"Got the passports?"
"Check!"
"Boarding passes?"
"Yes, Mum."
"Ok, well have a really good flight and call me in Los Angeles!"
"Will do. Love you Mum!"
"Love you too, bye."
"Bye."
Jill looked at me impatiently as I hung up my phone. "C'mon and help me finish; Connor's going to be here soon."
I grinned. "Oh, how nice of him to come see us off. Even though it's three in the morning."
"Neal's coming too. Clam up and come're."
I clammed up... and helped her return the furniture to its original places.
"Looks just like when we moved in."
"Yeah, except for a few things..."
"We patched up the holes in the wall."
The doorbell interrupted our conversation and I grinned at my friend again. "Your man's here, better answer it."
Pulling a face, she walked to the door and I finished packing our books into a box that sat on the kitchen table.
"Hi Susie."
I turned around. "Neal... hi! Thanks for coming to see us off."
"Of course. Need help with that?"
"Sure."
We got the car packed and Neal drove us to the airport. At the security gate, we gave Connor a few last instructions about the boxes that we were having him keep for us. As Jill and Connor said goodbye, Neal pulled me aside and handed me something.
"Hey, here's my phone number, e-mail, stuff like that. I don't know if you've still got it or not, but now you've got it again."
I smiled, "I still had it, but thank you."
He returned my smile. "Of course. Well send me an e-mail and we can talk and... get to know each other again."
"Sounds good. I'll e-mail you when we get there."
"Great."
"Ready Sue?"
"Yeah, I'm coming. Bye Neal."
He wrapped me in a hug, "Bye, Susie. It's nice to see you again and everything."
"You too. See you in a few months."
I woke up and checked my watch; we had about an hour left before we landed in Los Angeles. Then a switch to the international terminal and a couple of hours before our flight to Wellington. I glanced at Jill, who was still sleeping. I stuck my hands in my sweatshirt pocket and felt something paper inside. I pulled it out, confused, and then realized that it was the paper that Neal had handed me. I opened it and looked it over, just because I was bored. E-mail, cell phone, address. I noticed that it was a New York City address. So he'd moved away from California sometime in the past two years. I hadn't kept track, really. Jill stirred, sat up, and stretched.
"Are we there yet?"
"An hour."
"Ok."
She leaned over, reading the note in my hand.
"Neal?"
"Yeah, he asked if I thought we could have another chance. I said we could try being friends and think about it when we got back."
"Sounds like a good decision."
I looked up at her, knowing I had a pleading look in my eyes. "Do you think so?"
"Sure... you two were good for each other in high school and who knows, maybe you just got engaged too fast. Maybe it was meant to be after all."
I stared down at the note again. "Maybe."
After a few minutes of silence, I shook the thoughts of Neal away and tucked the paper into my wallet.
"What did you and Connor end up deciding?"
"Well we had basically decided to take a break while I'm gone but last night he said unless I really wanted to he didn't really want to. He said he couldn't imagine anyone else for him than me."
I grinned as my friend started to blush.
"Awe, how sweet!"
She flushed even more and slapped my arm. I chuckled.
"He asked what I thought about getting married sometime not long after we got back."
My jaw dropped.
"What?!"
The lady in the seat next to me gave an annoyed grunt and I continued in a frantic whisper.
"When were you going to tell me?!"
She looked prim. "I just did."
I rolled my eyes but grinned and hugged her.
"That's awesome, congratulations."
"We're not engaged or anything. I think he just wanted to prove how serious he was."
"Still, I'm happy for you."
She smiled. "Thanks."
When we landed in Los Angeles, we switched terminals, got food, found our gate, and called our families. Before we realized that the time was up, the attendant was boarding, so we said goodbye and hung up our phones. I sighed shakily, dangerously close to tears.
"This will not be an easy six months."
Jill was in the same situation. "Nope. Maybe we should have gone back home before heading off."
"We didn't have enough money for that."
"I know, but this is going to be a long time without seeing our families at all."
"Let's just not think about it right now, or I'm going to cry. I think we can board now anyway."
I leaned back in the soft seat.
"I love trans-ocean flights. And maybe whoever's sitting here won't turn up."
Jill grinned.
"I wonder if they have anything good on the televisions."
"Yup... all the Harry Potter movies..."
She grinned. "Excellent... that'll get us through the whole trip!"
"I wonder if they serve popcorn on this flight."
Halfway through Goblet of Fire, something broke. That's just what it sounded like... and felt like. The plane lurched and the passengers were jerked forward. The captain's voice sounded over the speaker, cutting through the confusion of voices.
"Ladies and gentlemen, this is Captain Johnson. Please remain calm. We are not in any danger. However, we will have to make an unscheduled stop and since we are now over the Pacific Ocean, please follow the directions of the stewards and put on your life vests. Please brace yourself. Thank you."
Some people panicked, others remained perfectly calm, helping the former with their life vests. Somehow, everyone was seated again and braced themselves for our "unscheduled stop". We must have had a very skillful pilot, because he brought us into land much smoother than I expected, especially with, as I suspected, an engine out. As soon as we landed, the flight attendants were at the emergency exits; deploying the slides/life rafts. It was impressive at how calm they stayed while ushering people down the slide. Once in the water, people clung to one another so they wouldn't get swept away. About half of the passengers were out of the plane when one of the large waves loosened my grip. After that, the ocean seemed suddenly to come alive, tossing our plane around like a leaf. People screamed and held on tighter to each other and whatever part of the plane they could. Then there were search lights and helicopters circled around overhead. Ladders and metal cages were dropped and children were loaded up into the copters. Full ones flew off and people continued to load on. Jill and I hung on as tightly as we could to the plane until we could have a chance to get loaded into something. Another wave slammed into my chest and my hand slipped. Jill's arm was jerked backward and she cried out in pain. I winced, but held on as it was my only chance of staying anywhere near the plane. Another wave slammed into me and I struggled to get a better grip on Jill's arm.
"Susan!"
I barely heard her scream over the noise all around us, but I looked up and saw she only had a couple of fingers still wrapped around the metal. My blood froze as another wave hit us and her hand was ripped from its hold.