stop it or the lethal crash that waited for her. With the last bit of her willpower Mandy turned to Sutter, forcing herself to speak.
“S-Sutter, p-please! I’m t-terrified of f-flying!“
“Cute, real cute,“ Sutter said curtly, stuffing Mandy through the fuselage door with more muscle than ceremony. “You’re so terrified that you flew halfway around the world on one plane and then flew up the length of the Australian continent on another, right? So knock off the bad comedy and get your butt in the damn seat.“
He boosted himself in right behind Mandy, sat her firmly in her seat just behind the pilot and flopped down in the seat next to her. The sound of the engines changed in pitch to a mechanical scream. Mandy only wished she could scream, as well, but her mouth was too dry, her throat too constricted.
“S-Sutter…“
He hadn’t heard her aching whisper. She grabbed his wrist, trying to make him understand.
“Listen, honey,“ he snarled, jerking free. “I haven’t slept in three days, I haven’t bathed in a week and the last thing I ate was a lizard charred in a camp fire. I’m sure as hell in no mood for any more of your silly jokes. Give it a rest!“
Mandy tried to speak again but her mouth was too dry, the engines had become too loud, and the earth itself was hurtling away beneath her. Within minutes the plane turned and headed out over the sea. She closed her eyes and prayed that she would die in the crash rather than be trapped alive in the fuselage, sinking, drowning, no one to hear her screams but a dead man who had never loved her.
Chapter 4
To Mandy the sound and smell and feel of the plane were part of a nightmare revisited. There were vibrations shaking her, too much noise for a scream to be heard and no voice left with which to scream, no strength, nothing but the empty sky above and the uncaring sea below.
Nightmare and memory became one and the same, hammering at her, shaking her, until all she could do was endure as the devastating past rose up and overwhelmed her….
Mandy wheeled her bike off the early-afternoon ferry to Catalina Island. She stepped onto the left pedal and swung her leg easily over the seat, feeling happy and healthy and very much alive. Early summer clouds swelled silently overhead, pushed up from the Mexican tropics by a southerly wind. The unusual humidity didn’t bother Mandy. Nothing could bother her today. Humming softly, smiling at people she passed, Mandy began pedaling toward the campground that was halfway up the island, closer to the tiny airstrip than to the small resort town of Avalon.
She pedaled faster than usual, eager to give Andrew the good news. Her husband had been unusually moody lately. His research hadn’t been going well. At least, that was what he had blamed his bleak silences and sudden outbursts on in the past. Once she had thought Andrew’s dark mood had to do more with the fact that his forty-second birthday had come and gone – placing him securely within that dread territory called middle age – with no baby in sight despite nine months of trying. But when she had mentioned his age and lack of a child as a possible source of his temper, he had stormed out of the house, leaving her to wait up until 3:00 a.m. when he had come in smelling of alcohol and smoke from nameless bars.
That had been the first time he had come home in the early hours of the morning, but not the last. It had happened more and more frequently during the past nine months. Andrew’s forty-third birthday – and their fourth wedding anniversary – was tonight. That was why Mandy had begged, wheedled and bullied the doctor to get an early answer from the lab so that she could surprise her husband by arriving early on the island that lay only twenty-six miles off the coast of California.
Mandy and Andrew had honeymooned on Catalina, diving along its steep, rocky sides, seeing ocean life that was far more varied and abundant than the marine life to be
“S-Sutter, p-please! I’m t-terrified of f-flying!“
“Cute, real cute,“ Sutter said curtly, stuffing Mandy through the fuselage door with more muscle than ceremony. “You’re so terrified that you flew halfway around the world on one plane and then flew up the length of the Australian continent on another, right? So knock off the bad comedy and get your butt in the damn seat.“
He boosted himself in right behind Mandy, sat her firmly in her seat just behind the pilot and flopped down in the seat next to her. The sound of the engines changed in pitch to a mechanical scream. Mandy only wished she could scream, as well, but her mouth was too dry, her throat too constricted.
“S-Sutter…“
He hadn’t heard her aching whisper. She grabbed his wrist, trying to make him understand.
“Listen, honey,“ he snarled, jerking free. “I haven’t slept in three days, I haven’t bathed in a week and the last thing I ate was a lizard charred in a camp fire. I’m sure as hell in no mood for any more of your silly jokes. Give it a rest!“
Mandy tried to speak again but her mouth was too dry, the engines had become too loud, and the earth itself was hurtling away beneath her. Within minutes the plane turned and headed out over the sea. She closed her eyes and prayed that she would die in the crash rather than be trapped alive in the fuselage, sinking, drowning, no one to hear her screams but a dead man who had never loved her.
Chapter 4
To Mandy the sound and smell and feel of the plane were part of a nightmare revisited. There were vibrations shaking her, too much noise for a scream to be heard and no voice left with which to scream, no strength, nothing but the empty sky above and the uncaring sea below.
Nightmare and memory became one and the same, hammering at her, shaking her, until all she could do was endure as the devastating past rose up and overwhelmed her….
Mandy wheeled her bike off the early-afternoon ferry to Catalina Island. She stepped onto the left pedal and swung her leg easily over the seat, feeling happy and healthy and very much alive. Early summer clouds swelled silently overhead, pushed up from the Mexican tropics by a southerly wind. The unusual humidity didn’t bother Mandy. Nothing could bother her today. Humming softly, smiling at people she passed, Mandy began pedaling toward the campground that was halfway up the island, closer to the tiny airstrip than to the small resort town of Avalon.
She pedaled faster than usual, eager to give Andrew the good news. Her husband had been unusually moody lately. His research hadn’t been going well. At least, that was what he had blamed his bleak silences and sudden outbursts on in the past. Once she had thought Andrew’s dark mood had to do more with the fact that his forty-second birthday had come and gone – placing him securely within that dread territory called middle age – with no baby in sight despite nine months of trying. But when she had mentioned his age and lack of a child as a possible source of his temper, he had stormed out of the house, leaving her to wait up until 3:00 a.m. when he had come in smelling of alcohol and smoke from nameless bars.
That had been the first time he had come home in the early hours of the morning, but not the last. It had happened more and more frequently during the past nine months. Andrew’s forty-third birthday – and their fourth wedding anniversary – was tonight. That was why Mandy had begged, wheedled and bullied the doctor to get an early answer from the lab so that she could surprise her husband by arriving early on the island that lay only twenty-six miles off the coast of California.
Mandy and Andrew had honeymooned on Catalina, diving along its steep, rocky sides, seeing ocean life that was far more varied and abundant than the marine life to be
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