No Going Home

Tears of joy and pain ran from both our eyes. Her cool kisses on my eyelids were gentle and loving. I finally crawled off of her, slid behind her, and spooned her ass as my cock cream ran from her cunt to her ass to the sheets between us. My dick slid to rest in the cleft of her ass cheeks. I wrapped one arm around her slim body beneath the peak of her young breasts and buried my nose in that jewel-tone hair. Then we slept.

I awoke to sunlight pouring through the window. Dawn, and my wake-up call, had long since past. A look at the alarm clock instantly told me I was almost hopelessly late for my flight. I leapt from the bed, adrenalin pumping. She awoke as I started dressing quickly. She rose in the bed with green eyes and pink nipples staring back at me. Her face registered her sour disappointment.

She was headed back to Ireland, with a later flight, so she was in no hurry. But it was clear that she was hurt and wanted me to stay. I didn't even have time for the most cursory of lame excuses.

Nevertheless, I told her "I have to go, if I don't make this flight I don't know what I'll do."

I didn't even say 'goodbye.' I grabbed the rest of my clothes and ran for my room and baggage. Two minutes later, I threw my room key at the desk attendant, not bothering with a receipt. I didn't make it to the shuttle bus on time. I didn't make it to the plane on time. I was at the air terminal ticket counter, trying to get a later flight, when the explosion went off.

*******

At 10:55 am Central European time Lufthansa flight LH426 from Frankfurt to Philadelphia took off. At 10:56 am less than a mile out from the airport a suicide bomber from the Hamburger Terrorzelle of Al Qaeda detonated a twenty pound package of SEMTEX explosives in the cargo compartment. The well-disguised package was designated as automotive repair parts on the bill of lading. The passenger and the explosives came from opposite ends of the airport — passenger and air freight — joined together in the air by a radio activated detonator, a garage door opener, not unlike the IED bombs frequently used in the Operation Enduring Freedom theater of operations.

The Terrorzelle had waited for the right opportunity to make a statement. The use of civilian aircraft made it easy to target large numbers of Americans, especially with soldiers on board. The mess caused by the weather made for plenty of security lapses the terrorists could capitalize upon. 336 passengers and 15 flight crew were aboard. There were no survivors. Among the dead were sixty soldiers returning home from Afghanistan. Since World War II, only the 1985 Gander plane crash (248) and the Beirut bombings (241) killed more U.S. service members in a single event. Mysteriously, though 60 soldiers were on the passenger manifest, only 59 distinct bodies were found. Major Jackson Covington was listed among the dead, but never identified.

********

Jack saw the plane break up in the air from the airport terminal. He vomited into the nearest trash receptacle. His heart was broken. So much senseless death. He dropped his plane tickets in the trash with the former contents of his stomach and stumbled back to the taxi stand. Tears streamed down his face as he returned to the hotel, and chose to walk the ten flights of stairs back to Siobhan's room. He was sweaty, wild-eyed and disheveled when he got to her room.

She greeted him at the door, completely nude. Siobhan looked like a column of pearlescent, naked marble...she could have been Lot's wife. Her eyes flashed, not the welcome oceanic green, but black as night.

"Welcome back, Jack," she said, as she pulled what was left of the broken man back into her arms. She kissed his mouth hard, biting his lip until he tasted the metallic flavor of his own blood.

She saved his life but stole his soul. There was no going home.