Prisoners of the Williwaw by Ed Griffin Read Free Book Online Page A

executed."   Latisha, too, shuddered.   What was this place she was going to? In the aisle, Jeannie took a step back.
    "If he's so terrible, why are you going with him?" Jeannie asked.
    " Whatta ya mean, lttle girl?   You getting' smart?"
    "No, I just wondered why you were going to Adak."
    "Oh."Elvira smacked her lips a few times and laughed.   Then she closed her eyes. "Carl, he could make me come like nothing you ever seen in your whole life.   Shit!He...", she opened her eyes and looked at Jeannie again, "you wouldn't know about ss -such things."
    She nudged Latisha on the shoulder as if the two of them were enjoying a joke the girl didn't know about.
    The plane lurched and Elvira almost fell on top of the women in the seat in front of Latisha." Scuse me," she said.   "Why are you two going to Adak?   This lttle girl wants to know."
    "You're drunk, lady," one said.   "But anyway, it's like I told my mother, I'm tired of taking care of these kids by myself."
    "Yeah," the other woman said, "what the hell?   My Jason's the kids' old man.   Life is shit with ' em and shit without ' em . What's the difference?
    "An occasional good fuck," the first woman said.
    The two of them laughed and each took a pull on a bottle in a paper bag.
    "How vulgar," Judy Villa said.
    Elvira staggered toward the back.   Latisha closed her eyes, but Judy kept talking. "My husband told me he only wanted reformed criminals.   That Larson doesn't sound very reformed to me."
    "No," Latisha agreed.
    Judy talked on.How she had raised Frank Jr. by herself.How she had managed to buy a little house. How Frank had it easy in prison and he could afford to be full of ideas. How Reverend Ellsworth said a man's job was to take care of 'his woman.'
    Latisha nodded occasionally but Gil was there, in her mind.   Her eyes closed. They were lying together, sleeping.   Then it was morning and they held each other.Children played in the hall.
    A sudden noise exploded next to her.   Latisha turned in terror to see a small boy in the aisle with a burst air sickness bag.The boy looked very proud of himself.
    Judy stood up. "Go sit down," she yelled.   "Where's your mother?"
    The little boy gave her the finger and Judy started into the aisle after him, but the pilot came on the public address system.   "Fasten your seat belts, folks.   We're approaching Adak Island.   Look over on your left when we get through these clouds and you'll see it.The wind's kicking up down there.We're gonna have a rough landing, but just hang on and I'll get ya through."
    "This is Frank's idea of taking care of me," Judy muttered.
    Latisha looked out the window.   The clouds thinned and there it was, Adak Island.   To the north, the sea was green; to the south of the island, the sea was a deeper blue. The Bering Sea and the Pacific, Latisha thought.   On the island water was everywhere - bays and lagoons, lakes and creeks.   At first it looked like a post card for 'the land of 10,000 lakes,' but as they flew lower she could see that no majestic trees separated the lakes as on the post card.Adak was rocks, hills, green tundra - and a lot of water.
    This would be her home for fifteen years.   She could see the east side of the island below her, the west side in the distance, two mountains and a rugged coast on the north side.   Farther to the north, on a separate island, a snow-covered volcano dominated the scene.   The south side of Adak stretched into the distance with green tundra, rugged hills, hundreds of lakes and no trees.
    "Boring," Judy said.
    Latisha thought it was anything but boring.   Green, like pictures she'd seen of Ireland. Wild. Untamed.   Rough.   Natural.Most of all, natural.
    And small, like a person could drive across it in half an hour - if there were roads.
    Suddenly heavy rain obscured the window.   Then, just as quickly, the plane flew through the rain and the window cleared.
      "Hang on, folks, we're going in," the pilot said.
    The luggage