Chapter 2

The night and the following morning went as I expected; the nurses woke me every two hours due to my concussion, and the doctor came to examine me after breakfast. She pronounced me well enough to be discharged, and she warned me against driving for at least another two days. I explained that I had a friend who could drive me; and a nurse took over to give me my discharge instructions.

When she was done, Jo stepped into the doorway. “I’m ready whenever you are,” she told me with a smile.

I went to the bathroom, and I was shocked to see myself in the mirror. The left side of my face was a mass of bruises, as was my left side over my ribs. I gingerly dressed myself, and stepped out to find Jo waiting for me. “I can’t drive for two days,” I told her. “I had a room for tonight, so I guess I need to reserve it again for a couple of days.”

“I canceled your room,” Jo said with a note of chagrin. “I guess I thought you were going straight home.”

“Well, I can’t leave my car here.”

Jo thought for a moment. “I can take you home, but not today. I have two beds in my room, so you can stay with me, and then I will drive you home tomorrow.”

“What about your plane?”

“I’ll fly home, and then get someone to bring me back here,” Jo explained. “That’s why you’ll have to wait until tomorrow.”

Jo dropped me at the front lobby, parked my car, and took me to her room. I saw some of her personal items next to one bed, so I sat on the other one.

“I put your suitcase there,” Jo pointed to it, “and here is a room key. I also programmed my number into your phone, if you need anything. The hotel knows you’re here, so don’t worry about that. Now, I need to borrow your car to go to the airport, and to get back here tonight. Is that okay?”

“Of course. Thank you, Jo.”

“It’s the least I can do for my knight.” She leaned down and kissed me on my undamaged cheek. “You rest, Gil. I’ll be back later.”

I lifted my hand to my face, and smiled up at her. “I’ll be here. Be careful.”

“Always.” She smiled at me, picked up her purse, and walked out of the room.

I slept for most of the afternoon, and awakened to find a text message from Jo. She’d made it home in her Extra, and she was getting a ride back with some friends. I dressed and went down to eat. My bruises and slow gait drew some attention, but I ignored it. Back in the room, I sat down and read a Kindle book on my phone.

At about eight PM, the door opened, and Jo walked in. I carefully stood, and she came over to me. “Gil, you should be resting.”

“I have been, I promise. How were your flights?”

“I worried about how you were doing the whole way. Otherwise, it was a nice day.”

I sat back down. “You didn’t have to worry about me.”

“But I do. I need to get changed into something more comfortable.” She stood, found whatever clothing she needed from her suitcase, and disappeared into the bathroom. I heard the shower start and stop, and then the sound of a hair dryer. When she came out, she had on a nightshirt that fell to just below her knees, and colorful ankle socks. “That’s much better,” she sighed.

“You’ve had a long day.”

“Any day I can fly is a good day.” She sat on her bed and brought out a pilot’s logbook and a pen.

“You still keep a paper logbook?”

“I do, and I also have an online app that I use as a backup. It’s nice to have a real book to write in.”

I watched her write the entry. “How many hours do you have now?”

“Fourteen hundred and ten,” Jo said after a moment.

“That’s impressive, especially when you’re eighteen.”

“I’ve been fortunate. Daddy always made sure that I could fly. Before he...” she looked down at her hands for a moment. “Before the cancer beat him, he made sure that I could manage my finances, and that I knew about his businesses. I know all of the managers, and the people at the investment firms.”

“How are you holding up?”

Jo sighed. “I’m managing. The airshow circuit is taking up a lot of my time, so it helps me to not dwell on everything else.”

“Do you have a boyfriend?” That question came out before I could really about it, and I winced internally.

She looked at me with a crooked smile. “No. Do you?”

“No, no boyfriend, girlfriend, spouse or significant other.”

She turned toward me, tucking her legs under her. “Why not? You’re what, twenty-eight?”

“I haven’t met anyone whom I wanted to marry, I guess.”

“Oh.” She looked down at her hands. “You haven’t met any girls?”

I opened my mouth to reply, but something in her manner gave me pause. Maybe the beating I had taken shook something loose in my brain, but I began to think about our interactions since I’d left home after high school.

The most obvious point was that teen girls did not habitually invite older men to share a hotel room, at least not the kind of girl Jo was. She had also taken it upon herself to care for my car and my belongings while I was hospitalized.

