Edge of Darkness

By: CNJ

PG-13

3: February 2023, Part 3

Mary Anne:

As the plane took off from Atlanta, Owen dozed off and I pulled out my laptop and did a little writing for an article for Scholastic Monthly.

Besides teaching, I write occasional articles for various magazines. Some of my friends have suggested that I write a book. I've thought about that, but haven't decided what kind of book it would be.

I smiled softly as I remembered that Mallory is an author of teen books. I see her books at Borders' or Barnes and Noble often.

She recently started a teen series on a teenage writers' club. One of the characters is based on Jessi, who's now a ballet dancer.

Just as we were flying over Virginia, I had to pee, so I saved what I'd written, closed my laptop, put it away and headed to the bathroom in the back.

I don't know when I sensed something was wrong. As I wiped myself and flushed the toilet, I felt something jolt a little. I leaned on the wall, wondering if we were flying through a storm or something. In the mirror, I saw that my brown eyes were wide and worried.

"All right, Mary Anne, don't panic..." I told my reflection. I smoothed my bangs down and ran my fingers through my shoulder-length straight dark hair.

I heard the loudspeaker telling everyone to be seated and put on their seatbelts. My stomach tightened and I shot out of the tiny bathroom and to my seat.

The cabin seemed to be rolling back and forth. My hands shook as I sat back and put on my seatbelt. Our fellow passengers had mostly fallen silent, but a few were frantically whispering back and forth.

"Wh-what's going on?" I asked Owen, who was now awake and putting on his seatbelt.

"I don't know..." he whispered. "I think it's some kind of mechanical trouble."

Two flight attendants booked up the aisle, making sure all seatbelts were on, then disappeared into the front. Something about the way they moved told me something was very wrong.

I saw it was growing dark outside and the clouds seemed unusually close. I was aware of a low blowing sound that rose into a whistling that grew progressively louder.

Owen and I kept our eyes on the seat belt light flashing like a warning beacon. My heart started to pound. Outside, the whistling progressed to a low howl. The lights started to flicker, then dim to an eerie yellow.

"We are experiencing an emergency breakdown..." a voice came over the loudspeaker. "Place the oxygen masks over your faces and lean forward..."

I broke out into a cold sweat as Owen and I put on our masks. Then we clung to each other for life as screams erupted all around us.

The plane shuddered violently and we heard a loud sound between a crackle and a crash, and several thuds. A few people panicked and shot out of their seats. "SIT DOWWN!" someone yelled.

"We're gonna all die!" someone else screamed.

Owen and I huddled close. Owen had his eyes closed, but I could picture my kids with my eyes open. Oh, my poor girls! We were dying and they'd be...Dawn would take them, but Owen and I would never see them grow up...no, no...oh, God!

We were lurching and tossing and the crashes combined with the screaming got louder and louder until my ears began to hurt. I couldn't scream; I couldn't cry; I was numb with stark terror and I knew Owen was too.

He leaned hard into me and whispered, "I just love you Mary Anne, my wife..."

I love you, Owen, my darling husband...I could barely mouth out. My voice wasn't working.

The awful yellow haze began to blur and faded into blackness...I was jerked forward painfully as there was a final WHOOOSH and an awful thud.

Suddenly everything, everything was absolutely still. Then screaming started again.

I struggled to my feet and saw nothing but a hazy gray blur. Owen! I silently screamed my lips moving, but no sound coming out.

Black shapes around me moved in a frenzy as passengers moved to get out of the plane. I groped until I found Owen still on his seat, but slumped over.

"Fire..." someone cried.

Yes, I saw wispy black smoke billowing from the front and knew I had to get Owen out. I struggled to lift my husband as a cold sick feeling settled in my stomach. Slowly, slowly stumbling several times, I dragged him up the aisle, my breathing ragged, a sharp pain shooting down my neck. I ignored it and kept pulling. Please, please let there be an exit.

I groped to where people were moving toward. Once someone, probably panicked, knocked me down and when I sat up, I saw the hazy dark blue of sky. Come on, we're almost there! I silently told myself and Owen.

I tumbled out the doorway and he and I both fell a few feet and landed in snow. I lay there, hearing more screaming, but part of it was sirens.

"Owen..." I whispered. "Can you hear me?" I looked down and saw my husband's face. It was completely oddly peaceful...no expression. "Ohhh...NO, Owen...PLEASE!" my voice came out in a high wail. "You can't be..." My stomach contracted painfully.

No nightmare. It's real. My husband, Owen is dead, and there are still people trapped in that plane. I could see flames shooting out, spreading faster. With several others, I held the door open, numb and mute, then dragged other bodies out, wondering if they were dead or alive.

"Ms. Spiser?" Dr. Ralin looked down at me. "I'm sorry...but...your husband is gone."

I nodded. My eyes stung with tears. They fell when I got to the hospital and identified Owen Spiser. The awful finality of his death crashed into me and I sobbed and sobbed until my chest hurt.

My legs went weak and slightly spastic and the next thing I knew, Dr. Ralin had to grab me to keep me from falling. She and a nurse each put an arm around me and led me down to hall.

