Page 11 of Forged in Secrets

How could a ‘what if’ be more terrible than what had already happened?

As the engines continued to rumble, and their altitude increased, Ben’s terror became more and more evident. He was so pale that he looked almost green.

Grace plucked the motion-sickness bag from the back of her seat and set it on Ben’s lap.

His eyes flew open.

“I told you I’m fine,” he snapped at her, letting the bag fall to the floor as the plane at last began to even out. He didn’t make a move to pick it up, his knuckles white as he continued to clutch at his armrests. “Can you just mind your own business for once? Please?”

Grace felt her face growing hot as a couple of the other passengers glanced over at them from across the aisle. Even though Ben was being a jerk, she hated to imagine that anyone else would think less of him due to his outburst.

Ben was not the sort of person who expressed vulnerability lightly. For him to be forced onto a plane with her, where she’d see first hand just how terrified he was, had to have been quite a blow to his pride. Her trying to help had clearly made things worse.

After a few more minutes had passed, the seatbelt light went off, but she made no move to unbuckle. Instead, she retrieved her e-reader from her bag and attempted to get lost in a new romcom novel she’d downloaded for the flight.

She was midway through chapter one when she felt the plane lurch beneath her.

The device tumbled from her hands and out into the aisle, but she didn’t see where it had landed before another shudder rocked the plane.

She heard several shouts and the sound of other people’s belongings clattering against the floor. Over the intercom, the pilot was calmly reminding everyone to buckle their seatbelts, but she scarcely heard the words.

Ben was leaning forward against his lap, gripping his head with his hands. Something between a groan and a cry escaped him, sending a frigid chill straight through to her heart. She had never heard him sound this scared, and she doubted that his brothers had, either.

She decided to risk being yelled at again as the plane continued to bounce through the sky. Her own heart was thumping in her chest, but whatever fear she had was eclipsed by the utter horror that Ben was clearly experiencing.

She rested a hand against his back.

“It’s turbulence,” she said, hoping she sounded more confident than she felt. “Don’t worry about it. The plane can take a lot of bumping around.”

She barely got the sentence out before another stomach churning jolt sent the plane rushing downward. Grace heard more screams, along with the sound of more belongings clattering to the floor. Out of the corner of her eye, she could see that several of the overhead storage compartments had swung open, sending yet more luggage tumbling through the unstable aircraft.

She was too scared to open her mouth to scream now, let alone speak. She pressed her eyes shut for several longseconds, trying to think as the plane continued to jostle her in her seat. The pilot spoke with a shaky voice once again, but she couldn’t hear him through the commotion.

“God, help us!” Ben cried out, his voice ragged with fear.

His words seemed to pull her back into reality.

Whatever happened now, she was a child of the living God. She could trust him with this life and the next.

She reached toward Ben, leaning as close to him as she could while restrained in her seat as someone’s thick paperback narrowly missed her head.

To her surprise, Ben removed his hand from his armrest and accepted hers, holding her so tightly that she feared he might shatter her bones.

She looked over at him. Tears were running freely down his cheeks, and it seemed he had collapsed into himself, paralyzed with the agonizing, consuming fear of death.

Ben had struggled openly with his faith in God for years. Everyone at FBS knew it.

And yet it was he who had reached out to the Lord in this desperate moment.

The least Grace could do was to form the words of a prayer for them both.

“Heavenly father,” she choked out, the words coming in stops and starts as the airplane bounced through the sky. “Help us. Please, bring us and every soul on board to solid ground safely. Lord, have mercy on us.”

More shouts of terror. More cries.

Until suddenly, everything was quiet.

The plane’s engine whirred calmly as they flew at a steady altitude. Grace closed her eyes again, forcing her lungs to draw in air. She heard the speakers overheadcracking to life as the pilot spoke, assuring them that everything was okay and that they were not in danger, and reminding everyone to keep their seatbelts fastened.

---