Old Tom looked at him disbelievingly. “The waters are freezing. Land on one of our fields, man, I beg you.”

“We need to get rid of the evidence,” said the hermit. “Unless you want the children’s father going to prison. And maybe the children. Maybe Zebediah. The plane will sink and leave no evidence that any of us were on it.”

“You can’t swim to your cabin. The waters there are full of rips,” said Old Tom.

“Don’t worry,” said the hermit. “The mermaid will save me. She did it once before. Here we are. Jump, you have to jump now!” And grabbing hold of Flying Bob’s arm, he pulled him to the door.

With a “Wheeeeee!” Flying Bob and Zebediah and Winifred went soaring into the night. Then Old Tom and Wilfred stepped to the edge of the door. And before they could look down they were out into the chill air, falling above the earth and below the moon.

“Pull the cord!” screamed Wilfred.

“Pull the cord! Wheee!” screamed Flying Bob.

And that’s when Old Tom became Very Old Tom because, he said, he aged another hundred years on that night, on that jump, in that first moment of having nothing about him but the chill night air. He panicked for a moment as he flew toward the earth, and then he remembered Wilfred tied to him and a cold calm came over him and he pulled the cord. At first it was as he feared when he thought it wouldn’t work: it was going to be a free fall into nothing. But then above him the parachute inflated and down they floated through the night with the moonlight on the ocean and the glow of the night garden to guide them.

*   *   *

Sina and I were sitting on the back steps, grinding our teeth and wringing our hands, waiting, waiting for what we didn’t know. At first, the sound of the plane was the merest rumble. Since we often heard rumblings from the Department of National Defense property down the coast, we didn’t dare hope but then we knew suddenly for sure it was a plane, a large plane, our plane, and we ran into the field, looking up.

So much of experience is wasted on us at the time. What Sina and I saw might have filled our hearts with wonder had we not been so hysterically worried. We saw the bodies fly from the plane and for a sickening moment we thought they’d been thrown to their deaths. But then suddenly, like night-blooming flowers, the parachutes opened and the two figures floated for a time between the stars. Initially we thought there were only two people dangling there, but finally, as they got closer to earth, we realized that the two parachutes were bringing down bundles of bodies.

Sina and I ran to the closest one, which landed in the field.