The Runner

You know those ideas that seem absolutely brilliant at the time but then you start putting them into action and it all turns into absolute custard and you begin to regret every single tiny decision that lead up to that moment. This was definitely not one of those ideas.

"Holy Hephaestus!" Chris whooped as the van left the ground.

"Concentrate!" Kaia chided through a laugh of glee as we propelled the vehicle into the air with our combined powers.

"Which way?" I asked through half-gritted teeth, finding it harder than the others to fulfill my part of the work.

"Directly East for a few kilometers, then we'll start going North East." Kaia said, reading from her map.

"How far is a kilometer, exactly?" Alyssa asked.

"A thousand meters." Lizzie replied dryly.

"It's about 0.6 of a mile." Jazz said evenly. "I think. Miles are weird."

"They're absolutely normal for everyone else in the world!" Chris protested.

"The population of America isn't the rest of the world." Lizzie said firmly.

"No arguing or I'll leave you on the side of the road and you can walk home!" Kaia called back from her place at the steering wheel. "And considering the fact that we're a fair way up in the air and there's still a day or so flying to get back home, I don't think you want that!"

Everyone fell silent and began to concentrate with all their might on their own individual tasks while Kaia cranked up the radio to an obscure Maori station and the Athena twins poured over their map of Aotearoa.

There was only a day until I would be home again on familiar soil breathing in warm strawberries. But I would miss New Zealand. I would miss its peace and its acceptance. I would miss the wild winds and the horizons dotted with mountains. I would miss the friends I had made and the things they had taught me.

But it was time to go home.

Notes