Why Planes Crash by David Soucie

Author:David Soucie
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Skyhorse Publishing

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

Paradise Lost

“I’ve suspected it for a while,” Jill said, “but I wasn’t even sure I was going to tell you.”

“How could you not tell me?” I said. “Don’t you think I would’ve noticed?”

Jill began crying softly. “I just didn’t want to tell you. I want the baby, but we can’t afford to have it here, Dave. Not if I can’t work.” I wanted to tell her she was wrong, that everything would work out, but all I could do was hold her. “When I tell the ad agency, they’ll fire me. They as much as told me that when I got hired.” Her eyes were cast down and her chin trembling. “I’m sorry for keeping a secret from you.”

I held her chin and lifted her face. “You don’t have anything to be sorry for. Besides, I have my own secret.”

“What do you mean?”

I finally told her about going to the FAA Academy.

“Shit, shit, shit.” More tears flowed down her face. “Things just go from bad to worse, don’t they?”

“Just tell me what you want, Jill.”

“I wanna go home,” she said. “I’m so scared being here on the island. I feel like I can barely breathe.” Jill didn’t like island blackouts and being separated from her family. In short, she hated living on an island.

The next day, I scoured the personnel manual, looking for a way to get reassigned to Denver. Any hopes I had were dashed as soon as I read the section on training: “After completion of training at the Academy, the employee must remain at his current assignment for no less than one (1) year.” If I went to the academy now, I would be ineligible for a transfer, and if I refused to go, I still wouldn’t get a transfer. There was only one solution.

“I’m going to quit the FAA,” I told Jill that evening.

She listened to all my reasons. When I finished, she reminded me of why I was with the FAA—I wanted to make flying safer. I believed that I could. When I insisted that quitting was the only answer to our problems, she encouraged me to at least complete the training. “It’ll look good on your résumé,” she pointed out.

A few days later, Tyler and I accompanied Jill to the doctor’s office for her first pregnancy checkup. It was a beautiful and exciting day. The nurse greased up Jill’s belly and rotated the ultrasound wand across it.

“Is that it?” Tyler’s eyes were glued to the display.

The nurse didn’t reply. Instead, she set the ultrasound wand on the table, asked us to wait, and said she’d be right back. Jill looked up at me. “This isn’t good.”

I squeezed her hand and held it while we waited. When the nurse returned, Jill’s doctor was with her. He was young and handsome and spoke softly. “Nurse, would you show our dashing young man here to the playroom?” Tyler reluctantly went with the nurse, while the doctor moved the ultrasound wand over Jill’s abdomen again. I could see her concern intensifying.

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