“I can’t imagine living through a plane crash.”
An unvoiced scream echoed loudly through her head.
She remembered!
Screaming metal. Screaming people. Smoke, dense and black. Then flames, and stark terror.
She had automatically performed the emergency instructions drilled into her by hundreds of flight attendants on as many flights.
Once she had escaped the burning fuselage, she began running blindly through a world bathed in red blood and black smoke. Even though it was agonizing to run, she did so, clutching—
Clutching what? She remembered it was something precious—something she had to carry to safety.
She remembered falling. As she had gone down, she had taken what she had then believed to be her last look at the world. She hadn’t even felt the pain of colliding with the hard ground. By then she had been enveloped by oblivion, which until now had protected her from the agony of remembering.
“Doctor!”
“What is it?”
“Her heartbeat has escalated dramatically.”
“Okay, let’s take her down a bit. Mrs. Rutledge,” the doctor said imperiously, “calm down. Everything is all right. There is nothing to worry about.”
“Dr. Martin, Mr. Rutledge just arrived.”
“Keep him outside until we’ve stabilized her.”
“What’s the matter?” The new voice seemed to come from miles away, but carried a ring of authority.
“Mr. Rutledge, please give us a few—”
“Carole?”
She was suddenly aware of him. He was very close, bending over her, speaking to her with soft reassurance. “You’re going to be fine. I know you’re frightened and worried, but you’re going to be all right. So is Mandy, thank God. She has a few broken bones and some superficial burns on her arms. Mom’s staying in the hospital room with her. She’s going to be fine. Hear me, Carole? You and Mandy survived, and that’s what’s important now.”
There was a bright fluorescent light directly behind his head, so his features were indistinct, but she could piece together enough strong features to form a vague impression of what he looked like. She clung to each comforting word he spoke. And because he spoke them with such conviction, she believed them.
She reached for his hand—or rather, tried to. He must have sensed her silent plea for human contact because he placed his hand lightly upon her shoulder.
Her anxiety began to wane at his touch, or perhaps because the powerful sedative that had been injected into her IV began to take effect. She allowed herself to be lured, feeling safer somehow by having this stranger with the compelling voice beside her, within reach.
“She’s drifting off. You can leave now, Mr. Rutledge.”
“I’m staying.”
She closed her eye, blotting out his blurred image. The drug was seductive. It gently rocked her like a small boat, lulling her into the safe harbor of uncaring.
Who is Mandy? she wondered.
Was she supposed to know this man who referred to her as Carole?
Why did everyone keep calling her Mrs. Rutledge?
Did everybody think she was married to him?
They were wrong, of course.
She didn’t even know him.