Airborn The Home Quotes

"Thank you, sir, but I'm happy here." And I was. This ship, the Aurora, was more home to me than the little apartment in Lionsgate City. Over the past three years, I'd spent scarcely any time on land. My life was aloft now. I did not want to leave Baz or Captain Walken, or my bunk with its porthole that gave me a bigger view of the world than any landlocked window. My heart purred to the vibrations of the Aurora's engines. There were other fine ships, I knew, and some perhaps ever grander than the Aurora. But only she could fuel my dreams." (3.22)

My mother had not wanted me to take the position, not after what happened to my father. I'd never seen her so upset. I'd tried to hide how much I wanted the job, but she knew anyway. All my life I'd wanted to fly. What she didn't know was that I wanted to fly away from her too. I wanted to fly to my father, and I couldn't do that landlocked in the small apartment with its low ceilings and gray views of rainy city streets. My father had spent so little time there. It was not the place I could be near him. (4.18)

Airborne, nothing frightened me. But the idea of crash-landing on the sea, water filling us, made my stomach churn. The Aurora was my home, and I couldn't bear the thought of abandoning her to the waves. (7.34)

"You're different here," Kate told me. "On the ground, I mean." I said nothing. "I think you're more frightened down here than you were when the ship was about to crash."

"You're right," I said. "I don't like being on the ground. I don't feel at home."

"Do you think it's because you were born in the air?" she asked. She looked at me as if I were a picture in a textbook. (9.70-72)

"Don't ask me to choose, please. It's not fair. You or the captain. You or the ship."

"It doesn't seem a very difficult choice to me," Kate said, her nostrils narrowing. "Anyway, I don't see what the ship's got to do with this."

"It's my home."

"It's not your home," she said impatiently. "It's where you work, that's all."

I looked at her, not trusting myself to speak. She didn't understand anything. (10.129-133)

I'd never been able to tell my mother how comforting it had been to work aboard Dad's old ship. Everyone knew about my father, and they were all very kind to me, especially Captain Walken. Baz took me under his wing right away—the older brother I never had. I felt like I'd discovered another family aloft. And my father always felt nearby, visiting me often in my dreams. I kept this all to myself, though, for I couldn't bear being disloyal to Mom and Isabel and Sylvia. (11.112)

"When my dad died, I was afraid I'd never ever be happy again. But I was. Once I started working on the Aurora. I loved it. It's the world I was born into. It's all my father's stories. I dream about him up there, and I never do on land. It feels like home aloft. But on the ground, it all catches up with me. So I've got to keep flying, do you see?" (12.34)

"Quite an escape artist, aren't you?" Spzirplas was only a few paces from me. "You're an impressive lad. If you hadn't defied me so, I might have offered you a home on my ship."

"This is my home," I told him dully. And I'd never felt it more than now. I'd bundled everything into this ship, all the good feeling I had; all my sense of belonging was beneath my feet, every hope of happiness. And I thought that at least I would die here at home. (20.43-44)

As long as I could still dream about him, I knew everything would be all right. I didn't need to be aloft to find happiness. It could find me wherever I was: on the Aurora, or here in Paris, or back home with Mom and Isabel and Sylvia. (21.52)