Trisha looked out the window as the small plane moved down the auxiliary field and lifted off
in spite of the seemingly tangled mess strewn on the right side of two major runways.  From her vantage point inside the ship,
Trisha Holden could see the entire airport. Planes were crookedly out of line only on one side of two of its major runways. 
It was almost as if they were playing follow the leader. She could see some of the damaged planes being moved to empty hangers, 
on the far end of the tarmac, in order to clear the field for the incoming planes. 
It was a strange sight to say the least, and Trisha couldn't help but wonder why the planes were so disarrayed,
instead of being lined up, as they normally would be, and safely tucked within their assigned gates ready to take on passengers. 
     From what she overheard from the pilots milling about the concourse, as she waited to board her plane, 
even the pilots involved in the mishap weren't absolutely certain as to what caused them to skid off the runway. 
All they knew was that they did. 
She remembered them saying that it seemed as if the runway moved as they were landing their planes. 
Really, she thought. 
They actually said that? 
They must have been seeing things. 
     She heard one of the passengers saying that 
"The pilots could have sworn the runways moved sort of like a roller coaster just as they were touching down, 
and as they did so, the strange effect took complete control of the landing. 
Each pilot tried desperately to regain control, but they were unable to do so until the planes were actually off the runway. 
At first they all believed the shimmering effect on the runways was like that of massive heat waves, rising one after another off the concrete,
as it does on hot, humid, sunny days. 
It wasn't until their wheels touched down, did they realize something else was going on beneath their plane,
and said they actually felt the ground beneath them shifting.
 If what they say is true," she added, "it's no wonder that so many pilots missed the runway." 
     Trisha had wondered at the time, what the passenger was talking about, and what would cause anyone to make a comment like that. 
She thought the statements coming from the pilots were strange, 
and what was even stranger to her was the fact that their comments were made within earshot of worried passengers.
Passengers who felt that they had narrowly escaped being seriously hurt or that something even more catastrophic could have happened.
 Well, Trisha's thoughts continued, they could be right.
All the planes could have crashed or exploded when they landed.
 But thankfully that didn't happen.
The passengers were only shaken up, nothing more.

     Even now, as she flew away from the airport she still couldn't get the real meaning of the pilots' comments out of her mind. 
Did they know something that she didn't know and were keeping mum about it or were they just as in the dark about it as she was?
Or, which was far more important, was there really a problem? 
A problem that could be far more devastating than it appeared to be at the time. 
If so, what are the "powers that be" going to do about it? 
     Trisha looked up and away from the activities on the ground and beyond.
In the distance the sporadic belching of Mauna Loa and Kilauea, against the mountain ranges and lush-green vegetation, captivated her. 
As long as 'Pele's' anger is contained we have nothing to worry about. 
But she couldn't help hoping that when Kilauea sputtered in an angry, reddish/orange eruption
that she might be around to see its fiery red hot lava flow down along the side of the mountain, but from a safe, really safe, distance. 
She smiled inwardly thinking about that aspect, as the inter-island plane continued its flight over the various islands in the Hawaiian chain,
bringing her closer to Maui and home.

     She strained to catch a glimpse below as her plane closed in on Pearl Harbor and when the plane circled over Pearl,
as it did on a regular basis, a pensive look crossed Trisha's face.
She stared down on the Memorial where over two thousand men were entombed.
She watched, mesmerized, as drop by drop, oil seeped to the surface from the watery grave below, 
perpetuating the minor oil slick, which began its odyssey more than over fifty years before and
she shivered slightly as goose-bumps crept over her. 
Brushing aside a tear, Trisha looked away. 
* * *
     The small plane made its final approach to the landing field at Maui. 
Trisha saw her father waiting patiently for her arrival. 
She waved furiously at him even though he couldn't see her.
When her plane's wheels touched down and taxied up to the hanger, an anxious Joe Holden rushed towards it. 
     "You're late," he said as he hugged, kissed his daughter, and then grabbed her bag. 
     "Just a little," she answered. 
     "More than three and a half hours," he admonished. 
     "Couldn't be helped," she answered smiling at her father's frowning face. 
     "Why, what happened?" he asked. 
     "Oh, some sort of fluke about the pilots missing the landing strip." 
     "What?" he asked, stopping in the middle of the field, and staring at her. 
     "Dad, we can't stay here. C'mon, I'll tell you as soon as we get to the Jeep." 
     With his arm tightly around his daughter's shoulders, Joe Holden guided her back toward his waiting Jeep. 
Having settled into the vehicle Joe waited for his daughter to explain her comment. 
     "Well," he said, "I'm waiting." 
     "I guess it had been happening periodically all day long. 
But the first incident apparently was the worse," she said, pausing to look at her father, his frown had deepened considerably. 
Catching her breath, she continued, "Several of the pilots claimed that the landing field shifted just as their wheels touched down
and that was why they had skidded off the field, stopping just short of hitting the concourse where all the people were standing,
transfixed as they stared out of the windows, frozen in their tracks, watching the planes heading toward them,
unable to move away, unable to protect themselves, waiting for the crash that never happened." 
     "What! Were the pilots drunk?" 
     "No, Dad," Trisha laughed. "They weren't drunk. Since I don't know what really happened,
all I could think of was that it could have been some sort of a virus, which affected their equilibrium. 
The strangest part is that not all of the pilots were affected. 
It appeared to be happening only during specific times of the day 
and only to those who had been eating lunch at the local pub the past several days. But what that had to do with any of it, I couldn't say. 
Needless to say that aspect has been investigated by the local authorities to see if there was a connection, 
and apparently their conclusions were that the pub had nothing to do with any of it. 
Still, the effect on the pilots was only intermittent even if it appeared to be a day long affair,
so it couldn't have been a budding epidemic now, could it?" 
     "No, I don't think so," Joe said slowly, shaking his head,
"but something must have caused them to miss the landing strips. 
What did the authorities do about it?" 
     "Since enough of the pilots were affected, not only the pilots, 
but an investigation of the planes involved was undertaken and as far as I know is still going on. 
Guess it will take several days, weeks even, before they really know what the cause was, but in the meantime, the flights were canceled. 
The landing strips and planes were checked. The mechanics thought maybe the altimeters were off calibration, but that wasn't it. 
No one could find a reason for the mishaps,
it wasn't the pilots, 
the planes,
the airstrips or the pubs,
so they decided to let the planes take off and here I am." 
     "Did the wheels collapse when the planes landed?" Joe asked. 
     "Don't know, Dad, I wasn't on any of those planes when they landed at that airport, just on the one that took off." 
"Why?" she asked, looking at him curiously. 
      Joe fell silent for a moment. She thought he didn't hear her. 
Then just before she raised the question again, 
he started the engine and said, "Somehow, I don't think I like what happened. It doesn't bode right." 
"There is something else going on. Mark my words." 
"This isn't the end of it, I am sure of it."  "Oh, Dad, don't be so silly." 
"Everything is fine, see," she said as she held out her arms and turned around as best as she could in her seat for his inspection. 
     "Nothing happened," she giggled, "except for the pilots unable to land their planes on their moving landing strip,
but it's not likely to happen again. I'm sure the authorities will see to that." 
     "Say what you want, Honey, but I don't like it," he said, as his frown deepened. 
"There is more to this than we know." 
"Something is going on that we're not privy to
and we are not about to be at least not for now," he added solemnly, as he drove away from the airport and headed towards home. 
* * *