An Angel's Fix Pt. 05

"I see. I just thought..."

"Believe me, those thoughts were from your own head and imagination." He just stood there and stared, so she continued, "Please don't make me start crying and begging for you to take me home. I do have a phone, and I can call Ash to pick me up, but then I won't ever want to see your face again."

Dejectedly, he turned and headed back for his car. Kim waited by her door just long enough for him to unlock it before she opened it herself and closed it abruptly behind her.

Jerry had driven about halfway to her hotel before he said, "I'm sorry. I figured tonight was the last I was going to see you, and I wanted to make an impression."

"Well, you did," she snapped. Kim regretted that and softened. He seemed nice enough, just misguided. So, she resolved to give him a chance to start over, but only as a friend this time. "I'm coming back in December, you know."

"You are?"

"Derp?! Ashley has to come back to meet her new band, and start laying out some plans with them. She said I'm her agent, so I'm coming with her."

Jerry shook his head at himself. "Oh. I didn't think of that. I figured that if I didn't get to know you tonight, you'd never call, or even think of me again. I didn't want that."

The car pulled up to the hotel. "I'll let myself out," said Kim. "But before that, let me say that I thought you were good looking and sweet. I just don't feel that certain something I was hoping for. So, yeah, you're right, I probably wouldn't have called you." She got out and poked her head back in. "But that shouldn't stop you from calling me." She flipped a slip of paper on the seat and closed the door, heading into the lobby.

Jerry looked at the slip. Above her phone number was written, "Only on occasion – at first."

* * *

"Do you want to talk about it now?" Ashley asked from her seat next to Kim. They had been bumping along in the small turboprop for nearly an hour, and she wanted a distraction.

"What?" asked Kim, lost in thoughts of the last week.

"Your date? You didn't want to talk about it last night, nor this morning. Was it that bad? Did he hurt you?"

"Oh. No, nothing like that. I wanted friendship, and a little bit of vacation from reality. He wanted a full-blown relationship within a single night."

Ashley stared at her. "Like that's all there is to it," she said with skepticism.

Kim fussed with her new fleece jacket zipper pull. "Well, that and all the perks."

"Oh I see. I'm sorry."

"Why? You warned me."

"Never mind that." Ashley opened her handbag and pulled a slip out. "Here. Thank you for coming with me," she said as she handed it to Kim.

Kim looked down at the paper and her mouth gaped open. "Nine hundred dollars?" She held the check back toward Ashley. "Well, here. To pay you back for the clothes, gifts and food I mooched off you."

Ashley pushed it back. "You didn't mooch, I pretty much kidnapped you. That stuff was the least I could do to make it up. No, that's your first paycheck."

"You're not seriously making me your agent. That was just for show. Wasn't it?"

"You did pretty good. Although, I would have liked more holiday time off."

"Ashley! How else are you going to make this work? I don't think you could survive going to school, jetting off every Friday, working all weekend, just to fly back Sunday late to start the cycle all over again?!"

"See? I need you as my agent."

Kim looked at the check and after a moment of thought, she flung her arms around Ashley. "Thank you!"

Ashley returned the hug, but it was broken up by a sharp jar of turbulence. The flight attendant stood up and used a microphone to announce the decent for their arrival into Tallahassee. Ashley joked to Kim that the plane was small enough, the microphone wasn't needed.

After a couple more bounces, Ashley's teeth were starting to hurt from her clenching them. "Oh, Kim. I almost forgot. I know you're not happy with being with us."

"But I am...I just..."

Ashley put up her hand. "Just hear me out. If you will finish this term here, you can stay with Cindy at the house for the next term. No rules."

"But, if I'm working for you..."

"You don't have to stay where you're uncomfortable just to work with me. Besides, you don't know any more than I do whether this will pan out for me. Go and get your liberal arts crap out of the way at the same time as this, and then decide what you want to do for sure. I already talked to Cindy, and she almost begged to have you come and live with them. She says Doug is away too much."

Kim was thinking about it when there was another shudder as they descended through the clouds. She looked over and Ashley's knuckles had turned white in their grip of the armrests. For all her newly found maturity and stoicism in front of crowds and people of authority, Kim could tell that Ashley still had a deathly fear of anything hinting at a crash. It was understandable, when one thought about what she went through during senior year.

She patted Ashley's hand. "Can I think about it?"

Ashley's voice came out much different after the last couple of jolts. It was strained. "Sure. Oh! Another thing, get along with Jasmine, PLEASE?"