As I leaned on them, I realized how much my stomach hurt. It was more than my stomach; it was just above my stomach. I also had shooting pains in my neck and could hardly lift my right arm. Dr. Ralin lay me down and examined me, feeling my rib area, then my neck.

"It looks like whiplash," the nurse whispered.

"I'd better x-ray her for broken ribs too," Dr Ralin nodded. "...badly bruised..." I could hear their voices jumble together as I drifted off, whether in a faint or sleep I don't know. I groggily wondered how many other crash victims had been brought here to this hospital.

Mona:

I was tense as I watched the news about the plane crash in Virginia. I was hoping against hope that it wasn't the one Mary Anne and Owen were on. It was a flight from Atlanta to Kennedy Airport in New York City. The 2:30 flight that Mary Anne said she'd catch on the way back.

Thank the planets Tam and Alma were outside in the snow with Zara and another friend Tam's age, Rhoda. What would I tell them if Mary Anne and Owen HAD been on that flight and they hadn't...it was almost too scary to think about.

Mary Anne had made out a will that if anything should happen to Owen and her, I'd be the one to take them. Much as I love Mary Anne's daughters, I didn't want to think of something like that happening as a result of tragedy.

I called Kristy and Dawn on two lines. They'd seen the news about the plane crash. And this was on top of what was happening with Stacey now with her son being killed.

It was a weird, awful afternoon and everything seemed unreal. A gut feeling told me that Mary Anne had been in that plane. I just hoped they'd be all right. Yes, frighteningly, the newscaster said that it was flight 209, the very flight Mary Anne and Owen were on that had crashed in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia; she also announced that there had been some survivors.

Stacey:

"We're on our way," Kristy and Claudia told me over the phone that dark night that my son died. "We've called our other friends and we're all going to be there for you." They also told me that they'd contacted Abby and Anna Stevenson in New Jersey and they were also on their way.

"Thank...you," I whispered. I was unusually cold and Syrie leaned into me. After I hung up, we both wept silently. I don't know how long we sat like that. I could have been minutes; it could have been hours. Nothing seemed real, even the kitchen looked like a museum display. I barely even remembered that last few hours since I'd identified my son's body, then headed home. My ears were ringing, then the ringing got louder.

"Want me to get the door?" Syrie whispered.

"The door..." I sat up and through my trance, realized that part of the ringing was the doorbell. "Oh. yes, we should..." we got up and peered out through the peephole. It was Mom. I opened the door and Mom, Syrie and I hugged. She was a big relief and I collapsed into her, fresh tears coming. Her arms were just about the only things that felt real to me and she actually lifted me up and carried me to the living room couch, then pulled the afghan over me.

"I can't believe L-Larry's gone..." I wept.

"Me either..." Mom rasped, stroking me through the thick afghan. She reached out and put an arm around Syrie as well. The three of us clung to each other like life rafts in this awful storm.

Mona:

I'd been on and off the phone with Dawn in Arizona, then with Kristy and Claudia, who were flying to Vermont to be with Stacey.

All of us crossed our fingers for Mary Anne and Owen. By then, Tamara and Alma knew what was going on and their eyes were wide and worried. We'd tried eating dinner without much success.

Tam and Alma have the same big brown eyes as their mom. Alma has her mom's facial features while Tamara has Owen's features.

How I wished I could promise them their parents were going to be all right...but I couldn't. The call from the airline official came at around midnight.

Mary Anne had survived and was at the Blue Ridge hospital with mild injuries, but Owen was dead. Right away I called her stepsister back.

Kristy and Claudia were on their flight, so I wouldn't be able to reach them until they landed. So were Abby and Anna.

"I'm on my way," Dawn told me as soon as I gave her the news. "Oh, God, Stacey and Mary Anne are both really going to need us." Oh, Owen! I thought. I can't believe you're gone! I couldn't believe Mary Anne was now widowed. I'd be telling her girls that their dad had just died. Oh, poor Mary Anne! Poor Tam and Alma!

It wasn't until the next day, noon, that I was able to hear from Mary Anne. Thank goodness she was being released from the hospital now and was on her way home. Her voice sounded very thin with an edge of terror.

"How's Stacey holding up?" she asked.

"Hard to say," I told her. "Her mom, Kristy and Claudia are there and Abby and Anna are on their way there."

"Good...she needs support..."

"So do you, Mary Anne," I reassured her. "We're all going to be there for you and your girls too."

"I j-just...want to hold my girls..." Mary Anne made small choking noises as she sobbed. "Do they know about..."

"Yes, I told them. They know you're all right. And Dawn is on her way here too and is picking you up. Hang on, Mary Anne, we're going to get you through this..." I said a few more reassuring things to her.

I'd notified Greta and Wyser as to what had happened as well. She and several other survivors would be on a special shuttle plane that would get here in an hour.

But I knew Mary Anne was terrified. I knew all of us had to be there for her. Another BSC re-union is on the way, but for tragic reasons, I realized ironically. Our last BSC re-union had been last August.