Chapter 10 - The Quiet Hero Walks Away
Twenty minutes later, the mobile stairs were rolled up to the forward boarding door.
In the cabin, as the passengers gathered their coats and belongings, nobody was pushing or shoving. A stunned, sacred hush had fallen over the entire plane. People were hugging total strangers. A mother held her crying baby close, whispering prayers of gratitude against the child’s forehead.
As Mara stepped out of the cockpit into the forward cabin, somebody started clapping.
It began with Walter Pierce in row 8. He stood up, his tall frame filling the aisle, clapping his weathered hands together with everything he had.
Then the woman with the silver cross joined in.
Then the college student.
Within five seconds, all two hundred passengers were on their feet, applauding, weeping, and cheering, the sound echoing through the cabin like rolling thunder.
Mara raised a hand, feeling heat rise to her cheeks. She was accustomed to post-flight debriefs in sterile briefing rooms with stone-faced commanders, not standing ovations from two hundred tearful civilians.
“Thank you,” she said simply, her voice carrying clear down the aisle. “Your flight crew did an incredible job keeping this aircraft together. Now please follow the ground crew’s instructions down to the buses.”
As she reached seat 8B to grab her small canvas duffel bag from under the seat, Walter stepped forward and wrapped his arms around her in a fierce, fatherly bear hug.
“I knew it,” the old man whispered, his voice thick with tears. “The second I saw you sitting there with that travel pillow, I knew you had steel in your bones.”
“You pushed my call button, Walter,” Mara said, giving him a gentle nudge. “I ought to charge you for the flight lesson.”
Walter laughed through his tears. “Anytime, Commander. Anytime.”
Outside on the rain-swept tarmac of McChord Air Force Base, Colonel Vance Keller was waiting at the foot of the stairs, flanked by three base officers in wet flight suits. As Mara stepped onto the wet asphalt, the Colonel snapped a crisp, razor-sharp military salute.
Mara set her duffel bag down and returned the salute with perfect precision.
“Outstanding airmanship, Lieutenant Commander Keene,” Keller said, extending his hand. “Sea-Tac just called. Half their commercial traffic is diverted to Spokane because of that squall. What you just did with that disabled bird will be studied in training simulators for the next twenty years.”
“Just doing my job, Colonel,” Mara said, shaking his hand. “How’s Captain Henderson?”
“In the trauma ICU at Madigan Army Medical Center. The neurosurgeon says they relieved the intracranial pressure in time. He’s expected to make a full recovery. First Officer Cole is having his arm set right now.”
The Colonel looked at her tired, rain-soaked face. “We have an officer’s quarters set up for you on base. Hot shower, steak dinner, and all the coffee you can drink.”
May you like
Mara smiled, picking up her worn canvas duffel bag and swinging it over her shoulder. The rain was finally beginning to slacken, giving way to the cool, fresh scent of pine needles drifting across the Puget Sound tarmac.
“A hot shower sounds like heaven, Colonel,” Mara said, turning to look back one last time at the great metal bird resting safely on the concrete. “Then I think I’ll call my family and let them know I’m home.”"
