“Everyone here is following you guys online. You can do this.”
We hang up, and Esben and I work our way to our seats on this second flight.
“Please have Wi-Fi. Please have Wi-Fi,” he says over and over.
“Any leads from Kerry or Jason?” I rest my head against the window.
He snatches the card from the seat pocket, and this time he smiles. “Not yet. But we’ve got Wi-Fi. Why don’t you try to sleep a bit, and by the time you wake up, I’m going to have something for you.”
I’m too tired and stressed to disagree, so I hand him my coffee. There’s no way he’s going to do anything but stay online for the duration of this flight, so he needs the caffeine more than I do. “Sleep would be good. Esben?” I can’t help but smile. “Steffi would like Dave Grohl and some other celebrities to tweet her.”
“Yeah?” He laughs. “I’ll see what I can do.”
“Also?”
“What is it, sweets?”
I turn my head and look into his eyes. “You’re astounding.”
He runs the back of his hand over my cheek. “No. The world is astounding. I told you people are mostly good. They really are.”
“I just didn’t grasp...” Words truly fail me. “I couldn’t have begun to predict...”
“I know,” he agrees. “As much wonderful stuff as I’ve seen before, this outweighs it all. It’s the silver lining, maybe.”
“It is,” I say firmly. “It is.”
Just after the captain announces we’ve reached cruising altitude, I zonk out and sleep dreamlessly, for which I am grateful. I wake to Esben gently shaking me. We’ve already landed.
“Listen,” he says. “The flight attendant is talking about you and Steffi.”
I rub my eyes. At the front of the cabin, a woman stands, holding the PA. She catches my eye. “This song goes out to Allison and Steffi. Love and peace from the airline and all of our passengers. We’re with you.”
Softly and beautifully, she begins to sing “Amazing Grace.”
Esben holds my hand, and, together, we listen. I inhale sharply when a few passengers join in and again when I realize that the entire cabin is singing. My heart is simultaneously breaking and soaring. The overwhelming level of humanity and care coming from strangers is simply daunting. Because I know this is important, and that I’ll want to see it later, I ask Esben to film it, which he does.
Outside the gate, I find the nearest bathroom, where I splash cold water on my face. I will not cry now. It’s not the time.
As I’m drying my hands, I hear Esben call into the women’s room. “Allison? We’ve got to go. Now!”
I move quickly, and I start running beside him without question.
“We have to get to Midway. It’s about forty minutes from here,” he says. “Flight leaves in fifty-five minutes.”
“Oh no.”
“We just need to haul ass.” He guides us through travelers to a moving walkway where we continue to run and dodge people. “We’ve got a ride, though, and I think you’ll like it.”
This airport is frustratingly huge, and it feels like forever before we reach baggage claim. Suddenly, he stops and casts his eyes over the crowd, searching hard.
“What are we looking for?”
He smiles, bends over to both catch his breath and laugh, and then points. “God, this is nuts. But there.”
A man in a suit and black chauffeur hat is holding up a sign with our names on it.
“A limo? Is that a limo driver?” This is crazy.
