karenika - books - the pilot's wife

The Pilot's Wife

Gravity pins her against the back on her seat. They climb into a long, high loop, and for a second, at its apex, they are motionless, upside down, a speck suspended over the Atlantic. The plane dives then into a run out the other side of the loop. She screams and grabs for whatever she can reach. Jack glances over at her once quickly and puts the plane nearly vertical to the ground. She watches Jack at the controls, his calm movements, the concentration on his face. It amazes her that a man can make a plane do tricks -- tricks with gravity, with physics, with fate.

And then the world is silent. As if surprised itself, the plane begins to fall. Not like a stone, but rather like a leaf, fluttering a bit and then dipping to the right. Heartsick, she glances at Jack. The plane beings to then spin crazily, its nose pointed toward the ground. She arches her back, unable even to scream.

When he pulls out of the spin, they are not a hundred feet from the water. She can see whitecaps, the twitching of a slightly agitated sea. Astonishing herself, she begins to cry."

Today's passage comes from The Pilot's Wife by Anita Shreve. The person who recommended this book to me has a pilot husband. The story wasn't all that remarkable but I liked the author's show of the senses and emotions. It's a light but neat book to read.