Kim nodded, but she was only half paying attention. The whine of the landing gear was heard, but Kim could swear she felt a second thump only from one side of her seat. Within a minute, the attendant picked up the phone near her head while she was seated in her jump-seat. Her face went white, and Ashley clawed Kim's hand as they watched the lady purposefully take deep breaths after hanging up the corded phone.

"Ladies and gentlemen," she called out, not bothering with the cabin microphone. "The captain noticed an indicator light, and landing will be delayed. We are gonna fly by the airport to let them see if there is a problem. There's nothing to worry about, but there might be a couple of low passes over the field."

Ashley and Kim looked at each other. "You felt it too?" Kim asked.

"Yeah. Landing gear didn't lock," Ashley almost whimpered.

"Come on, Jasmine! It was your idea to surprise them! What are you staring up at?"

Joe was taking deep strides through the parking lot, with Jasmine nearly running after him. Construction on I-10 (again) had slowed their journey to the state capital more than he had figured.

Jasmine was looking up at the big puffy clouds. "At least we won't be baking at the game. Should have some shade occasionally."

"Yeah, I'm sure Ashley's having a ball right about now," he said grimly.

"Wait! Slow down! They're not gonna land for another 15 minutes." He finally changed his pace to her relief. Jasmine picked up his hand, now able to walk more comfortably. "Why do you say that?"

Joe smiled at her. "You know she hates those commuter planes, right?" Jasmine nodded. "Well, they'll be going through those to land, and there's always turbulence in the tall ones like that."

"I forgot about that. They're so pretty today."

"That they are."

As expected, the flight board that greeted them inside showed all five flights over the next couple of hours were on-time. They rode an escalator up to the second level and walked toward the passenger wing. Jasmine looked longingly toward the observation lounge at the far end that was built before the horrors of 9/11.

"I wish we could watch them come in," she said, still holding his hand.

"Did you bring your wallet?" Jasmine nodded at him. "Well, let's see what we can do about that."

Joe approached the TSA agent guarding the metal detector. "Hello, my friend here would really like to watch my wife's flight land. Can we pass to the observation area?"

The agent only shook his head and pointed to the numerous "Passengers Only" signs.

Joe pulled out his military contractor clearance ID, and motioned Jasmine to do the same. "Maybe now?" he said hopefully. Given their ID's also stated Top Secret clearance, it usually worked.

The agent finally spoke. "That's impressive, but I can't make exceptions right now. Some stupid Arab prince in New York got a threat against him, so we have to go by the book. I'm sorry."

Jasmine slumped her shoulders, and they found a bench to sit and wait. A few minutes went by when through the hum of conversations of the several dozen people waiting around, Joe heard an unintelligible squelch come from every worker's belt radio. Then, every one of those worker's eyes darted instinctively toward the far end of the concourse. He pulled Jasmine standing with him, and as he strode back toward the guard, the flight boards changed every listing to "Delayed."

"Hey," he addressed the agent. "My wife is on flight 1202, how about you let us through now?"

The agent nodded and waved them through. He leaned into Joe and said, "Do NOT try to go near the exits, or I'll be the one shooting you. And, try not to run down there to the end. I don't want a panic from the others here."

Joe flashed him a worried look, but the agent just looked down.

Once they collected their keys and wallets from the other end of the x-ray machine, Jasmine asked, "What's wrong?"

"Come on," he answered. "Something's up."

They were about half-way down the concourse when the blue and white commuter streaked past the windows at the far end. Flying halfway across the field, the shape was very small in relation to the view through the windows, but they were able to make it out.

"What the hell?" Joe wondered aloud as he sped up his stride.

As they made their ascent, Ashley could make out the dulled whine as the landing gear was pulled back up. They were circling back around when the captain's voice came over the speakers to tell the passengers that the tower did spot that the right side wheel had not been fully deployed. He explained that they had surplus fuel, and therefore time to try a few things to correct the problem. He asked the 15 or so passengers not to worry as he planned to pass by the airport a few more times. His announcement concluded by saying that during one of the go-arounds, the attendant would instruct everyone on the brace position, just as a precaution.

The airport soon came into view and the whine started again, but when it stopped, Kim looked at Ashley and she shook her head. Resetting the gear did not work. It also didn't work the next three times.

"Oh no," Joe groaned the second time the plane approached and flew past. "Did you see that?"

Jasmine wrapped her arm around his a little tighter. "The plane flew by again."

