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“Abuelito, do you think Papi will like the yellow balloons or the red balloons?” Tallulah asked, as she dragged Phil down the aisle of the party store.
“I think he’d like both. I did see some cool guitar balloons over here, so maybe we can get a few of those.” Tallulah’s eyes lit up with this childlike wonder that made her abuelito grin from ear-to-ear. She was super excited to see her Papa again, to hear more of his tales from travelling over in America, wherever that was in relation to Quesadilla Island. She so desperately yearned for his warm and calming hugs which enveloped her in a sense of safety that she could not even begin to describe. This party was going to be one of the biggest celebrations on the island, to ensure that Wilbur got the warmest welcome back. He deserved it, Tallulah knew that.
Sure, Wilbur didn’t care much for the pomp and circumstance, but with his daughter being the organizer? He couldn’t say no to that.
Wilbur was set to return to the Island today after over a month of being gone, nearly two now. Tallulah would be at the house getting everything set up with Chayanne and Pomme, while Phil awaited a vehicle coming up the road with Wilbur inside of it… hopefully.
Wil would land at the Federation’s International airport, before taking the train to the island itself, and before long, Wilbur would be reunited with his daughter and be introduced to the island’s newest residents.
Unfortunately, Tallulah’s dreams were soon to be crushed.
Wilbur wasn’t coming home.
Now, it wasn’t because Wilbur didn’t want to be reunited with his daughter, and he abandoned her, which would have been a possibility, had his last words not been “keep my daughter safe,” but alas, the renowned world-traveling musician Wilbur Soot, father of Tallulah, was dead.
***
The morning started like any other, just a hell of a lot earlier because Wilbur had to catch an early flight, so he could be back on Quesadilla Island by the afternoon. The bustling city traffic was harrowing, but nothing was too out of the ordinary. Paparazzi swarmed the musician’s car, causing the drivers to twist and wind and turn down side roads to avoid the inching traffic and the overly-invasive paparazzi. Wilbur, meanwhile was messaging Phil, trying to explain to him that the traffic is chaos and he’s being bombarded with paparazzi:
Dad (old man)
Everything okay, Wil?
Me
Everything’s alr, just getting bombarded with paparazzi rn
Dad (old man)
Shit, mate. Get back safe please
Tallulah misses you a bunch.
Me
I’m sure she does, tell her i’ll be home soon. I got her some gifts
Dad (old man)
She’ll be thrilled
Stay safe son and I’ll see you soon
Me
Talk to you soon, Dad
Besides the overwhelming paparazzi and the orders to keep your head low to the ground in case something adverse were to happen, the car ride to the airport was pretty smooth, Wilbur thought. The breeze was cool, but it was to be expected as the airport was right along the coastline, as the fresh air was salty, but refreshingly so.
The airport experience was smooth, Wilbur was upgraded to business class, even if he had booked premium economy initially, which he was glad he got that upgrade because the flight was a rather long flight to head back to the Federation. His bags would be considered priority for getting taken off of the plane, which would speed up the baggage claim process significantly.
Only… Wilbur didn’t know what was soon going to happen.
The plane would never land at the Federation’s airport. It would land on the outskirts of a city, in a field, whose surrounding grasslands and forests would go ablaze. News outlets would be flocking to the scene to witness the catastrophe, as skin and bones were charred, the forest smoke pluming into the air.
All of Tallulah’s worst nightmares while Wilbur was gone would become reality.
The same nightmares she cried unconsolably to Phil about and he and Chayanne had to comfort her and ensure that they were not real and they were just bad dreams. The nightmares that kept Tallulah up at night as she couldn’t sleep with the lanterns out of her room, even if Chayanne liked it dark. He accommodated for her and made sure she was comfortable.
Wilbur was just about to board the plane when he caught wind of two individuals who he found to be suspicious. They were in the same class as he was, but there was something about them. Something Wilbur found to be off .
***
Tallulah was setting up for the party, Chayanne and Pomme moving tables and chairs into perfect positions while Tallulah and Phil decorated centerpieces for these tables. Everything was going perfectly. She was so excited to see her Papa, so endlessly excited. She couldn’t wait to hug him and tell him all about her new friends and how Abuelito surprised her with a video of him playing at a concert which he played for the other eggs. She couldn’t wait to have bedtime stories all about Wilbur’s travels, but….
They would never come.
She didn’t know it at the time; no one did.
