Tubulence (Part Four)

Riley watched him swim away with growing apprehension, certain that the kiss they had shared on the plane would be their last. She gnawed nervously at her lower lip and felt a hollow emptiness in the pit of her stomach. She watched him slice through the water with steady, confident strokes; his tanned back and blonde hair still as perfect as ever. For once, she did stop to admire his handsome form and flawless face. This time, all she could think about was how much she didn’t want to lose him.

He reached the plane in about two minutes and it still hadn’t shown any sign of going under. Despite herself, Riley began to relax. Maybe things would turn up alright after all.

She lay sprawled across the white plane fragment Luke had salvaged for her and watched him, never letting him out of sight. He arrived at the woman and child. One glance at the baby’s heaving chest told him that it was still alive. He moved on to the woman, pressing his ear against her chest and listening for a heartbeat. Nothing. He repositioned himself and felt for a pulse. Still nothing. He paused, considering, and then unceremoniously dumped her into the ocean. He didn’t have enough time to push the extra weight through the choppy sea. He turned, and began pushing the white shard with the baby on it away from the plane.

And then the plane dropped another foot. There was nothing gradual about it; rather, it was a sharp, abrupt fall that made Riley’s heart lurch within her and caused her heart to poud so loudly she was certain he could hear it.

Luke carried on as if nothing had happened, his procedure methodical, almost mechanic. It worried Riley to see him moving so calmly in the face of impending danger. She held her breath as he continued to paddle back towards her, pushing the child in front of him. He was ten feet away from the plane now, fifteen, twenty. And then, amid a terrible cacophony of grinding and scraping, the plane sank beneath the waves.

Riley could see Luke paddling furiously away from the sinking vessel, hoping to avoid the undertow. She screamed for him to leave the child and save himself, but he ignored her and kept pushing the shard anyways. She watched the waves churn about him and saw an expression of panic flash across his face as he felt himself being pulled under. She watched him scramble to get a good grip on the bit of plane he had been pushing, hoping it would help keep him afloat. She saw him turn and look at her and mouth the words “I love you.”

And then he went under.

The water frothed furiously and the roar of the ocean was deafening. Gradually, the waves subsided, leaving behind a calm patch of glassy ocean. Had you not been there moments before, you would never suspect anything unusual had happened save the few small shards of plane that remained.

Riley stared at the place where she last saw Luke for what felt like hours, surveying the wreckage again and again, and hoping desperately that he had surfaced and that she just hadn’t seen him yet.

She didn’t look away even as night began to fall, thinking nothing of herself or how she would survive, concentrating only on the burning love that flared within her. He couldn’t be gone, she told herself. He just couldn’t. He had promised, hadn’t he?

And then, she saw a flicker of movement. She strained her eyes to see more clearly, but in the growing dark was unable to tell anything other than the fact that something was moving. She felt her heart race with excitement; perhaps it was Luke! And then she remembered that the place where she had seen the movement was the exact same place that the twelve year old boy had been, floating on a white shard and crying for his mother.

It wasn’t Luke.

And in that moment, she knew with growing certainty that he wasn’t coming back. Despite his promise, death had claimed her only love, taking him to a place from which he could never return. Luke was gone.

Riley felt like a knife had been thrust through her heart as the realization washed over her. All the hopes and dreams she had ever had dissolved before her eyes, and she blinked rapidly, trying to hold back the tears she knew were about to be spilled.

Red and blue lights pierced the dark as a rescue helicopter flew overhead, its propeller slicing easily through the cool night air. Riley began to sob. She clung desperately to the smooth surface of the white shard she was floating on, unable to move or think or do anything at all. Life without Luke was impossible, inconceivable, unimaginable. And now it was reality.

She watched through a veil of tears as the helicopter paused, lowered a gurney, and pulled the twelve year old boy to safety. She saw it fly off to the east, looking for more survivors, and knew that she should call for help. She didn’t move.

She heard a shout as she was spotted and saw the helicopter spin around, driving towards her. She felt herself being pulled onto the gurney by a pair of thick, calloused hands, hoisted through the air towards the helicopter, and lifted aboard, and cried even harder, wishing it had been Luke that was saved. She collapsed onto the floor in a sobbing heap and allowed them to lift her onto a small cot in the corner of the aircraft. There was somebody lying next to her, still and unmoving. The little boy, she thought, almost resentfully though she knew she should be glad he had survived.

After several minutes, she choked out the question, bitter in her mouth yet necessary to ask: “I-is the little boy okay?”

The rescuers glanced at each other before answering, as if reluctant to tell her. After a moment, one of them spoke. “We found a boy lying on a fragment of the plane, about twelve years old,” he said, then hesitated before continuing. “He was dead by the time we reached him. We weren’t sure if we’d have room on the chopper for him, so we left him there.” He paused, and then said softly: “I’m so sorry.”

Riley lay there, confused. If the little boy hadn’t been saved, then who was the second survivor? Not the old man, or the woman, certainly. But who? She used what energy she had left to hoist herself up and look at the figure lying beside her on the cot.

It was Luke.