be a long time. Anything else?]

  [William of Brinsford:] [Handrail] [Not so far. Maybe later. There are spells for Level 100+ in the STORE. We won’t see those for years.]

  [Handrail:] [William of Brinsford] [Got it. I was hoping. Figured if anyone knew, it’d be you. The guys keep bugging me about you and your people. Linda too. Carol says a lot of girls in Linda’s school want to be ninjas like Shadow. She wants to know all about her.]

  [William of Brinsford:] [Handrail] [Autograph on a picture too?]

  [Handrail:] [William of Brinsford] [If you could do that, you’d hear her scream from here.]

  [William of Brinsford:] [Handrail] [She’s only given out one that I know of. I can ask.]

  [Handrail:] [William of Brinsford] [Thanks. I have leave second week of June. Carol said to ask you if we could visit. Linda’s done for the summer end of the week.]

  [William of Brinsford:] [Handrail] [I’d be happy to have you. Haven’t seen you for nearly two years. You’ll need a hotel though. I have a guest staying in your room.]

  [Handrail:] [William of Brinsford] [A guest? Who and how’d that happen?]

  [William of Brinsford:] [Handrail] [Blaze. FBI agent. Fire Mage. I offered since she was the first out of towner, to help the day the Game started. She’s part of our top party. She was going to get a hotel the first night, and I offered your room. Turned out to be longer than a night. It helps get the party together faster when needed.]

  [Handrail:] [William of Brinsford] [Anything going on between you two? You’ve been alone a long time.]

  [William of Brinsford:] [Handrail] [Nothing I can talk about. At least not yet.]

  [Handrail:] [William of Brinsford] [You’ve got something going. You go for it. Mom would want that.]

  [William of Brinsford:] [Handrail] [I know. It’s a maybe. She’s a lot younger than me…under your age. Right now, we’re just partners and party members. We each do our own thing most of the time.]

  [Handrail:] [William of Brinsford] [Got it. Can’t wait to meet her. See you in June, I hope. If you figure anything else out, let me know. I’ll send info when we get things worked out here. I’ll save more questions for later.]

  [William of Brinsford:] [Handrail] [OK. Keep in touch. Chat can reach me anywhere, looks like.]

  [Handrail:] [William of Brinsford] [Yeah. We’ve been told that. Talked to Ascot. He leads 3rd Squadron. He was in Germany. Bye.]

  [William of Brinsford:] [Handrail] [Good to hear from you.]

  The room felt quieter after the chat ended. Afternoon light filtered through the blinds, striping the desk in gold. I sat there, thinking about Victor…how he’d always wanted to be a pilot…and remembered taking him out to the airport in high school for lessons. He worked after school and paid for most of it himself. Some of the model airplanes he built were still in the closet. He hadn’t taken them all when he graduated and earned his wings.

  That was…I paused, doing the math. Almost sixteen years ago. He’d already been married when the accident happened. Linda was born two years after, and William came along four, almost five, years ago. “If things stay normal…he’ll be in kindergarten this fall.” I hoped they would. Or at least enough that the kids could grow up almost normal.

  It would be good to see them again. He’d been moving around for most of his service, but they’d stayed in California since just before Linda was born. He liked the weather out there.

  That’s when I heard the patter of rain on my roof and remembered the probability of rain and thunderstorms today.

  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V5XbCF5tz64

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