The end… was nigh.
“Is Papi still waiting for the flight?” Tallulah asked, as Phil checked the flight status.
“Still looks like it, yes. Want to call him before the flight?”
“Yeah!” Tallulah beamed, as she took Phil’s phone and went up into their home, so she wouldn’t spoil the surprise via Wilbur hearing commotion going on outside.
The phone rung once.
Twice.
Three times before Wilbur picked up.
“Hello? Phil, is that-”
“Papa!” Tallulah exclaimed her innocent joy making Wilbur smile on the other line.
“Lulah! Ah, how are you mi amapola? Keeping Abuelito busy? Helping him out because you know how old he is,” Wilbur chuckled teasingly. He loved poking fun at his old man, and Tallulah always got a kick out of it.
“Yeah! I can’t wait to see you come home!”
“Neither can I, starshine, I’m about to board so I’ll see you and talk to you when I get back in a few hours, alright?” Wilbur said, his voice rushed, as he kept an eye on the two individuals sat beside him.
“Do you remember the promise, Papa?”
“To bring you back something from everywhere I went?”
“No… the other one.”
“That I’d come home safe and sound and that I’ll always keep you safe from anything that may try and hurt us?”
“Yeah! Remember that, Papa! I love you so much and I can’t wait to see you!”
“I love you too Tallulah, my sun moon and stars. I’ll see you soon,” Wilbur said as he hung up. The two individuals he had been tracking while waiting to board seemed like they were Federation agents, which would make a lot of sense, given the fact that there had been rumours of wanting to kidnap residents on the island, namely the eggs or something of that effect. But no one is ever allowed to leave the island unless it is for specific reasons. Wilbur, being a musician was granted permission to leave Quesadilla when he needed to; he just had to show a card at the train station which allowed him to come and go as he pleased.
Tallulah sat in her room, Phil’s phone sat on the bed beside her, as she felt sad . She wanted to talk to her dad for a longer period than she did, but she understood. The airport was really loud anyway so she didn’t hear him too well, but what she would give to hear his voice. She will soon, she will soon….
She returned outside to give Phil back his phone as the sun danced along the leaves and the crystalline river that wound through the back of Wilbur and Tallulah’s base. She began to play her flute as Panchito, her pet gorilla, followed her around seeming to dance to the tunes she was playing.
She was, in truth, practicing a set of songs to play for Wilbur when he got back, a bunch of songs that Wilbur plays on his guitar, but she converted over to the flute. She asked Phil to play the songs over and over and over again until she thought the poor old man had lost his mind.
Tallulah also tasked Chayanne, with Phil’s supervision, to bake a cake, a beautiful multi-layered cake topped with buttercream frosting and berries picked from their garden. Phil’;s base smelled incredibly sweet as Chayanne was cooking away, creating a berry compote to put in between the cake layers as an extra fancy touch.
***
When Wilbur boarded the plan, he held his phone a little bit closer. He scrolled through and saw pictures of Tallulah that Phil sent him. She had been having so much fun, but deep down she missed him so much. He so desperately wanted to hear how her flute playing has improved, as she danced around with Panchito somehow teleporting wherever she played, even if he got his head stuck into the wall sometimes.
The two men Wilbur kept an eye on conveniently sat right beside him. Their briefcases seemed relatively normal, with laptops and earphones in tow, but there was something Wilbur found to be wrong.
Naturally, Wilbur approached, thinking that this would be an easy course of action, for their outfits had a vague familiarity to them, like something he saw when he was on the train to Quesadilla Island for the first time, waiting at the station as these “agents” walked by.
“Hey, uh you seem familiar. Do I know you?” Wilbur asked politely.
“I don’t think so,” one of them muttered, appearing distant. “Who are you?”
“Uh, my name is Wilbur and I live on Quesadilla Island, the one owned by the Federation??” Wilbur paused as silence seemed to spread throughout the front of the aircraft. The two men looked at each other subtly grinning, just enough that Wilbur didn’t notice.
“Nice to meet you, Wilbur. Enjoy the flight.” The two agents looked at each other again before pulling out their laptops in sync.
Something fishy was going on and it was too late for Wilbur to back out.
The plane soon left the gate as all devices were forced onto flight mode. Wilbur sent one last message to Phil, nothing concerning, just a quick message saying the plane’s about to take off.
Maybe in hindsight, he should have made himself be more worried in the message. These two men in front of him had something planned and Wilbur feared he’d be at the center of it.
