"May I help you with that sir?"
The steward was one of them queens Waldo had read about. He hadn't never seen one in real life. Not less you count the farm boys that experiment on each other before they get married. He'd seen plenty of them.
"Waldo was certain this was a real one. He wasn't quite manly and he wore his hair too neat. But Waldo was a tolerant man.
"I can't do the sucker up."
The queen steward leaned over Waldo to help force the two ends of the seatbelt buckle to meet, and there was a whiff of lilac.
"If you could just breath in a little more, sir."
"I am breathing in, boy. But that don't make no difference on the outside."
"OK. Then I'm gonna have to squeeze you some." And he did, and the belt kind'a dissected his body like a wire through wet clay. As soon as his friend had left, Waldo undid the thing cause he didn't wanna be two little Waldo's.
Saifon was sitting in the aisle seat pretending to be asleep. She was still sulking. He told her she was gonna have to start talking to him again soon. But it hadn't happened yet. She'd get over it. If she really didn't want him there she could easy of run away and not told him. But she left her air ticket lying around so it was easy to call up and book the seat beside hers.
But Waldo was too excited about leaving the ground to get dragged into her mood. It flew, man. He couldn't believe how this big piece of old tin was able to lift him up and carry him away. The country below looked just like it did in Aretha's atlas. Except the states didn't have their names written across 'em. They must of made that bit up.
He felt like a little kid again. He'd surprised himself as much as he'd surprised Saifon when he said he'd come along. But hell this was gonna be fun.
"Sir, would you like something to drink?" Saifon's pretend sleep had turned into a real sleep beside him. The queen steward and his boyfriend had this trolley full of all kinds of neat stuff. Waldo ordered a Coke.
"Coming right up sir."
It made him feel real special when they called him 'sir'. He already had a soft spot for pansy boys. He reached into his pocket and wondered if he had enough change to pay for the Coke.
"You boys take American money?"
"Sir. You don't have to pay."
"I don't?"
"No, sir. Everything's free on board."
"Well, I be damned."
"Saifon woke up when they was over the Pacific. Waldo was there beside her, trying to open the window so's he could smell the sea air.
"What the hell you doing, Waldo?"
"Hi, Saifon. I guess this sucker's stuck."
"It don't open."
"No? That's too bad. They tell me sea air's real good for you." She laughed.
"You open that window and you wouldn't have no head to breath through."
"Hey. You're talking. I guess that means you forgive me."
"Shit no."
Yeah she'd forgiven him, but she wouldn’t let him know it yet. It almost knocked her own goddamned head off when he followed her through the gate at Michigan airport. She asked him where he thought he was going and he told her he wanted to see the airplane. Then he followed her on the airplane and she knew he'd fooled her. She made this crazy scene but he just grinned at her. She was so happy inside it almost made her cry. So she shut her wet eyes and pretended to sleep.
She was mad at herself. In spite of all the cussing and the orneriness, inside she was still the scared little critter from the hold of the tanker. She was frightened about what she was about to get herself into. Waldo wasn't much use for nothing, but he was a size, and she needed something heavy to hold her down. Stop them belly butterflies from flying away with her.
She didn't rightly know what she was gonna do. She knew what province she was born in but she couldn't recall where her witch aunt lived. It was way out in the Boondocks. There wasn't no other kids, no town. Just her and her no-talking, no-loving aunt, and plenty of rice fields. All she had was a phone number in Bangkok.
Waldo looked back over his shoulder.
"You suppose David would let me have another Coke?"
"Who's David?"
"The steward."
"Well, ain't you been busy while I was asleep. I thought you give that shit up."
"Yeah. I did. But I never been out of America before, and I need something patriotic inside me. Who knows how long it'll be before I see Coca Cola again."