Authors: Andrea Thalasinos
Fly by Night (51 page)
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Wind like an eggbeater woke her. She covered her head with one of her hands. What now?
“Ma'am?”
How could the wind be talking? She wouldn't listen, wouldn't be its friend.
“Amelia.”
Too late. It knows her name.
“Amelia Drakos?”
She turned to look. Her head throbbed. Everything spun.
A Coast Guard swimmer in a red uniform was suspended from the air. He lowered toward her.
She reached for his arms.
“Peter ⦠he had⦔
“We know.”
She tried to stand but her foot slipped and turned underneath her.
“Don't try,” the young man said. “It's glare ice.”
She nodded.
“I'm going to slip this harness around you,” he instructed. “Under your shoulders and then tighten it. I've got you. Try to relax as we're lifted. You're safe. You're okay.”
The whirling sound began to change as her body lifted, leaning against the diver.
“That's right,” he said. “Just lean against me.”
“I'm gonna throw up.”
“That's okay,” he said as the two of them spun up like the double helix of DNA, up toward the safety of the door.
*Â Â Â *Â Â Â *
The ambulance waited at the marina as the helicopter set down in the empty parking lot.
The Coast Guard transferred Amelia onto a gurney as paramedics took over, rushing her toward the ambulance. Bryce leaned over.
“Ammy.”
She started to cry at his voice and grasped his hand. She tried to speak, to tell him about Peter, but couldn't. Bryce climbed up into the ambulance, following her in.
“How is she?” TJ asked, standing outside beside the door.
“Banged up but stable,” the paramedic said. “They'll check her out more when we get to Ashland General.”
“Can I ride along?” TJ asked.
The paramedic turned to TJ. “Are you family?”
Bryce reached to give TJ a hand up.
“Yep,” TJ said, as Bryce hoisted him up. “She's my sister.”
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Two weeks later Bryce and Amelia flew to Rhode Island to discuss the offer of permanent positions with the university.
They were sitting in the dean's office.
“This is one of those rare happy moments when things go right,” said Phil, the dean of the marine biology department.
Pages from both their employment contracts lay arranged on the conference table before them. Amelia and Bryce had read and checked off each stipulation in the margins as the dean sat, smiling. A few from the Board of Regents who'd fought to fund the positions sat ready with a bottle of champagne and glasses.
“All we need are your signatures.” Phil handed both Amelia and Bryce a pen.
“Ladies first,” Bryce said.
She bent over to sign but then retracted the pen. She sat, thinking.
“Um.” She pushed out her chair. “Mind if I take a minute here, Phil?” Amelia asked.
The dean looked surprised. “Why ⦠sure, Amelia. Questions? Is something not clear?”
“Um, no, not really,” she said. “It's all perfectly clear. I just need a moment to think.” She looked at Bryce and stood up.
“Take as long as you need,” Phil said.
She tipped her head toward the door, for Bryce to meet her out in the hall.
*Â Â Â *Â Â Â *
Standing outside the office Amelia recalled the last time she'd walked down that hallway after turning in her security badges, cards, keys, thinking she'd never be there again.
“So, eh ⦠what's up, Chuck?” Bryce asked, folding his arms as he leaned against the wall next to the water fountain.
She looked at him. “Why am I not more excited about this?”
“Why am I not more excited about this either?”
“Six months ago I would have crawled on hands and knees all the way back from Minneapolis for an offer like this.”
“But⦔ He raised his eyebrows.
“But it makes me feel claustrophobic or like I'm moving backward.”
“Claustrophobic,” he repeated, smiling in an amused way.
“Yeah,” she said. “Confined, like you say when you're wearing flip-flops in winter.”
He sniffed, amused, and then shifted his weight onto the other leg.
“It's like this whole other life germinated out there right under our noses,” she said and folded her arms.
Amelia leaned over to take a drink from the hall water fountain, wiping her chin on her hand before she spoke.
“I think I want to take the UM-Duluth offer.”
“You do?”
“Yeah.” She turned to look at him. “What do you think?”
“You go first.”
“I'm thinking we could teach,” she said. “Reopen a lab for our research, make a contribution to the Fresh Water Initiative for Lake Superior,” she said. “Hire Jen and have her little kid run around like Alex used to.” She giggled.
He nodded slightly as he listened.
“After all, Bryce, how could I never again hear Jethro's scratch at the door to be let in for the night?” Out of nowhere, remembering the first night choked her up.
“How could I live here knowing the wolf hunt's still on? Thinking of Smiley, B-34, what happened to Lacey and the others. How much work there is to be done to get wolves relisted, to fight the sway and power of special interest monies that could affect all endangered species and even those that are not. I have to help in whatever way I can.”
“Come here.” Bryce reached and pulled her close.
“And that Charlotte and TJ are out there and I'm not. That Whitedeer and Cherise are there too and I'm not close enough to even put a Christmas wreath on Peter's grave.” Again she felt the sorrow of his passing.
“That Jen and Doby are going to have their baby in Duluth and I won't be there to see it grow up, be the godmother, the auntie who spoils it rotten and then goes home.”
As Bryce kissed the top of her head she felt the warmth of his breath, Amelia leaned back and studied him, watching for a long while as if giving him the chance to disagree.
“That every day I won't see that big, bad, beautiful lake that tried to fucking kill me. And that like the ocean, it showed me the limitless of chance if you only stand still long enough for it to find you.” She closed her eyes.
Dad.
Bryce pulled her close again and leaned his head on top of hers. “Well, I for one will stand still next to you.”
“You will, will you?” She chuckled.
“Of course, Am, for better or worse, you're stuck with me. Either here or out there. But betcha I can stand still longer than you,” he said.
They turned and walked arm in arm down the hall back toward the dean's office.
“Betcha a whitefish dinner and unlimited Spotted Cows that you can't,” she bet.
He frowned and offered his pinkie to bet. “That's not even a bet, Am.”
“You're so arrogantâalways think you can do what I can do better.”
“Maybe it's because I can.” There was a lilt to his voice.
“You're delusional,” she said and stopped.
Amelia turned toward him.
“Come here.” She crooked her index finger and he moved closer.
And with that she pulled him close, giving him the finger before she stood on her toes and reached up to kiss him.
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Andrea Thalasinos
, Ph.D., is a professor of sociology at Madison College. She is the author of
An Echo Through the Snow
and
Traveling Light
, inspiring novels that draw on her longstanding passions for dogs, nature, and native peoples. Andrea lives and writes in Madison, Wisconsin.
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Visit Andrea online at
www.andreathalasinos.com
. Or sign up for email updates
here
.
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Contents
Forge Books by Andrea Thalasinos
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This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, organizations, and events portrayed in this novel are either products of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously.
FLY BY NIGHT
Copyright © 2016 by Andrea Thalasinos
All rights reserved.
Cover photographs by Getty Images
A Forge Book
Published by Tom Doherty Associates, LLC
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New York, NY 10010
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is a registered trademark of Tom Doherty Associates, LLC.
The Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available upon request.
ISBN 978-0-7653-7676-3 (hardcover)
ISBN 978-1-4668-5191-7 (e-book)
e-ISBN 9781466851917
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First Edition: March 2016