Chapter 20 - Wings of the Morning
The aircraft surged forward, wheels skimming across the smooth tarmac as the airspeed needle climbed through seventy, eighty, ninety knots.
With a gentle, practiced ease of my left wrist, I eased the control yoke back.
The tires broke their bond with the earth.
Instantly, the gentle vibration of the ground vanished, replaced by the sheer, magnificent buoyancy of flight. We rose smoothly into the warm morning air, soaring over the patchwork green fields of Ohio, the sparkling ribbon of the Miami River, and the small roofs of the quiet town below.
"Look, Mommy! Look!" Theo squealed with pure, unrestrained delight, his hands pressed against the plexiglass window. "We're flying! The cars look like little ants!"
Beside him, Barnaby sat propped up against the cockpit dashboard, staring out over the endless horizon.
I leveled the wings at five thousand feet, trimming the aircraft until she flew straight and true with barely a touch on the controls. The air was smooth as glass, clean and crystal clear.
I reached out with my right hand and took Theo's small, warm fingers in mine.
"You like it, sweetie?" I asked, looking across at his glowing, happy face.
"I love it!" Theo laughed, his brown eyes sparkling with the exact same fearless fire that Mark had carried into every mission. "Mommy, can we fly all the way to Madrid again? Can we see another castle?"
"Any castle you want, baby," I replied, a tear of pure, crystalline happiness slipping down my cheek and catching the morning light. "Any castle in the world."
Far below, on the ground, a new chapter of our lives had begun. Arthur was rebuilding his family, the foundation was protecting hundreds of young aviators, and Captain Henderson was walking again in the gardens of Bethesda. The world had taken our pain and tested us in the freezing dark of the North Atlantic, but we had refused to break.
I looked out through the cockpit windshield toward the eastern horizon, where the morning sun was rising in a glorious blaze of gold, crimson, and amber.
May you like
Somewhere beyond the clouds, I felt Mark smiling down upon us—watching his son fly, watching his wife take back the sky.
I adjusted my headset, held my son’s hand tight, and banked the wings gently into the rising sun, flying home.
