Missing in Flight

CHAPTER TWO ANNA

CHAPTER TWO

A NNA

Three Hours Earlier

Anna reaches forward and presses the number two autopilot button as Miguel finishes his announcement and replaces the PA handset in its holder.

“Nice job. That was a bit of a rough climb out,” he says through the interphone.

“Thanks.”

“So, the captain you flew out here with called in sick?”

The radio breaks in before she can answer. “Pacific Air 7038, contact Edmonton Center one three four decimal one five. Good day.”

Miguel keys the microphone button on his side-stick controller. “One three four decimal one five, roger, Pacific Air 7038.” His right hand moves down to the radio panel and spins the knobs to the new frequency.

“Yeah,” Anna says. “I could tell he wasn’t feeling good during the flight. He had a bad cough and kept blowing his nose. We had a forty-eight-hour layover, so I thought maybe he would’ve felt better by the time we left. Although, to be honest, I’m kind of relieved not to have to sit next to him for another seven hours.” She thinks of her plans for after they land in LaGuardia. She has no desire to get sick. “Were you on call?”

“Yep. I deadheaded to Anchorage last night after getting called in. You live in the city?”

She nods. “My husband’s a trauma surgeon at Manhattan General. We live a few blocks from the hospital.”

“Ah. That’s impressive. That kind of job must be so intense. I pass out from the sight of blood.” He flashes her a half smile. “Get woozy from even a paper cut.”

“He loves it.” She can almost taste the resentment as she says the words. “You live in Manhattan?”

Miguel lifts his index finger as a time-out signal and presses the transmit button on his control stick. “Edmonton Center, Pacific Air 7038 checking in. Flight level three six zero.”

“Pacific Air 7038, Edmonton Center, roger. What is your estimate for Fort Laird?”

Anna assesses their nav screen as Miguel responds, remembering they don’t have radar as they fly over the Yukon. “Ah, we estimate Fort Laird at zero two three seven,” he says, then looks up from the radio panel to meet her eyes again. “What was the question again?”

“Do you live in Manhattan?” Anna repeats.

“Hoboken. We love it there. My wife is a third-grade teacher.” He pulls out his phone, ignoring the airline’s policy against pilots using their cell phones in flight, and flips the screen toward Anna. “This is Teresa and our twin daughters, Mia and Zoe.” Miguel uses two fingers to zoom in on the photo of a blond woman standing in front of the Hudson River, flanked by two brown-haired girls who look to be about ten.

“Beautiful family.”

Miguel beams. “Thank you. I think so too. Teresa’s pregnant with our third. Due next week.” His smile grows wider as he slips his phone into his shirt pocket.

“Oh, congratulations.”

Miguel looks out the windshield at the snowcapped mountain peaks protruding above the cloud layer. “It wasn’t exactly planned, but we’re ecstatic. And the twins can’t wait to meet their baby sister.”

Anna follows his gaze to the white cloud layer below them.

“You got kids?”

“No.” She swallows the tinge of regret that rises to the back of her throat. She and Carter had planned on starting a family once he finished his residency and fellowship, but his work never seemed to slow down. After his fellowship, he only worked harder. Both focused on their careers, and their thirties passed in a blur. They finally started trying for a baby a few weeks before her fortieth birthday. After several months of no success, Anna went to a fertility specialist to learn she’d gone into early menopause, extinguishing her chance of having a child of her own. That was six months ago.

Devasted, she inwardly blamed Carter for them not trying earlier—ruining her chances of getting pregnant. Carter coped with the news by burying himself even deeper in his work. Now he practically lived at the hospital, which only deepened Anna’s resentment.

They’d briefly discussed adoption, and Anna had managed to get an appointment last month with New York’s top adoption agency, after waiting months to get in. Carter missed the meeting, forgetting to tell her he’d taken an extra shift at the hospital. Without both prospective parents present, Anna was forced to reschedule their meeting for two months later.

She worries about what the state of her and Carter’s relationship will be by then. They already feel like strangers.

“How long you been married?”

She chides herself for the last thought that crept into her head. “Almost eight years.” Feeling Miguel’s eyes on hers, she feigns a smile.

“Fifteen years,” Miguel says. “Today, actually.” He flips the seat belt sign switch to “Off.”

“Oh. Happy anniversary.” Hers is at the end of the month. Carter has already told her he’ll be working.

“Thank you. We celebrated last week, knowing I’d be on call today. Last year, we were ... going through some crap and were separated around this time, and I wasn’t sure we would make it to this one.” The side of his mouth lifts into a half smile. “But we did.”

“What changed?”

He hesitates. She worries her question was too personal for having just met.

Miguel lifts his eyes from scanning the engine gauges on the center display panel and stares out the forward windscreen. “Somehow, being together, we’d forgotten what we had. We let life get in the way of what really matters, I guess. After we separated, I realized I didn’t ever want to be without her.” He shrugs. “Hard to see what’s right in front of you sometimes. And now,” he adds, “we couldn’t be happier.”

They hit a bump, and Miguel unbuckles his shoulder straps. “I better use the bathroom before we hit any more turbulence. Coffee’s catching up with me.”

With his right hand he presses the “FWD” button on the calls panel. “Hey, Miguel here. I need to use the lav. Could one of you come up here?”

Anna notes the fuel remaining and the time at a checkpoint on the navigation log.

He turns to Anna before he climbs out of his seat. “I guess this new policy of having two people on the flight deck at all times is a good idea, but it sure is a pain sometimes.”

“Yes, it is,” she agrees, sliding one of her headphones behind her ear so she can hear the flight attendant come into the cockpit.

As Miguel moves toward the cockpit door, she thinks about his fifteen-year marriage. Until recently, she always thought she and Carter would be together forever. When they were dating, she’d fallen hard for his humor, his intelligence, his drive. How Carter could be such a hopeless romantic at times. He used to leave notes around the house when they were first married, like Good morning, beautiful and I love your smile .

But over the years, their spark had dimmed. Hearing Miguel’s story makes her both happy for him and sick to her stomach. Is it hard to see what’s right in front of you sometimes? Maybe. But it’s also impossible not to notice when the life has gone completely out of something. She doubts she and Carter can recover from this. Unless something changes. Drastically.

Miguel peers through the glass peephole in the flight deck door. “Here she is. You need anything when I come back?”

“No, I’m good,” Anna replies.

Hearing the cockpit door open, she reaches for her phone, remembering she forgot to put it on airplane mode before takeoff.

On the screen is a new text, and her stomach flutters with nervous tension. Despite Miguel’s open use of his phone, she lowers hers before opening the message. She bites her lip, fighting the guilt that surfaces at the thought of what she’s about to do.

“Thanks, Aubrey,” Miguel says to the flight attendant at the door. “I won’t be long.”

“No problem,” Aubrey, the flight attendant assigned as the cabin supervisor, says from the doorway.

Anna’s pulse quickens, and she uses the in-flight Wi-Fi to send a reply before Aubrey steps inside.