Page 136 of Meant to Be

“Sorry, Joe. Habit.”

Joe smiled and whistled, looking up. “Blue skies the whole way to Annapolis!”

At that point, we were at the foot of the stairs, and Joe motioned for me to climb aboard. “Ladies first!” he said.

I took a breath and climbed the few steps up, ducking into the plane when I got to the top. The cabin was tight and stuffy.

“Have a great flight!” the two men yelled up at us in unison, waving.

I waved back as Joe bellowed out a thank-you. Then he pulledup the stairs, latching the door shut. Still crouched down, I asked him where I should sit.

“Next to me!” he said, pointing to the copilot’s seat.

I sat down and put on my seatbelt, watching as Joe went over a meticulous checklist, talking to himself as he fiddled around with levers and buttons and various laminated papers. After several minutes, he put on a headset, flipped on a radio, and started talking to the control tower, rattling off letters and numbers. Joe was the most competent man I’d ever met, and I felt a sharp pang, wondering how I could possibly give him up.

After a few more exchanges with the tower, Joe turned to me and offered me my own headset. “You want to put this on?”

“Do I need to?”

He smiled and said, “Only if you want to listen in.”

“Sure,” I said, nodding and taking the headset. “Is there anything else I should know?”

“The life vests are right behind us,” he said, pointing over his shoulder. “Under the first-row seats.”

“No other safety features?” I asked. “Oxygen? Stuff like that?”

Joe gave me a reassuring smile and said, “There’s no need for oxygen, honey. We won’t be going that high. Just sit back, relax, and enjoy the ride. And the view!”

I nodded, putting on my headset and forcing a smile back.

He gave me a final thumbs-up, then turned on the engine, still flipping switches. A few seconds later, he began to drive, steering the plane toward the runway, where we waited in line behind two other planes. I watched as they took off and we crept closer to the front of the line.

Then it was our turn. Joe’s face lit up more and more as the noise of the engine and the propeller got louder and louder, groaning and whirring at once, until we were finally taking off, surgingup and into the air. It was terrifying but also exhilarating, reminding me of the time Joe took me out on his boat.

As we gained altitude, the vibrations and noise lessened, and I felt myself start to relax. It was smooth sailing through bright blue skies, the sun still well above the horizon. I wondered what I had been so worried about. It really was a piece of cake for Joe, and at one point, he even flipped open a tin of Altoids and offered me one. I smiled, shook my head, and pointed at the sky as if to saystay focused. He nodded, looking back at the horizon.

As we cruised along, I began to daydream, thinking of all our happy times together, refusing to contemplate the end. Not yet. At some point, the droning of the propellers, the warm sunlight, and all the vibrations of the plane lulled me to sleep.

I’m not sure how much time passed, but when I woke up, the sun was beginning to set and we were approaching a body of water that must have been the Chesapeake. The view was breathtaking. We were getting close. As I sat up in my seat, Joe looked over and smiled at me. I smiled back, feeling a wave of pure love. I told myself to stay in the moment—to cherish this time together.

Then, suddenly, the engine made a weird sputtering sound. In the next second, I saw smoke outside my window. I glanced over at Joe, praying that he’d appear calm. Instead, I saw panic etched all over his face and watched as he began frantically flipping switches and talking adamantly over the radio. I didn’t follow what he was saying, but it didn’t sound good, nor did the loud bang that followed.

Joe jumped and screamedfuckas our propeller slowed, then ground to a sickening stop. Meanwhile, the plane quickly lost altitude, dropping and gliding while Joe continued to steer and maneuver. “Don’t worry! We’ll be okay!” he yelled without looking at me.

I nodded, believing him. He could do it; he could doanything.But we kept falling, and Joe looked more terrified by the second. My heart pounding in my ears and my throat constricting, I closed my eyes. Fearing that this was the end, the Kingsley curse crossed my mind. It was something Joe and I had never talked about—something I dismissed as ridiculous. In every family there was tragedy, especially in a big family like Joe’s. Yet here we were.

When I opened my eyes, Joe was looking at me, shouting, “We’ve lost power! We gotta land on the water!”

Terrified and now starting to hyperventilate, I stared at him and nodded.

Seconds felt like hours as Joe kept yelling into his mic, sweat pouring down his forehead and cheeks. I began to pray, then silently recite the Lord’s Prayer—at least the words I could remember.Thy Kingdom come, thy will be doneechoed in my head until I heard Joe begin to shout.

Mayday! Mayday! Mayday!

It was a word I’d only ever heard in movies, and I suddenly understood what people meant by an “out-of-body experience.” I felt as if I were somewhere else, watching a disaster unfold, and I could only vaguely hear the man on the other end of the radio who was trying to help Joe land his plane on the water.

A second later, static filled the airwaves and the radio went silent. We were on our own.

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