“It’s not—well, they’ve got some damage to the aircraft, but the captain thinks he can land it okay. The problem is they’ve got to go through another storm first. They’re trying to land in DC.”
Dar clamped an arm across her stomach and bit the inside of her lip. She had to take several breaths before she could speak. “Okay.
Thanks.”
“Ma’am?”
Dar just closed the phone, and let her head drop forward to rest against the laptop’s cool edge.
KERRY WRAPPED HER arms around the pillow she had in her lap and just kept her eyes closed as the plane rocked and yawed its way through the clouds. She could feel little shudders running through the 28
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frame of the aircraft, and she managed to compose a tiny prayer, which she sent outward, asking for nothing more than to hear Dar’s voice again.
That was all.
She felt a touch on her hand, and she jerked her head up to see Josh looking back at her, his face white as a sheet and looking very young.
She managed a smile for him. “We’re gonna be okay.”
“I know you’re an old, married lady, but can I hang onto your hand?” Josh asked. “I’m so scared, I think I just saw my left testicle float past my earlobe.”
That forced a breath of laughter from Kerry, and she reached over, clasping his hand with her own. “Sure.”
“Folks...” The pilot’s voice drew their attention. “Here’s the situation. We got hit by lightning and lost one of our engines, but don’t get excited. We have three.”
“Easy for him to say,” Josh muttered.
“We were trying to make it out to Chicago, but there’s a really big front ahead of us in that direction,” the pilot went on. “Washington is already closed, so we’re gonna swing out east and try to get into New York.”
New York
. Kerry hung onto that one tiny sliver of very good news.
New York was where Dar was, and right now she very, very much wanted to be there.
“But we’ve got to get through this storm cell to do that. It’s going to be a little scary, but you all hang on, and we’ll get you down all right.”
“A little?” Kerry felt like throwing up. “I wonder how long it’ll take?”
One of the flight attendants, harried, coffee-stained, and exhausted, heard her. “Thirty minutes.”
“Thanks.” Kerry gave her a grateful smile. “Have you ever been through this before?”
The attendant, a slim, middle-aged woman with salt-and-pepper hair and an interesting face, nodded briefly. “Twice. Every time, I swear I’m retiring.”
Kerry felt an uncomfortable pressure building in her ears, and she sighed, hugging her pillow with one arm and keeping a grip on Josh with the other. The plane began to rock violently again, and the murmur of voices, which had risen, fell again to silence. The cabin lights flickered off, leaving only the indirect lighting on, and the lightning outside brought lurid flashes of silver darting unexpectedly into the cabin.
“I hate this,” Josh whispered. “I’m quitting the minute I get on the ground, I swear. I’ll go into business with my Uncle Al back home.”
Glad of the distraction, Kerry licked her lips. “What does he do?”
“Pizza parlor,” Josh yelped, as a bang sounded and the plane tilted to one side. “Oh, my God.”
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Kerry exhaled, keeping her eyes glued on the window. The clouds were so thick and dark outside, she could only see the edges when lightning flared within them, or when the faint lights from the plane’s leading wing edge broke free of the clinging mist.
It was like being inside a bag, rolling down a mountain. She couldn’t see anything, she had no sense of where the ground was...
Kerry felt like crying. The fear was so overwhelming, it made her want to scream, but she bit down on the inside of her lip and simply bore it—time running so slowly it was as if every minute was lasting an hour. Fifteen of them passed before something else changed.
The nose lifted, then plunged to one side, throwing the stewardesses. It hung at that angle for an eternity, then slowly straightened out and jerked downward. Kerry started shivering.
The plane kept rocking and bucking, so unstable it made her dizzy as her sense of balance fought to compensate for the movement.
Suddenly, she felt a difference in pressure, and she jumped, looking up and half expecting the panel to drop masks at her.
But it didn’t.
“Depressurized the cabin,” the flight attendant called to her seatmate. “We must be below 10,000 feet.”
“Is that good or bad?” Josh asked nervously.
No one answered him.
They all almost screamed when the engine sound changed and the plane slowed, its wallowing becoming far more apparent. Then another sound, a louder one, and Kerry just barely kept herself from total panic by realizing the sound was the landing gear extending. That meant—her frazzled mind clung to the rationale—that meant the noise before that was the air spoilers, slowing the plane for landing.
