Larissa:WOW. This is unbelievable. How are you holding up?
Palesa:Sending prayers. Thinking about you. I hope everything will be okay.
A string of praying hand emojis lit up my screen.
Yanilla:I’ve asked my church friends to pray for Andrew too.
Nobuhle:Sending love! I’m sure everything will be okay.
And then lots of heart emojis lit up my screen.
Sasha:Keep strong! We’re all thinking about you, guys.
Katie:Reach out if there’s anything you need!
I quickly silenced the notifications from the group. I couldn’t have any distractions now. But it had felt nice to have so many people reach out to me like that. I needed to focus now. But my mind was jumping between things. Between images of fiery plane crashes and Andrew and I kissing.
Andrew and I laughing. An exploding fuselage.
Andrew and I collecting shells. Andrew hanging out of the window, his plane in flames, a long drop to the concrete below.
Andrew lying on top of me on the bouncy castle, an inflatable emergency slide.
‘City Tower, this is Flightbird Six Zero Zero.’
His voice pulled me back to reality. Everyone in the room leaned in. The sense of anticipation was palpable.
‘This is City Tower. How are you? How are all the passengers? Crew? What do you want to do?’
‘Crew are having to deal with some pretty panicky passengers but, other than that, they’ve been briefed for emergency landing procedure and crew is standing by.’
‘How many souls on board?’
‘One hundred and four.’
One hundred and four people!My blood ran cold again.
‘We’ve burnt off sufficient fuel and we are ready for approach. Intend to make a full stop landing on this approach, but it could be a go-around.’
‘Try a gravity drop one more time. Please.’ I sounded desperate, and a small laugh came through again.
‘I’ve done it about a hundred times. The gear is not coming down today. But at least I’m landing on my lucky runway.’
‘You are cleared to land on runway seven,’ I said softly, wishing that runway seven would suddenly grow grass, or carpeting, soft padding to absorb the force of his landing.
‘Acknowledge that, City Tower, cleared to land on runway seven, and—’
‘And what?’ I asked.
‘I’m glad it’s you, Pippa.’ His voice was soft, and I didn’t care that everyone around us had leaned in to listen.
‘I’m glad it’s me too, and I, I wanted to . . .’ I looked left and then right. Too many people here. Too many pairs of eyes. Too much of an audience.
‘Your moms wanted me to tell you that they know you can do it,’ I said softly. ‘And I know you can do it too.’ Everyone in the room was nodding.
‘Thanks, Pippa. Wish me luck.’
‘You don’t need luck!’ I shot back. ‘You’ve got this. I know you do!’ And I wanted to say something else too, but didn’t.