Shit.
The plane took off smoothly, seeming to gracefully glide down the runway, the wheels accentuating the uneven bumps and ridges in the asphalt before swiftly making it up into the air. The clouds were fluffy as the plane cut right through them to reveal an idyllic cerulean sky, the sun beaming from the left side of the plane to the right. Wilbur kept taking photos of the world down below for Tallulah when he got back, so she could see how high her Papa was in the air and how tiny the world was beneath him.
Later on, the flight became a bit rougher and conveniently enough the two men had both left, innocently enough to the washroom mayhaps - it was a long haul flight after all - but Wilbur was determined that they were up to no good. They had something mischievous going on and he was gonna find out what exactly it was.
So he did what anyone would do (don’t ever do what he did please), and he got one of their laptops, one of which was already open past the lock screen. One of the items he found on there was a file that a hard drive would collect the data on the laptop for…. But the code would go into a USB corrupting the autopilot, which would, according to this plan…..
CRASH THE PLANE.
Oh shit, oh shit, oh shit, oh shit!
Wilbur’s face went as white as the clouds that glided around the plane. He was gonna die, wasn’t he? One of the many victims of a senseless tragedy. He tried to let the panic subside, but he was worried. He knew his time was up, he knew he wasn’t gonna see Tallulah again, or Phil, or Chayanne or Quackity, or anyone. He wasn’t gonna see anyone ever again as his face would soon hit the pavement, a plane engulfed in flames as his last breath was taken alone breathe the same air as complete strangers, not even his daughter who always smelled of poppies and fresh morning dew.
“Fuck what do i do, what do i do?” Wilbur panicked as he tried to connect to the shitty wifi that the plan had offered as a complimentary perk for business class passengers. The wifi was terrible, but it did the trick.
He messaged Phil in a panic telling him to hold Tallulah close for him. He was too overanxious to get into details, but he put that in. He knew Phil would be worried, he knew he’d be asking so many questions, but he had to tell someone.
One of the stewardesses came by and asked if Wil was alright, he shook his head and told her that these people in front of him are planning to crash the plane by hacking the autopilot. Her face sunk in fear just as his did, as he did. She said she’d be right back from alerting the pilot, but he never saw the stewardess again…
He wouldn’t ever see anyone again.
He kept trying to think of the promise he made to Tallulah, but all he could see in his mind was the remnant shard of what used to be his promise. He broke the promise he made to his daughter. He’d never see her again, and he would never be able to keep her safe. She’d be heartbroken to know that her papa broke his promise to her, she’d never forgive him in life or in death. Tears welled up in Wilbur’s eyes as he thought about it, sulking in his comfortable seat…
Until he heard a thump of a body hit the floor.
The sound reverberated through the aircraft as chaos and disorder among the passengers ensued. The stress and fear only increased when these two distorted voices sounded through the pilot’s intercom. Wilbur sat in his seat, completely frozen. He couldn’t move. He didn’t know what to do.
“We’re here with one mission,” the voice began, “to kill everyone on board, especially one passenger. A traitor to the Federation. Wilbur Soot.” Wilbur’s eyes widened in horror. His heart stopped beating for a second as he didn’t know what else to do. The other passengers in business class began to stare at him with judging eyes, wondering what on earth he did.
“I just wanna see Tallulah again, even if it's only once. I don’t care, I just wanna see her once,” Wilbur sobbed into his hands.
His promise was henceforth broken, shattered into a million pieces. The realization that he never would see Tallulah again came over him with the weight of a tonne of bricks. He remembered the memories of playing his guitar for Tallulah, knowing she’d never hear it again, only the echoes of the strings as they faded away into silence. She’d only remember a hazy memory of the melodies being strung, as pinky promises now were null. Wilbur was never coming back, he knew he wouldn’t. These agents had it out for him from the start. Maybe if he hadn’t said a word to them they wouldn’t know his identity, though that wouldn’t have saved him.
The plane began to tilt forward and more forward until the nose was nearly parallel with the ground, barrelling through the atmosphere at breakneck speeds. Glasses and dishes were clattering and shattered on the ground as the oxygen masks fell. Everyone began to brace for impact. The plane began to spin around and around as though it were some nauseating corkscrew, as land was in sight: a farmer’s field surrounded by brush and forests. Once this thing crashed, it would then be engulfed in flames and thereby setting the nearby forest alight.