Right?
She never remembered them being that loud, though.
The plane yawed and wobbled, the nose dipping, then the speed cutting back drastically. Outside, she could still only see clouds. She stared at them, willing them to part and show her something other than muddy darkness around the plane. “C’mon...c’mon...”
Lower and lower, until Kerry was sure they were going to crash.
She closed her eyes and thought of Dar and fiercely told herself that when she got to heaven—because God damn it, that’s where she was going—she’d be so careful to watch over Dar, and make sure she was never alone.
She bowed her head.
Then the darkness on the other side of the window dissolved—into rain, and lashing wind, and the lights of a big city, flashing by quickly as the big plane stumbled and rocked its way onto the runway, landing to one side, bouncing, then landing again, this time solidly on all of its wheels.
The engines reversed, and the blur of the lights turned into the solid outlines of a terminal, then exploded into color as a cadre of 30
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emergency vehicles whizzed around them, circling the plane as it limped its way toward the buildings.
Kerry felt all the tension rush out of her, leaving her limp in her seat and completely exhausted. Not even the rattle of sleet against the window stirred her as she simply closed her eyes and gave a quiet, heartfelt thanks.
The plane rocked to a halt. Kerry reached for her cell phone.
IT WAS HYPNOTIC. Dar stayed crouched over her laptop, continually hitting the refresh button and attempting to change the indicator on the page by sheer force of will. “Change, damn you,” she whispered under her breath, slamming the button on the mouse for the thousandth time.
And it did. The page redrew, and the Delayed status morphed before her startled eyes to Arrived—Newark.
“Newark.” Dar blinked. She clicked on it again and watched the same results occur. Again. Same thing. Her shoulder muscles relaxed and she slumped over the desk. Then she sucked in a breath and closed her hand around the cell phone and started to lift it. It rang as she did so, causing her whole body to jerk in shocked surprise. The cell phone went flying and Dar dove after it, tripping over the laptop’s cable and sprawling across the carpet in an undignified tumble.
Her head struck the bedside table and she yelped, but her fingers found the buzzing phone and she managed to get it open and to her ear without further injury. “Yeah?”
“Sweetheart, you have no idea what I’ve just been through.”
Dar rolled onto her back and sucked the voice in, every muscle going completely slack in utter relief. “Uh?”
Kerry sighed into the phone. “We just landed. We hit this huge storm, and the plane was rocking all over the place, and we lost an engine, and I think my stomach’s going to resign and find a better job somewhere else after that ride down.”
Dar placed a hand over her own belly and blinked. “Yeah. I know what you mean,” she murmured softly into the phone. “Glad you’re okay.”
“I’ve never been so scared in my life.” Kerry’s voice was shaking.
“I bet,” Dar murmured. “I bet it felt like your heart was coming out your ears.” She rubbed one of hers, then let the hand fall to the carpet limply.
“Yeah,” Kerry sighed. “I’m still shaking.”
Dar lifted the errant paw again and watched it tremble. “Hmm.”
She let it drop with a thump. “Ow.”
“What’s wrong?” Kerry asked. “We’re stuck in here for a few minutes. They’re trying to get the jetway working. It’s all iced, I think.”
“I bumped my head,” Dar told her. “So, you’re in New Jersey?” She
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had hardly a notion of what she was saying, merely pushing words out to fill the quiet. “You didn’t get hurt or anything, did you?”
“No.” Kerry sighed. “Just scared. I want off this airplane; and I hope I am stuck overnight, because let me tell you—I’m not anxious to get on another one of them right now.”
“Mm...yeah. I can understand that. Boy,” Dar exhaled, “wish I’d been there with you.”
Kerry was very quiet for a moment, and when she did start speaking, there was a distinct catch in her voice. “I wish you were, too.
Just before we landed, I...” Kerry stopped, then went on. “I was so scared.”
Dar rolled onto her side and curled her hands around the phone, wanting to reach right through it. Maybe she could squeeze through if she really tried hard. “Sorry you had such a rotten time, Ker. Hang in there, okay? I’ll come get you.”
