Skyrockets in Flight

“I want to see other people,” Vivica Plame announced to her husband in the comm unit in her helmet a few yards away. She was blue black with soft cheeks and a Nubian nose. Full lips and natural, long lashes hid behind her helmet. They were suspended in midair with jetpacks and wings and fins attached to their bodies.

“When we get down, we’ll be able to see plenty of people,” Rendell Plame reassured. He was dark as night, too. He showed a wide nose and full lips, too, behind his helmet.

“No, I mean we should start dating other people,” Vivica said. Her voice lowered but it was still warm.

“So you’re breaking up with me up here?”

“No, no, no. I want you to meet a guy I found online.” They crossed each other mid flight.

“Is this guy also married?”

“Yes, but you don’t want his wife.”

“Why not?”

“She’s agreeable with the whole act of him finding a partner outside of their marriage. But she doesn’t want to venture out at all.” The rockets gave the couple extra thrust as they flew over Newark, Delaware.

“I was interested in a woman at the DIT campus. Austria Coder. I didn’t approach her because I wanted to let you know first. I’m glad we were able to discuss our intentions before going any further.”

“Right. She’s white, though?” Vivica leaned in and gained speed before turning right side up again.

“Yes.”

“That may be a deal breaker,” Vivica alerted Plame.

“And why is that?”

“You fool with the white women, and you’re going to have problems: blank stares, dirty looks, and people saying, ‘I didn’t vote for that.’”

“I’m going after Austria if you’re entertaining being with a white man.”

“That’s just it. Black women and white men go together. Powerful black women are either alone and unmarried, with a partner male or female, divorced from a wealthy man, or married to a white man. That’s the extent of it.”

Plame rolled his eyes behind his helmet visor. “When can I meet this guy?”

“You’ve already met him. He’s chair of the physics department.”

“Zander Pike?”

“That’s the one.”

“When we get to the ground, we’re going to have to piece all of this together. It sounds hot, though,” Plame called on his microphone.

“That’s the healthiest part of our relationship…honesty. It’s better than the cliché and immorality of sleeping around behind each other’s backs. This way we can each explore outside of our marriage and still love each other,” Vivica explained.

“I agree with you, darling. The openness is key to all of this. If we just haphazardly and wantonly went outside the boundaries of our marriage, we’d be ripe for the gutter. This way we can have our fun with both of us knowing about what’s going in this relationship,” Plame described.

“So it’s settled. We’re going to have an open marriage by an accord rather than discovering something that would be considered infidelity,” Vivica pointed out.

They crossed each other again.

“Let me see…if I can introduce her to you and I meet up with Pike, I think we might be able to show how we’re not swapping wives but entertaining lives. We’re going to show them that we can be engineers and scientists and that we’re supposed to do this. You and I are made for this.”

“Are you talking about the jetpack flight or the extramarital affairs?”

“I could be saying either one,” Plame replied. “Take your pick.”

“I’m holding on to both.”

The hybrid of nuclear and hydrogen power allowed the couple to soar to greater heights and sustain the flight for even longer. They kept climbing and their suits told them the limit to their flights.

“This could change our marriage agreement,” Vivica warned.

“Oh?”

“Certainly. Adultery whether consentual or not plays heavy on papers relating to a divorce,” she said.

“Who said anything about divorce? We’ve been married fifteen years and now you come at me with divorce and infidelity?” Plame’s voice raised but he didn’t show signs of bitterness.

“I know dear,” Vivica softened. “That’s what I mean. If we’re open and honest with one another, we’ll have a chance to open up the marriage, too,” Vivica said.

Plame’s face shifted behind the mask. “Let me throw this at you…what if Pike is unfaithful to you? Or what happens if Pike and Austria get together?”

“This isn’t going to be some illicit affair. We’re all adults implicitly and contractually bound by way of mouth…we should have this in writing, too…anyway we’ll be able to understand all of this once everyone meets up together.”

The Plames looked at their levels of oxygen and continued to fly as enough supply afforded them more moments of marital bliss.

“We can talk about being with other partners, but we’re soulmates. We’re with each other no matter the circumstances. We explore ideas over wine and twenty thousand feet above the Earth. It’s never been done. We’re actually the first ones to do this. You and I, together,” Plame mentioned.

“I don’t want you to get the wrong idea. We’re just fortunate enough to be one. We won’t have to worry about anyone else getting together or finding someone else. We just have to go to the source. That is our love,” Vivica announced.

“I don’t care how many people ride along with us, our union is sound and capable of supporting us through whatever may happen.”

Then, Vivica looked incredulously behind her helmet visor. “What may happen to us?”

“For one thing, our power supplies may run out and we could be sent to Earth and smack agsinst the surface.”

“We know there’s no God, but Oh My God! Don’t say that!”

“I’m being realistic with you, my dear.”

“Well, let’s land first and then we can talk about near hits and actual hits.

The couple prepared to descend. On the way down, The couple moved close enough to hold hands.

“You know all of this talk about being with other people and not ourselves has ironically made me feel closer to you,” Vivica announced.

“It’s because of our bond. Nothing will sever our union.” They wanted to embrace, to kiss, to envelop one another. But their suits prevented all of this. As they smoothly coasted to the Earth’s surface, they held hands even tighter.

“I’d say this flight so far has been a success,” Vivica mentioned.

“That’s what we are. I’m the rocketman and you're the rocketwoman. Let us just keep it at that.”

Next they whisked away from the landing point where reporters and an audience awaited their return. They flew to their house with each other on their minds.