***
Tallulah was waiting impatiently for Phil to tell her that Wilbur had landed, but he was equally impatient because he hadn’t heard much from Wilbur besides his final message which detailed that he should hold her close, which almost always meant something bad was going on. He asked Quackity to meet him at his base in a panic; he didn’t know who to go to and trust to talk about this, so Q was the best option.
“What do you need, Phil?” Quackity asked as Phil paced the kitchen, paranoia seeming to take over.
“I think Wil’s in danger. Can you contact the airport? He told me to hold Tallulah close to me for him and now I’m fucking…. He didn’t go into anything else after that. I’m fucking scared, Quackity.” Quackity as at a loss of words. He didn’t know what to say or what to do, but he called the Federation’s airport to see if their air traffic control had caught wind of anything going on on Wilbur’s flight, and Quackity’s expression dropped, eyes widening as his one hand went over his mouth. Oh fuck .
“What’s happening?!”
“Nothing good…” Quackity managed to muster. He couldn’t even speak, as Phil got even more worried.
“Should I tell Tallulah?”
“No… not yet. The news reporters are on their way.”
***
The scene was something straight out of Hell itself. The surrounding fields were engulfed in black and gray smoke which plumed right into the air. The plane was a wreckage, with severely injured and dead passengers scattered about the fiery rubble. News outlets from everywhere were surrounding the disaster. That included news outlets run by the Federation, whose two agents were set to murder Wilbur (and they were successful). These two survived the wreck, but Wilbur? He was barely hanging on.
Blood caked his skin, as ash was smudged across his face. He couldn’t speak as his breathing was hitched. The sun was bright as it shone through the smoke that surrounded the world around him. The cameras and talking of reporters became incoherent as all he wanted was to hold onto Tallulah one last time.
“You’ll blow us all away… someday… someday. I’ll see you on the other side, Tallulah… If there’s a god above, please keep my daughter safe” Wilbur sighed as his eyes closed, seeing a calming light at the end of a long line of darkness. Peace at last, but at what cost?
***
Tallulah sat in Phil’s kitchen worried about Wilbur’s whereabouts. She began to cry, worried something had happened. If only you knew …
“Have you heard from Papa, Abuelito?” Tallulah sniffled, as Phil looked at her with an equally concerned expression. He had to tell her the truth, that something bad happened, but how could he do that? How could he do such a thing?
Everyone was waiting for Wilbur to return, awaiting the party to start, but all thoughts of that immediately disappeared as soon as Quackity ran right to the portal that connected Wilbur’s house to Phil’s, inconsolable.
He ran to Phil’s door and knocked on it. Phil answered, as Quackity ran to the living room in tears. He pointed at the television, urging Phil to turn it on.
“Tío Quackity, is everything okay?” Tallulah asked, as Q shook his head no in response.
“T-Turn on the TV, P-Phil. You s-should sit for this.”
“The fuck happened, Quackity?” Phil whispered, his heart plummeted down to his toes, chest tight with anxiety.
“G-Go to the Federation n-news station. It’ll explain everything.”
The headline of the news moved across the screen, as Phil and Quackity held Tallulah close. Quesadilla Island resident and Musician Wilbur Soot dead after a catastrophic plane crash .
Tallulah couldn’t believe it. Her Dad…. Her papa… was dead? It couldn’t be. It had to be fake.
“H-He… My… M-My papa?” Tallulah sobbed as she put her hand on the television screen. Chayanne peered in through the window, tears welled in his eyes as his heart broke for his niece.
“I’m sorry, Tallulah, I-I’m so, so sorry. He’ll be here with us…. He’ll be here-” Quackity moved Tallulah’s hand to her heart and held it there, “He’ll be here forever. We’ll honor your dad’s legacy here every day, I promise you that.”
“I’ll never hear his guitar again…” Tallulah whispered, her voice broken as her breathing was hitched. “What am I gonna do?” Silence filled the room as everyone in it was devastated.
“We’ll figure it out together Tallulah. One step at a time.”
Watching from above, Wilbur looked down from the heavens and gave his daughter one last hug. She couldn’t feel it, or see him, but he’d be there with her all the time in spirit, ensuring she would come of age with their young nation, and blow the world away, like he always knew she would.
“Go blow the world away, my sun moon and stars. I’ll see you on the other side. Be smart and caring and make me proud, Tallulah. I know you will.”