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THE SEAPLANE DIPPED and bounced. Hank tried his best to keep it steady, but the controls were damaged beyond the point of repair. He had bled all over the place. I knew he was going to die soon. No doubt about it.
I held my hands over his wounds. One over the hole in his back, and one over the hole in his chest.
“Ya gotta get da girls outta da plane,” Hank said to me, breathlessly.
I said, “Can’t you land us? Or tell me how?”
“I’ve lived a long life. My kids are grown. My wife died two years ago. Dat bastard killed da last friend dat I had in dis world. I’m dyin’. Let me go.”
I moved my hand and took a peek at his chest. He was right. Blood splattered and pooled out of the wound. There was no going back for him. Not under these conditions. Even a doctor onboard wouldn’t be able to help him. He’d have only a small chance at a hospital. He wasn’t going to make it.
He grabbed my hand with his and squeezed. He said, “Let go.”
I nodded, pictured my mom, and then I let him go. He gripped his chest and tried to stop the bleeding as best he could.
He said, “I’m gonna fly low above da lake. You take da girls and jump out. And don’t wait. I won’t last.” Then he took the plane down into a slow dive.
I grabbed his shoulder and said, “I’m glad I met you.” I turned to the girls and said, “Ladies, listen up. The plane isn’t going to land. We’ve got to jump.”
Faye was almost fully alert. The drugs had worn off for her. So at least I had her help.
Then one of the other girls seemed to be more cognizant of what was going on. I confirmed that she really was Ann Gables. This was the first time I had really looked at her. She was still alive. Skinny, but alive.
She asked, “Jump?”
“Ann, there’s no time to explain, but you’re going to have to jump and swim,” I said.
Faye grabbed her and said, “Remember me? It’s Faye. We’re free now, but we have to jump from this plane. Can you swim?”
Ann’s face came alive and alert at Faye’s words. She said, “We’re free? Yes, I can swim.”
I said, “Good.” Then I said to Hank, “We’re ready.”
Hank took us down above the lake. Thunder rumbled above us.
He shouted back to us, “All right. Head all da way ta da back. Jump in ten seconds. No time ta waste.”
He flew low over the lake like he was going to land. I pushed the ladies toward the rear. I grabbed the third girl who was still woozy, and Faye helped Ann. At the rear of the plane, we felt the starboard engine explode in a sudden wave of fire and wind. The plane lurched through the air, and Faye and Ann both flew out the back before they were ready. I grabbed the other girl and leaped out after them.
We dropped through the air for not even three seconds and then crashed through the surface of the lake like boulders. We sank several feet down, and I started swimming with one arm. I pulled the girl with the other. I swam and paddled upward through the water with all my strength. I kicked and kicked. After a long moment, I burst through the surface. I filled my lungs with the warm, damp air. I sucked down the oxygen like it was my first time breathing.
The girl floated next to me, unconscious. Then suddenly, she was awake and completely confused. Second nature kicked in and she treaded water on her own. She coughed and gasped and stayed quiet. Then she started swimming away from me toward the shore. She might’ve thought I had abducted her or was trying to drown her. Neither would’ve surprised me. But she was alive. That was all that mattered.
I turned and swam in the opposite direction toward the other shore. Not sure why. I just followed my instinct, which was to paddle to the other side. I kicked and paddled and swam as hard as I could.
She said, Do the right thing.
That was what I heard over and over as I swam.
Do the right thing.
Eventually, I reached the shore. I pulled myself up onto the rocks with my arms. I didn’t stand up. I just rolled over and lay on my back. I stared up at the sky.
The sun had broken through the storm clouds. Thunder still roared every other minute, but the sunlight was there. Then there was one loud, thunderous sound that was a little different from the rumbling thunder. It was much closer. I looked up in the direction of the noise and saw that it was the seaplane. It had exploded above the town of Black Rock. Pieces of the plane fell to the earth in a rainstorm of shrapnel and broken metal fragments. I thought about Hank, and then I thought nothing else.
I sat up and looked around the lake for signs of Faye Matlind. I didn’t have to search long. Directly across from me, on the opposite shore, were all three of the women—the drugged one I had jumped from the plane with, Ann Gables, and Faye Matlind. They were holding each other and hugging like long-lost sisters who had survived a horrible plane crash and more, which they had.
I smiled.
Do the right thing.
I lay back down on the hard stones and closed my eyes. I had never felt anything more comfortable in my life than that bed of rocks.