Black Box Cassette 3: MDW to YYZ

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## Black Box Cassette 3: MDW to YYZ

### Air Date

23/09/18

> *"People are selfishly kind. They'll help someone in need, but only because they're rewarded with a fascinating story."*
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This cassette is the recording of the Pilot's flight between Chicago and Toronto in the early 1980s, done by the automatic black box recording system.

The Pilot is flying Hester Wells, this time under the name April Callis, who is still on her way to Aotearoa, where she hopes to meet with Oleta.

The Pilot points out the vague area of Michigan where they once vacationed, alone, after their wife left. They explain the importance of keeping your story boring and sad if you don't want anybody to ask questions about it, which is particularly helpful when lying. They say they know that Hester's story is interesting, and they hope to hear it, but not right now, as they aren't sure if the flight tapes might be audited.

They talk more about their vacation in Michigan, which comprised of an attempt at camping that left them cold, miserable, and alone. They feared the sounds of the forest, but over the years they came to think that what they really feared was being alone in the world for the first time. They tried whittling, and made what they said was a cowboy only because that was what they had intended to make, not anything to do with how it had turned out.

There was some turbulence, and when the Pilot next spoke, they told Hester that Toronto was overwhelmed and they needed to stay in their air for another hour. They took this time to inform Hester of her cover identity, the 38-year-old April Callins, and that they would be driven to the home of a man called Gabriel, where they would stay for a night. They apologise for having to take her back north to Toronto because of an incident that happened in Chicago where Hester was pursued by agents of the Society for three weeks and the Pilot had to spend some amount of time holding their breath in a warehouse in order to remain undetected. The Pilot says that they will not vouch for or try to protect Hester if they get caught, but they will do their best to avoid either of them getting caught, and they will continue to fly her as agreed.

They mention their friend Callie, a conspiracy lover, who knows of and about the Institute. She has no proof, but she claims that the facility is out in Maryland and does experiments on criminals - or sometimes artists, miscreants, subversives, the poor, and even children. They indicate that they think Hester is running away from the Institute.

They tell Hester about their wife leaving them, which she did after several months of pregnancy, hoping to find and join the Cradle, which was supposedly a group that farmed, made art, and raised children independent from the Society. The Pilot refused to believe in the group, calling it a cult, and tried to get Coleen to stop holding onto "Sam", worried that their memories would be altered in harmful ways if they did not comply to the Society's rules about childbearing. They don't know whether their ex-wife and their now-teenage child are living with the Cradle.

The Pilot advises Hester not to talk to Gabriel, and instead be boring and vaguely sad, and promises that they will be back in the air the next day, on the way to Atlanta.