"No. It looked like one of the wheels didn't come down all the way."

"Well, what does that mean?" Joe looked at her. "I know it's bad, Joe. But, how bad? What could happen?"

"They could crash," he said simply.

"Joe! I'm not in the mood! How bad of a crash?"

"One of a few things could happen," he said, trying to keep his voice even. "The best is that when that wing drops, it could drag along the ground until it spins the plane out."

"And the worst?" Jasmine could barely get the question out.

Joe took in a deep breath. "The plane veers toward that side after touching down on the good wheel, the wing plants itself in the grass, and then flips the plane into a cartwheel."

Jasmine didn't ask any more questions. About every five minutes or so, they watched the gear come down to pretty much the same position, the plane fly above the length of the runway, then rise again, retracting the gear. At about the same time as the fourth pass, firetrucks and ambulances were streaming onto the field, positioning themselves a little ways from the midpoint of the runway. Another flyby didn't show any improvement, and then Joe and Jasmine didn't see the plane again for some time.

"Did it crash?" Jasmine asked fearfully. She felt like she was five years old for blurting out such a stupid question.

Joe didn't seem to notice the obviousness of the question when he answered, "No, the emergency trucks haven't moved. I think they're getting ready to try something different."

"Like what?"

"I don't know, but there's a reason for the delay."

The captain came back on to say that there was no change, but they still had plenty of fuel and were going to try to jar the gear loose by making one wheel hops down the runway. Then he explained that the maneuver was inherently less safe, and instructed them to get into the brace position when it was called.

Ashley was muttering something that Kim couldn't make out, and her face was twisted into something Kim hadn't really seen before. But there was no fear in it, and that made her feel better somehow.

The ground rose up toward them again, and the attendant called out "BRACE, BRACE, BRACE!"

"They ARE doing something different this time," Joe said as he noticed the plane was moving much slower as it approached.

The plane settled out of the sky, banked slightly towards its left. A puff of blue smoke appeared as that tire touched. It rose again, then touched the wheel a few hundred feet later.

"Are they trying to land?" Jasmine asked in a panic.

It rose again.

"No, I think they're trying to shake it loose."

Then, the aircraft came back down again. Hard. The right wing jerked downward and came close enough to the ground to kick up a trail of dust. Jasmine flinched and Joe's arms flew up to clutch his cap. Both sucked in a quick gasp of air. But the plane was yanked back up into the air, and Jasmine turned to grasp Joe in an attempt to hide from her startle.

"Ow!" Kim and Ashley chirped in unison at the jolt. The engines roared back to full power and they were pushed back in their seats as the pilots pulled back on the controls. Ashley was muttering much more loudly now, and Kim caught the tail end of words, but didn't understand them.

"Odio questi aerei stupidi!"

"What?!" Kim asked.

"I hate these stupid planes!" Ashley said. It was loud enough that a few of the passengers chuckled nervously.

They circled around for several minutes before the captain came back on to say they were not going to attempt the maneuver again.

"Thank God!" Kim called, which received a few outright laughs that were masking deep concern.

The captain went on to say they were going to burn some fuel for a while to lighten the load. He also warned that before they land, they would try once more to free the wheel, and to be ready for a sharp bank a little before landing.

They circled for another 45 minutes before the attendant walked the short distance down the cabin, checking for any loose objects. Back at the front, she reviewed the brace position. She returned to her seat and strapped in. The seat belt warning chimed three times and the attendant shouted out, "BRACE, BRACE, BRACE! Heads down! Arms in front!" over and over. The plane rolled sharply to Ashley and Kim's side as it made it's tight turn. If they had looked out the window, they would have been staring straight down at the ground.

Kim said, "I love you, Ash."

"I love you too, Kim."

The whine came from under them as their heads were being centripetally pulled toward the floor, shorter this time, stopped, then ran longer than it ever had in the ordeal. But, Ashley and Kim still did not feel the subtle second bump they were hoping for. The plane righted itself and then rolled slightly toward the left, presumably an attempt to let the good wheel take most of the impact. Aside from the attendant repeating her shouts of "Heads down! Arms front!" and the engine noise in the background, the cabin was eerily quiet. The only things left to be said by the passengers were told in silence, directly with whomever each held to be their higher being.

The thrum of the engines scaled back slightly and everyone in the cabin drew in a collective breath to hold.

***

Author's Note

Thank you for reading! Please rate below, a 5 is appreciated, if you feel it is deserved. Comments are happily welcomed.