A coltish wave skipped the front of the wing and splashed my cheek. I tasted salt.
And that maybe I was already beginning to hallucinate a little.
It all just seemed too unfair.
I had imaged my reuniting with Clancy a thousand times in as many different ways but not once anything like this. I’d agonized about losing her…knew the brief thrill of finding her, the bigger thrill of her finally remembering who I was…and now the agonizing of losing her again. I wondered distantly that if the other two should perish and I was somehow picked up alive…if I’d even want to live…
I had about two trillion things I wanted to say to Clancy, another trillion I wanted to ask her. And I could think of nothing at the moment but our immediate plight, increasing with every tick of my watch.
I wanted so much to kiss her, to hold her. And was so afraid it would be interpreted as a gesture of finality…and fear.
What could I possibly say to her?
What could I possibly do?
Was there something I was supposed to do? When the waves finally lapped at our knees and the solid feel of the wing fell away beneath us on its long journey to the bottom of the sea, would the suction pull of the heavy craft take us with it? Should I suggest we take to the water now—swim a safe distance away? But every minute in the cold water was another minute closer to over-exposure…and slow, agonizing death. Should I have brought along the gun I’d seen on the floor of the cockpit? Would it have had enough shells for all three of us? Did I shoot Clancy first, or Mitzi? Could I shoot either of them?
I shivered once convulsively, but not from the cold.
Be brave. Be brave for them. Don’t show how scared you are, not even a trace of it. Fear is contagious.
But I didn’t want to die.
Not like this. Swallowed up and forgotten.
Please, God, not like this.
But the big plane hung in there, sinking only incrementally if sinking at all. She somehow stayed afloat and rode the easy waves. And it was still early--bright daylight; another plane or ship might spot us.
And, incredibly, an hour later we were still there, alive and relatively dry if mildly sea sick on the stubbornly rocking wing.
It was another ten minutes or so before I spotted the first fins…
THE END
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