Fly Away by Lynn Austin

Author:Lynn Austin
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: christian lit, lynn austin
Publisher: Lynn Austin

*****

Mike finished the preflight checks on his Beechcraft Staggerwing as the brightly painted Rainbow Society van pulled up near the hangar. He wiped his hands on his coveralls and walked over to greet the driver, a petite, cheerful woman in her 40s.

“Hello, Mr. Dolan, I’m Ann Wilson. We talked on the phone this morning.”

“Yes. Nice to meet you, Ma’am.”

“I want to apologize again for giving you such short notice. I hope we didn’t spoil any plans you had for today, but . . .” Her voice dropped to a whisper. “Ryan’s leukemia is no longer in remission. The doctors expect a very rapid decline.”

“No apologies necessary. I understand.” She had no idea how well he understood. “My plane is ready whenever you are.”

Mrs. Wilson slid open the van door and lowered a frail boy in a wheelchair down by hydraulic ramp. A nurse and another woman, probably the boy’s mother, hovered nearby.

“Mr. Dolan, this is Ryan Mitchell and his mother, Cathy.”

“Glad to meet you. Come right this way, the plane’s all ready to fly.” A stout nurse in a crisp uniform wheeled Ryan across the tarmac to the Beechcraft. Mike lifted him into the left-hand seat of the cockpit. The boy felt as light as air, his bones ready to poke through his pale skin. “Is this your first lesson, Ryan?”

“Yeah.”

“Well, the pilot always sits here on the left. Are you ladies coming too?” Ryan’s mother and the nurse stood beside the plane, waiting for Mike to help them on board.

“No!” Ryan shook his head emphatically. “I don’t want them to. I want to go alone. Just me and Mr. Dolan.”

Mike remembered the humiliation and helplessness he felt after his last cancer surgery. He had hated having everyone hovering around him too. He draped his arm around Mrs. Mitchell’s shoulder and gently steered her away from the plane.

“Let me take him up alone, all right? We’ll be fine. If there’s any problem, I promise we’ll land right away.” When she was out of the way, he waved his cap and quickly climbed into the copilot’s seat, shutting the door before anyone could argue. He gave Ryan a wink and a “thumbs-up.” Ryan grinned as the ladies retreated to the van.

“OK, now. Before we take off I want you to get familiar with all the controls.”

“I already know most of them. That’s the turn and bank indicator and that’s the altimeter.”

“Hey, that’s right!”

“I have a flight simulator on my computer, so I fly all the time.”

“That’s great. You’re way ahead of the game then.”

“I really wanted to fly a jet.”

“So I heard! Actually, they’re basically the same, but it’s a lot easier to learn on a small aircraft. Most jet pilots start out just like this, you know. If you make a mistake at 150 miles an hour, you’ve got a little more time to correct it than you do at Mach 1.”

“Yeah, I guess you’re right. I crashed on my simulator all the time when I was first learning.”

“Well, try to remember that this is for real, OK?” Mike said with a grin.

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