26. Jo
CHAPTER 26
Jo
“I’m terribly sorry to interrupt,” Irene says, stepping up to the podium as Jo is in the middle of reading an excerpt from the latest installment of Maxine and Winston’s love story. Jo covers the microphone with one hand as Irene motions for her to step aside. Confused, Jo moves away from the podium.
“Hi, thank you so much for coming,” Irene says into the microphone as a sea of confused faces look back at her. The room is filled with women in smart dresses and coiffed hair, most of them holding signed copies of Jo’s magazine stories. “I apologize for interrupting the evening, but there’s been an incident here at Cape Kennedy, and I’m told we need to vacate the premises immediately.”
A rush of chatter tears through the crowd at the word “incident.”
“If you could please gather your things quickly and exit through that hangar door,” Irene says, pointing at the open door with the first and middle fingers of both hands the way a flight attendant points at airplane exits, “we have a bus right there to take you directly to the parking lot. You will need to get directly into your cars and exit the premises without making any stops. Again, I am so sorry for this interruption.”
Irene steps away from the podium as women get to their feet and make their way to the open hangar door. Just outside, Jo can see a bus that’s pulled into place, headlights cutting into the darkness.
“What’s happened?” she asks Irene. “Is it the test mission? Is everything okay? My husband is involved.” There is a rising sense of panic in Jo that she cannot fight off, and she starts to quake like a leaf. Her hands go numb and she shakes them both, trying to get the feeling back. “Is it Bill? I need to know if he’s alright,” she says wildly, turning around to see that no one is lingering nearby, not even Irene.
As the PR specialist shepherds women out into the night, Jo turns to look for her friends, only to see that they’re following orders. With no one to tell her not to, Jo reaches for her own purse and flees in the other direction, aiming for a hallway that might lead her to a different part of the building. She has no idea where she’s going, but her instinct guides her anyway.
Bill might be in trouble, and she needs to find him.
The halls are empty and no one stops Jo as she takes off her kitten heels and holds them in one hand. She starts to run.
Through one doorway and into a new hall that’s lit only by a flashing red light at one end, Jo runs, seeking out her next direction based only on what’s available.
In one hallway she tries every door, taking the only one that’s unlocked. It leads her into a cavernous space and she searches around, but sees no one. Nothing familiar. She keeps running.
By the time she finds a door that leads out into the darkness, Jo realizes that she’s cut through the building and ended up on the other side, where a line of trees in the distance is visible during the day. Between the building and the tree line is the launch pad, and now, as Jo comes to a halt and the door slams shut behind her, she sees that the launch pad is alive with flames. A dancing, roaring fire has claimed the spacecraft and a half dozen firefighters are on hand, trying to control it.
Jo’s hand flies to her mouth and a sob escapes her. Bill would have been in this spacecraft, if he hadn’t been moved to mission control. “Oh,” she whimpers. “Bill.”
Wandering away from the building and towards the crowd of onlookers, Jo fights her tears, still holding her shoes in one hand and her purse in the other.
“Bill?” she calls out into the crowd as she wanders, feeling lost and displaced. She has no idea how this has happened. Any of it. “Bill?” Jo calls again, her voice lost in the din of sirens, fire, and activity.
Finally, as if lit by a crackling bonfire on a beach, Jo sees her husband. She very nearly runs to him, but instead stops where she is, stunned.
Bill is there, watching the fire along with everyone else, a haunted look on his face.
And at his side—holding his hand as she looks up at him with loving concern—is Jeanie Florence.
Jo lets her shoes fall to the ground.