The Saltport ATM

12. Small Bets and Winning Payoffs

My lungs are so tight, I can hardly gulp in any air. Prince Haydn and Two hurtle downward for the longest seconds of my life, one of their arms wrapped around each other. With their other hands, they clutch onto a tiny black bar attached to the orange canvas.

Then a breeze sweeps by, flicking the wings of the glider skyward. The freefall breaks. As if carried on wings, the princes float through the air, gently swaying back and forth. The crowd disperses for it when the glider nears the ground. Four bare feet find the concrete, and cheers erupt among the gathering.

I squeeze my way through all the people converging around the Aqualan princes. Voices drown my ears in a constant, indistinguishable clamor. After a few minutes — and a few failed attempts to break through the crowd — a microphone crackles over the commotion.

"Prince Tewen of Aqualan, is it true that you were trying to make a political statement by climbing up the Empire State Building?"

"Uh, yes. I was."

A gap opens before me, and I lunge for it, only for a really tall woman to block me. Her six-inch heels miss stabbing my foot by a mere inch.

"It seemed that you were in trouble up there. What was going on?"

"Uh, it was very scary. I do not recommend climbing up there."

There's silence for a couple seconds. The woman shifts out of my way just enough that I can see Prince Haydn whispering to Two.

"Oh." Two straightens, then a man steps into my line of sight. "My hands and feet kept upsticking from the building. I guess the stickiness wears off eventually..."

With more force, I resume my attempts to get through the crowd. I squeeze between the onlookers, leaving behind a trail of "sorries" and "excuse mes."

"Prince Tewen, what message were you hoping to send by climbing the Empire State Building?"

"Well, the plan was to get the Congress people inside to recognize Aqualan as a sovereign kingdom. But I just didn't expect it to be so... tall." A gap opens for a split second as Two shivers. I elbow a few people aside, my feet picking up speed.

"But Congress isn't inside the Empire State Building!" a random voice shouts.

I'm close enough now to glimpse confusion scrunching Two's face. I shove my way past a few more individuals to reach him and his brother.

"Are you alright?" I ask.

"Yes. Here's your glider back." Prince Haydn hands me the orange canvas. "It's a good thing you brought it along."

It's a good thing it dropped out of the ATM machine. But of course, I would never say that aloud, even if it did happen.

"Prince Tewen, do you think you got your point across?" A feminine voice cuts into my thoughts.

"I, uh, don't really know." Two seems smaller than before. His wide-set shoulders droop like he's about to fold in on himself, and his eyes dance between the ground and the sky.

"Was it a good idea to climb the Empire State Building?" another reporter asks, more insistently.

"No."

"Why not?"

Two shifts. The crowd seems to quiet, though background noise remains like a staticky transmission. "It just doesn't seem right anymore. I don't know. I guess I thought it was smart to take matters into my own hands. It was just kind of... dangerous. I don't know. I didn't really think that part through."

"Is it true that you tried to kidnap Taylor Fife earlier today?"

"Were you in the hospital? Could you explain what happened?"