So Irene opened her mouth and talked about that first day surfing with her father, and how it was terrifying at first and then you started to learn the rhythm of the ocean. How, on the way home, her father spoke about the great Hawaiian kings and how you couldn’t rule over other men unless you could master the giant waves of Waikiki and Kahalu’u. So these feats, which some might consider quixotic, are in fact vital to humankind, she said. Someone has to go out there and do them, to prove that they can be done, to plant in every breast, man and woman, the yearning to surf, to fly, to dream.

She spoke for less than ten minutes, and since she still couldn’t hear very well and hadn’t rehearsed anything—hadn’t even imagined she would be called on to speak—she remembers babbling on about the importance of aviation to the future of mankind, and her gratitude to Mr. Mallory and Mr. Morrow for this exhilarating opportunity, and her hope that women around the world would take some inspiration from this flight and consider flying as a possible hobby or even career.

She was shocked, later, to read accounts of this short speech as an “electrifying prophecy” and a “call to arms for those who believe that womanhood’s best days are ahead of her.” Shocked at the thousands of letters she received from women and girls around the world, the tears, the gratitude, all of which seemed addressed to someone else, some public icon who was not Irene at all.

As for Sam, he rode back to the hotel with her in silence. Irene figured he was tired. She was tired too; she was thoroughly exhausted. She had forgotten the flight, she had forgotten Sam’s wife and Sam’s little daughter, she had forgotten just about everything she ever knew. They parted in the hotel lobby—their suites belonged to opposite sides of the Moana, somebody’s pointless notion of propriety—and Irene hardly took time to undress before she staggered into bed, where she slept for an untold block of hours before opening her eyes to stare at the ceiling fan that dragged in circles above her and wonder where the hell she was.

Then she remembered. She was in Hawai’i.