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About a week had elapsed since Ethan had arrived at the hospital, about half the time required by his mandated sentence. He actually liked it there. All you had to do was color pictures, eat snacks, and talk to staff once in a while about your state of mind. He didn’t want to stay longer than two weeks, but he wouldn’t care much if he did.

In addition to the relaxing daily schedule, the psychiatric floor of St. Perpetua’s glowed with a peaceful light that one could feel inside himself, a light of healing, warmth, and gentle positivity. Was it God? The result of people the world over praying for healing? Whatever it was Ethan hoped it would follow him out into the world when it was time to go.

Ever since Ethan had been sent to Hell for his sins he’d been praying almost constantly, asking God to forgive him, to help him, save him, to spare him the eternal torments of the lake of fire at the end of the age. Things were slowly getting better. If he’d have spent more time praying before he’d have had less time to hate the person who’d been wronging him, and it would have saved him a considerable amount of pain and suffering.

“Give me grace to take the narrow path leading to life, not the easy road leading to destruction,” he prayed.

“Hey, Ethan,” a nurse appeared in his doorway, “lunch is here.”

“Classic American lunch,” he said, picking up his tray with a burger and potato chips. “If they had fries anyway.”

He sat down next to a man in matching green scrubs and an oddly welcoming smile.

“Hi. I haven’t seen you on this floor before,” said Ethan.

“I’m new here. This burger isn’t half bad.”

“Yeah, the food here is decent.”

“So how’s your healing coming along? Are you feeling better since, you know…” He pointed down toward the floor.

“You sure know a lot for only being here a day.”

“I know more than I should, which is why I’m here. My mind and heart overflow with ideas and emotions. I have to make an effort not to get too far ahead of myself, ahead of the time..”

“Interesting,” he nodded. “Well if you have any negative baggage weighing you down I suggest you cut it loose here and now.”

“Good advice.” He picked up a green binder from the table and wrote something down.

Ethan glanced over at the nurse’s station, “Hey I didn’t think we were allowed to–” when he turned back the man had vanished.

The Harris household was brimming with excitement. Everyone besides Nia had never been out of the country before. Technically Hawaii wasn’t out of the country, but it might as well have been a Martian paradise.

“Okay, everyone. We will be leaving for Maui, Kawaii, Oahu, Honolulu, and the island of Hawaii in exactly five days, six hours, eighteen minutes and forty-nine, forty-eight seconds.”

“Yeahhh,” everyone screamed.

Nia couldn’t stop laughing at the children’s excitement. She tearfully hugged her husband again.

“I wish we could leave sooner, but this was the best deal,” he told his kids.

“We’re gonna swim with dolphins,” shouted Darius, who then dove head-first into the puffy sofa.

“Daddy was looking at pictures of the resort we’ll be staying at,” said Nia. “It looks like the most colorful place in the world, like the whole place is just one big rainbow.”

The girls laughed with glee.

“We’ve got to be safe though, you remember to stay with your mama or me the whole time.”

“We know,” said their oldest daughter.

Careful not to get too excited himself, Leonard continued to plan their trip. They would see volcanoes, rainforests, beaches—he couldn’t wait. He forced himself to remember the story of Icarus so he wouldn’t get too close to paradise before he was ready. The Lord may come back today or forty years from now, and those who are ready, kind, loving, and faithful will be raised up.

Icarus was the son of an Athenian craftsman. After Daedalus helped King Minos, he and his son were imprisoned for suspicion of subterfuge. Daedalus made two pairs of wings out of leather and beeswax. Before their escape, he told his son to follow him and not fly too close to the sun or the sea. Icarus’s excitement while flying caused him to fly higher, and the wax of his wings melted. He kept trying to fly by flapping his arms but the feathers had fallen away. He fell in the sea and drowned. Daedalus wept for his son and named the nearest island Icaria in his honor.

Accepting money from the rich had made Leonard feel more like Icarus than he liked to admit. It was only half a million dollars, he kept telling himself. Black folks had it rough, he’d say. God wouldn’t begrudge me enough money to bless my family and live it up a little bit.

What God would and wouldn’t begrudge them is the question many residents were asking. The time was so thrilling, surely they were meant to have some fun.

After this vacation we’ll settle down a bit, thought Leonard, and try not to get too far ahead of ourselves.

Elliot’s party was only two days away. He was a little nervous, one more thing he’d have to learn to get over before he could be a real musician. His setlist was about twelve cover songs and four originals, three of which he’d written since the Dropout Movement began. He disliked the term. Who wouldn’t be nervous when every little thing you do could spark a state-wide revolution? The original songs were about understanding between the grownup world and the challenging lives of teenagers. Elliot really wanted to hit this out of the park so people would actually hear the message and prepare for a better future. Together. Not crowding and imposing on one another. Together.