Flying Home by Mary Anne Wilson Page B

definitely, stay warm.”
    Gage pointed at the blankets and she grabbed them. She shook out the top blanket, surprised to find that it sounded like crinkling plastic but felt like thermal material, colored a deep orange. It barely weighed anything. The other one was what she’d call a “real” blanket, soft and heavy, in a pale blue color.
    “You’d better take off your shoes, then settle back and put the orange blanket over the blue blanket.”
    Merry glanced at him, found his eyes still closed, and then followed his instructions. Her boots hit the floor first before she tackled the blankets. Once they were in place, she repositioned herself in the seat. “Now what?”
    “Scoot closer this way, then tuck the blankets around your legs and feet, as far under your body as you can.”
    Closer? She didn’t have to ask what he meant, but felt oddly reluctant to get too close. She slid a few inches in his direction and jumped when he said, “I won’t bite. Promise.”
    He was looking very comfortable, with the blankets up to his chin and his eyes closed. Without saying anything, she moved over until his side was against hers and she could feel his body heat. That was the idea, she knew, and accepted it. “Good,” he murmured. “Much better.”
    Awkwardly, she tucked the blankets all the way around Gage’s other side, then his feet, and then she finally started tucking herself in until she was laying back, feeling as if she was in a cocoon.
    “Done,” she announced. A few minutes passed before she asked the question that was the equivalent of the elephant in the room. “Gage, what happens if they never find us?”
    “They’ll find us.”
    “But what if—?”
    “What if the sun doesn’t come up? Nothing we could do about that, is there?” His voice was low and showed no sign of anger or impatience. “They’ll find us. It’s all up to them now. We got down in one piece,” he finished, ignoring the elephant completely.
    “Yes, yes we did,” she said, feeling grateful. They were both alive and relatively unscathed.
    He caught her off guard by saying, “Sort of like Gilligan’s Island, isn’t it? They started on a three hour tour and look what happened to them. All we had to get through was two hours.”
    But there’s only two of us, she thought, but kept it to herself. Then again, he’d gotten them down, and he seemed to know what he was doing. “Old TV shows aside, what can we do if no one ever shows up?” She needed to say it and she needed to get an answer.
    * * *
    G AGE DESERVED HER prodding after he’d so glibly thrown out the idea before that flying was so much safer than driving. Now, they were living the exception that broke that rule. “Okay, worst case scenario, we’re stuck here and we’ll have to walk out. But we won’t have to face that for a few days, if ever.”
    Gage turned his head to the side until he could see her. She was like reading an open book. She was processing what he’d said, and coming to the conclusion that it might not be all that hopeless. When she finally spoke, he knew he was partially right.
    “So we wait, then find a path to get down the mountain.” Before he could agree and hope she’d drop the subject, she hit him with, “If not, we end up here forever.” He could see the unsteadiness in her chin and tears at the corners of her eyes.
    “No,” he said emphatically. “No!” That got her attention and her eyes widened slightly as she turned more toward him. “We are not here forever. You are going to get back to Wolf Lake to see your kids, and I’m going to get back there to do my job and see my family. It’s that simple. They’ll find us, and we’ll go home.”
    Boy, whatever had hit her in those words hit her hard and she started to sob. With her hands covering her face, she cried like her heart was broken. He tried to shift more toward her, but found even the pills couldn’t stop the pain in his left arm when he moved. Slowly, pacing himself,