is a weekly serial. While it is a work of fiction, it has elements from both my own experiences and stories I’ve heard from various people. The characters, while in some cases inspired by real people, aren’t directly modeled on anyone in particular. I expect there will be inconsistencies and factual errors. I don’t know where it is going, and I’ll probably forget where it’s been. Why am I doing this? To give me an excuse and a deadline for some creative writing and because I thought people might enjoy it. Gozatu!<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n\u201cWow!\u201d said Maite. \u201cIt\u2019s even smaller than Bilbao\u2019s airport!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Javi chuckled. \u201cLAX is pretty close and, since you have to stop somewhere if you leave here anyways, a lot of people just drive to Los Angeles. It\u2019s almost faster, with the extra security and all.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cBut those lines!\u201d exclaimed Julie. \u201cThey are horrendous down there!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Maite and Kepa got their boarding passes and checked their luggage. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThanks so much, for everything!\u201d said Maite as she gave Javi a big hug. \u201cI can\u2019t wait to return the hospitality.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe look forward to showing off the Basque Country to you,\u201d said Kepa as he similarly embraced Julie.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI look forward to it!\u201d said Julie. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Maite and Kepa waved as they headed toward security.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cSee you soon!\u201d exclaimed Maite.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The flight back home, though long, was uneventful. Maite couldn\u2019t believe how much she had wanted normalcy and boring, after so many months in that boarding house. After watching both Blas and Kepa die. After being chased by de Lancre. She put on her headphones and plugged into some random movie.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It took almost a full twenty-four hours, but finally they were home.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cGlad I don\u2019t have to do that very often,\u201d said Kepa, looking over at Maite as they waited to get off the plane.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cAgreed,\u201d sighed Maite, \u201cbut if I do get the position at Berkeley, I guess I\u2019ll be doing it more often.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe\u2019ll be doing it, you mean,\u201d added Kepa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Maite squeezed his hand. \u201cBai, guk.\u201d She smiled.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
They got off the plane. They grabbed their suitcases off of the carousel and passed through the doors into the spacious arrival hall. Kepa had left his car in the long-term parking, as they didn\u2019t want to deal with the public transit system after such a long flight. Maite was relieved they had thought ahead. The last thing she wanted to do was deal with buses and trains.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
They were about to head down the escalator to the exit and parking when Maite exclaimed \u201cBegira! Look!\u201d She was pointing at the end of the hall.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Kepa looked over and saw another bright white light, floating in the air.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
If you get this post via email, the return-to address goes no where, so please write blas@buber.net<\/a> if you want to get in touch with me.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The next few days were a blur. While Javi was at work, Kepa and Maite continued to explore downtown and the beach. They went for a few short hikes in the local parks. However, they most enjoyed the evenings, when Javi was back and Julie joined them. One night, they watched a movie together; another, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4410,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[2640,864],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5226","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-adventures-of-maite-and-kepa","category-bubers-basque-story"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/maite-and-kepa-v2-01.png","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2sYNu-1mi","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5226","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5226"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5226\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5227,"href":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5226\/revisions\/5227"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4410"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5226"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5226"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5226"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/maite-and-kepa-v3b.png\")