C4 antho - Chamber Four

The Next Thing on Benefit ~239~
“Where’s Port of Spain?”
Munro smiled. “You know,” he said, “I’m not really sure.
We’ll ask Patrick.”
Two men came on board, and they and Patrick collected
the luggage and carried it down from the plane, with Sharon
and Munro behind them. The air was hot and heavy, and full
of the smell of diesel. The sky was a milky blue overcast, but
there was no coolness in it. Sharon could feel the heat of the
tarmac through her sandals. She followed Munro.
“Is this the island?” she asked him.
“Next stop,” said Munro. He pointed ahead.
A helicopter with a fishbowl front compartment, like a traffic
helicopter, sat on the runway before them. Patrick and the
other men had put their bags into the machine and now
climbed into the front. Munro and Sharon went in behind them.
“Ever been in one of these before?” Munro asked her.
Sharon shook her head.
“You’ll love it,” said Munro.
She did love it. Just at first, when they lifted abruptly up
and off, Sharon shrieked and laughed, because the sudden
rise made her feel she was falling. But when they banked and
turned and took up their course, she loved being able to see.
You could see everything. They left the overcast, and the sun
flashed on the bright water that passed beneath them, seemingly
only feet below. Overhead the sky, light blue, then
darker blue, then purple at its top, and at the horizon, low
clouds like a cotton lining that surrounded a great sapphire
in a jewel box: the world on all sides and above and below
clear and bright to the farthest limit.
“This is pretty great,” Sharon told Munro. But he
couldn’t hear her for the noise of the engine and the rotors.
He was looking off to the left.