“What?” I said. “Jump from the plane? Are you crazy?” I could see real fear in his eyes, and for the first time, I knew Jared had made a decision out of desperation.
Claire burst out of the cockpit and looked Jared, shaking her head.
Jared gripped my hand and pul ed me to my feet. Before I could speak, we were at the emergency exit. Jared grabbed the lever with both hands, but I stopped him.
“We need to do this now!” he yel ed.
I shook my head. “I can’t.”
“You can!”
I looked around me to the frightened faces of Bex, Kim, and Ryan, and then Claire.
“Why are you just sitting there?” she cried, “Help us, dammit!”
Jared’s arms tensed against my strength, but I refused to let him pul the handle.
I closed my eyes, trying to block out the noise. “Help us,” I whispered. “We need your help.”
Chapter Seventeen
Departure
The plane trembled like an earthquake. The engines whined, and the emergency oxygen masks leaned forward as the plane plummeted toward black water.
Claire shrieked. I was afraid to opened my eyes, hesitant to see what unimaginable horror had caused her to scream. I popped one eye open, and then the other. Even in the dim red light, I could easily make out Claire’s tiny arms wrapped around a large, dark figure. The lights returned to normal, and the shaking immediately stopped. The plane leveled out as the high-pitched cry of the engines quieted to a smooth, low hum.
Jared stopped trying to open the door, and he stood, moving slightly when every muscle in his body relaxed at once.
Bex hopped to his feet. “It’s about freakin’ time!” he said, slapping the top of the seat in front of him. After col ecting himself, he turned to Kim.
“You okay?”
Kim’s expression remained blank. “Why?”
She winked at me, and an uncontrol able grin stretched across my face. I was beginning to see traces of my friend again.
Samuel stood at the front of the aisle, a large, white smile a contrast against his black face. “I apologize. The best way to describe it is that I had to wade through some red tape.”
Claire released Samuel and playful y punched his arm.
Jared raced up the aisle and then paused. Samuel opened his arms wide, and Jared fel into his chest, hugging him as wel . Samuel laughed, his voice bel owing, fil ing every space in the cabin. I didn’t realize that I was stil tense until Ryan spoke into my ear, causing me to jump.
“He wasn’t on the plane before, was he?”
I shook my head, smiling. “Nope.”
A loud popping noise echoed when Samuel patted Jared on his back. “I can only go as far as the outskirts of Jerusalem, but I’m going to join you, if you don’t mind.”
Jared laughed once. “Not at all .” I joined him at the front of the aisle, wrapping my arms tightly around him. I sighed. “I admit it. I was scared to death.”
Jared shook his head. “I was ready to jump from a crashing airplane with my pregnant wife. I think I win this one.”
I agreed without pause. “Touché.”
Samuel walked back and forth along the aisle for a while. We all watched him quietly, but the fear and apprehension was gone. When Samuel would pass our seats, Jared would squeeze my hand. I kept trying to use my new and crude sensitivities to recognize a dark presence, but I either wasn’t doing it right, or Samuel had given them a severe enough warning.
Before long, Jared’s breathing evened out, and then his fingers relaxed around mine.
I fel asleep soon after. A tiny baby boy in my arms, swaddled the softest blue cotton, smiling and content in the shade under our oak tree, saturated my dreams. He smiled, his bright blue-gray eyes glimmering in the summer sun. His pinky finger was no longer than my pinky nail, and I kept kissing his hands over and over, unable to feel his skin against my lips enough times.
Time passed quickly there. Before the end of the day, he was a toddler, and then grade-school age. He didn’t appear older than he was, like Bex always had. He was perfectly human, and yet flawlessly beautiful like his father. By the time the shadow under the oak had faded, my son was a man, as tal and distinguished as Jared. I watched all of this in awe, but a little sad at the same time. It had gone by too fast. I wanted more time with him. I wanted to start over. A strange mixture of pride and sadness surged through me, and I remembered how just a few hours ago I was pregnant with him.
The shade now a shadow, my son walked over to me and held out his hand. He looked so much like his father. “It’s time,” he said with a smal smile. My smile.
“Time for what?”
“The end.”
My eyes popped open. Jared had left his seat, and I could hear him conversing with Bex and Kim somewhere in the back of the plane. I rubbed my eyes, and turned to my right. Samuel sat across from me, his massive frame nearly too large for the seat.
“Did you sleep wel ?” he asked.
“I did, actual y.”
He smiled. “I know. I was just being polite.”
“Oh. Right.” I maneuvered my body out of my seat, stretching.
Jared’s eyes met mine, and he stood, moving to the side.
“Again?” Bex teased.
“Yes, Bex. I’m pregnant. When you have a ful -grown infant doing a handstand on your bladder, I’ll keep track of how many bathroom breaks you take, mmk?” I waddled down the aisle, passing Ryan and Claire, who didn’t seem to notice my presence. I noticed that Ryan’s pinky was overlapping Claire’s however, and she wasn’t beating him to a bloody pulp for it. I smiled, and made my way to the lavatory.
I opened the door and frowned. I felt like Winnie the Pooh trying to squeeze into the honey tree. I looked down the aisle, meeting the inquisitive eyes of my husband. “I always feel I’m going to get stuck in there.”
Jared laughed. “If you do, I’ll get you out.”
Bex held up a white bottle. “I have lotion. That should help.”
I rol ed my eyes and made my first attempt to navigate the smal space.
Without event—or lotion—I returned to my seat, but not without the irritating snickering of Kim and Bex.
“Shut it,” I grumbled, glaringly aware that my penguin walk only made their laughter more boisterous.
. I turned my attention back to Jared. “I don’t suppose you’ve thought about the little things.”
“Such as?”
“Bathrooms? Sleeping arrangements? Privacy?”
“Al luxuries that won’t be readily accessible.”
“Pardon?” I said, my eyebrows shooting up two inches. “I’m heavily pregnant, and there’s no bathroom?”
Jared shifted nervously. “Yes.”
I sighed with relief, and looked to the ceiling. “Oh, thank God.”
“But...not like the facilities you’re used to.”
I peered over at him.