East Wind Returns by Grasso William Peter

Author:Grasso, William Peter [Grasso, William Peter]
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Published: 2011-03-19T23:00:00+00:00

John is far from lounging anywhere. As he looks directly down into the eye of Typhoon Louise, he guesses he has another 60 miles--or 20 minutes--of flying before the winds at lower altitudes would be less than cyclonic strength; he prays the winds at his current altitude are not pushing him off course. Other than the blue-green patch of sea visible through the typhoon’s eye, he can see nothing on the earth’s surface, just the swirling bands of storm clouds below.

The propeller governor on the number 2 engine continues to give him fits but he has developed a routine for dealing with it, his left hand cycling that governor’s circuit breaker, then fine-tuning the rpm with its manual override switch. This enables him to give at least some attention to the myriad other aspects of safe flight and steal an occasional glance at the photo of Marge that he always flies with now, tucked in the corner of the instrument panel. She seems so happy in the picture, in her brand new dress uniform on some stateside post, like a schoolgirl, bubbly and full of youthful joy, not a woman whose life has now been darkened by a year of war. He realizes he is more worried about her safety than his own at the moment.

Those fuel gauges…God, they can’t be right! He doesn’t know this airplane like his own; it would be easy to be misled by mechanical quirks. Number 49 seems to be using fuel more quickly than John had calculated. He wishes there had been time to fuel the drop tanks before departing. Empty, they were nothing but drag, and he had released them a while back when he first became suspicious of her thirst for fuel. The left tank had initially refused to release; it finally fell away on the fifth actuation of the toggle switch. Each successive try on that switch had been more frustrated and forceful than the preceding one. I’m lucky it dropped before I broke the damn toggle off! He had eaten the chocolate bars before going on oxygen, but despite the quick energy boost, they only made him realize how hungry he really was.

It occurs to him he has not once scanned for enemy fighters, a habit he thought was indelibly stamped in his subconscious. He comforts himself by thinking: I guess deep down I don’t believe any Japs would be hanging around a typhoon, even the ones real close in Formosa.

But the wishful thinking wears off quickly: That’s just dumb. I’m here…why can’t they be here, too? Pay attention, you idiot!

As John clears the massive storm, it is bringing its full fury down on Marge. The medical staff, now back inside the Quonset hut with their newest patients, tries to clean up as best they can. Marge especially needs to get out of her gasoline-soaked fatigues and rinse her body. This is not easy in a hut crowded with men, but the exhausted yet resourceful nurses quickly fabricate a curtain behind which they are free to disrobe and wash.

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