When we worked together at the airport, we were practically inseparable. Yes, she was much younger than me, but I treated her as an equal in spite of that. My parents had lectured me about not treating her like another boy, but at the same time letting her be who she was. Jo had been precocious, detail-oriented, and not afraid to work, and get dirty doing it.

Then, I remembered her asking me the same questions about girlfriends. It would come up at odd times; she would stop what she was doing, turn to me, and inquire if I’d met a girl. My answer was then, and was now – no. She’d look away and then go back to what she was doing. “You used to ask me the same thing at the airport.”

“What?” Jo looked up at me. “When?”

“When you were a...” I stopped myself at the last instant from saying the word ‘kid’, “younger; when we worked together.”

Jo thought for a moment. “I remember some of that time. I used to wait for you to come in, and then we’d be off together doing whatever.” She smiled, and then her expression smoothed. “I don’t remember asking you about your girlfriends, though.”

A question sprang to my mind, and I thought about voicing it. I turned it over in my mind, and then my confidence waned. I shook it off, and closed my eyes.

“Gil, are you okay?”

I looked at Jo and nodded. “I think so; I’m just tired from being in the hospital.” That was true enough that it served as a diversion from my thoughts.

Jo stood and fussed over me, taking my bag from the foot of the bed, and checking that I’d taken my medications. I lay down, and set my phone alarm for early the next morning. Jo lay down on her own bed, and rolled to face me. “Good night, Gil.”

“Good night, Jo.”

The next morning, we were up and packed by eight AM. We ate a light breakfast at the hotel, and we set out for home, with Jo driving. I felt much better, but I didn’t want to risk a problem by countermanding the doctor’s orders. Our home was four hours away, so we settled in for the trip.

“I sure wish we had a Skyhawk, or better, your Extra,” I said to start the conversation.

“This is fine,” Jo replied quietly. “I didn’t have anything pressing at home, anyway. We have two more shows this season, and then we’re done.”

“That’s good, I suppose. What do you do when you’re not flying?”

“Daddy’s ... um, the businesses take up my time, too. I have a meeting every week about one thing or another. I have the house up for sale, and I have to meet with the realtor tomorrow to go over some offers.”

“I’m sorry that you have to sell your house.”

“I don’t have to, but I can’t stand to be there alone. Every time I turn around, I see something that reminds me of him.” She sniffed and wiped at her eyes.

“I’m sorry, Jo.” I fished a napkin out of my glove box and handed it to her.

“It’s okay, Gil. I have to deal with reality, you know?” She dabbed at her eyes with the napkin.

“You have a lot to worry about for someone who is barely out of high school.”

Jo nodded. “I wasn’t your normal little girl, anyway, and I learned early to be serious if I wanted people to give me a chance to fly. I started in ultralights when I was twelve, and I had to work hard for the ultralight school’s trainer to give me a chance. Then, the glider school was a little easier, and I was older, too. I started with the single-engine training, and then the Extra came along.”

“There I was, sixteen years old, trying to fly competitively. It took up so much time, that I had to take my classes online to graduate. On top of that, Daddy brought me into his businesses when they found that his cancer wasn’t treatable.” She glanced at me and smiled grimly. “I’ve had a lot of practice at handing worrisome things.”

“Including Brian, I saw, at least until he got out of hand.”

She snorted. “He was always trying to get me to go out with him, ever since I became ‘legal’, as he liked to say. He is, was, a good crew chief, but he went out of his way to confront any guy who wanted to talk to me. You’re the first person who didn’t just walk away when he bowed up to them. I felt bad about firing him, because I really did like his work. Now, though, he will have a criminal record, and I don’t want that around me.”

My question from the night before came to my mind again, and I wrestled with it. At worst, Jo couldn’t drop me off on the side of the road, since we were in my car. I closed my eyes to summon my courage. “When I came to visit your father after I left the Army, you seemed to be upset to see me. I even asked your dad about it, and he said he had no idea.”

Jo’s cheeks colored, and she glanced at me.

“I didn’t mean to upset you,” I said quickly. I could see her demanding to be dropped off somewhere.

“No, you haven’t offended me.” She focused on the road for a long moment, and then she took a deep breath. “When I was eight, you graduated from high school and left for the Army. I cried for a week. I couldn’t bring myself to tell anyone, not even my dad.”

“I said goodbye, and I knew you were sad. I know I didn’t write much, but there was so little time for me to think of it. That’s a terrible excuse, but it’s true.”

Jo smiled crookedly as she glanced at me again. “I wasn’t sad because you left, Gil. I was heartbroken.”