A shaky sigh answered her. “You okay? You sound kinda washed out.”
Like a limp dishrag
. Dar now had an excellent insight into that hoary old saying. “I’m fine, just tired; and I think this damn New York food knocked my system for a loop.”
“Oh. Where’d you end...” Kerry paused. “They got the door open; I need to get out of here. Sweetie, I’ll give you a call back as soon as I figure out where I am.”
“Sure. Talk to you soon,” Dar answered. “I love you.”
“I love you, too.” Kerry’s voice, finally, sounded a smile at her. “I can’t wait to see you.”
Dar let the phone drop onto the carpet and just lay there for a moment. Then she rolled to her feet and grabbed the room phone in one hand and her sneakers with the other. The operator came on. “I need to go to the airport.”
“Which airport, ma’am?”
“The one in New Jersey.”
“Newark?”
Dar spared the receiver a disgusted look. “Is that in New Jersey?”
“Yes, ma’am.”
“Then that’s the one.” Dar got her sneaker on and was tugging the laces one-handed. “I need to go now.”
“Ma’am, there are no planes leaving at this time of night. We’d have to call for a special driver.”
Dar sucked in a breath and counted to ten. “Then call one,” she ground out. “Now.”
THE AIRPORT WAS in chaos. Kerry eased to one side of the jetway and pressed her back against the wall, letting the flow of people from the plane push past her. The storm had closed a lot of air routes, and the 32
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place was packed with stranded, angry travelers.
Her fellow travelers clustered around an airline representative.
Most of them were upset and still shaken, and the voices Kerry heard were strident and loud.
Her own knees were shaking. She trudged over and sat down in the one vacant seat near the gate podium, letting her briefcase drop between her feet as she rested her elbows on her thighs. She was sure everyone was frantic to get rerouted or obtain free accommodations or demand compensation from the airline.
Kerry didn’t need any of that. She was simply glad to be on the ground in one piece. She folded her hands together and leaned her head against them, taking a moment for a few whispered words of gratitude to the Lord who had surely been watching over her.
A hand on her shoulder made her jerk and look up. “Oh.” She straightened as an airline rep knelt next to her. “Hi.”
“Are you all right, ma’am?” the woman asked kindly. “I know you had a rough trip in.”
Kerry glanced behind her, where their plane was now surrounded by emergency vehicles and flashing lights. “You could say that.” She managed a smile. “I’m just waiting for the crush to disperse over there.”
Her eyes went to the crowd around the other representatives.
The woman patted Kerry’s briefcase, glancing at the small platinum tag attached to the case buckle, then back up at Kerry. “Why don’t you come with me, and we’ll get you taken care of,” she suggested casually.
In the maelstrom inside the airport, with all the upset people and canceled flights, the last thing Kerry would have thought of would have been to claim privilege. However, since it was being offered, she wasn’t about to turn it down. “Sure. I’d love that.” She stood and picked up the case, following the rep as she eased through the crowd and worked her way past the other irate customers.
Kerry caught sight of Josh just as she cleared the crowd. He was waiting his turn rather forlornly, and he gave her a weak smile as their eyes met. “Looks like we’re getting floor space,” he commented. “No flights out until tomorrow.”
“I wasn’t in the mood to be on another one anyway,” Kerry admitted. “Chicago can wait.”
“Not for me.” Josh shook his head. “I meant it. I’m going home.”
Kerry fished in her pocket and pulled out one of her business cards, which she handed to him. “If you really decide to quit, give me a call.”
He glanced at the card, then looked more closely at the title, his eyebrows jerking up in a way that was comical. His eyes widened and he looked back at her. Kerry winked at him, gave him a pat on the side, then turned and continued after the fidgeting attendant.
“Nice-looking guy,” the attendant commented.
“Yeah,” Kerry agreed, distracted by the speakers echoing loudly around them.
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“Did you want to bring him along? We could squeeze him in with you if you—”
“Huh?” Kerry’s head snapped back, realizing what the woman was saying. “Oh, um, no. No, thanks.” She ran a hand through her hair.
“He’s not my type.”
“Oh.” The woman glanced behind them. “Maybe I’ll go back and get him later then.” She gave Kerry a wicked grin. “If you don’t mind.”