“Hey, baby,” Wilson said softly.
“James?”
“Yeah… anybody else callin’ you baby?” he chuckled.
She giggled. “No! No one else! How are you? I’m glad you called!”
“Doin’ good. Just finished dinner.” Wilson sensed by her voice she was having a good day.
“Did you get my e-mail from last night?” she asked. Wilson didn’t expect it to come up so soon in the conversation. He paused and answered flatly.
“Yeah.”
Wilson could also sense, from thousands of miles away, the wave of emotion that swept over Mary as she broke down.
“Oh, James, I’m so very sorry! Please forgive me!” In an instant she was sobbing.
“Baby, don’t cry, it’s okay.”
“As soon as I sent, it I wanted it back!” He heard her sniff. “It’s just that with you gone another Christmas and the disposal broken…”
“The disposal’s broken?”
“Yes, but I handled it. It’s okay, but, James, I don’t want you to worry about that or the kids or me.”
“Well, I always worry,” he replied.
“I know you love us and worry about us, but you are over there flying that airplane, and I want you to concentrate on that.” She gasped a little for breath. “I don’t want to distract you from your job.”
“I can…” The short delay in the satellite transmission made the conversation stilted.
“I don’t want you to crash…” Mary blurted. Wilson imagined her shoulders heaving as she spoke.
“I’m not gonna crash. Have I crashed yet?” he joked weakly. Mary ignored it and passed her message to him in a stream of consciousness.
“I need you to come home to me after this cruise is over, not before. You are in my prayers every day, and I know you are a good pilot. Billie tells me Steve thinks the world of you. The new guys need you to get them home safely. But right now, I know why you are there, because those Army and Marine kids on the ground need you. You are my knight in shining armor!”
“We’ll be okay. We’re ready.” He sensed she had regained some of her composure, but he needed to find out more. “What’s wrong, Mary?”
“James, nothing is wrong. We’re okay. Please concentrate on your flying. I’m okay, really, and I don’t want you to be distracted. We’ll talk when you return home.”
“I won’t be distracted. We’re prepared, and we have the best equipment and best training. Bob did a great job flying his airplane; everyone involved did a good job to get him aboard. We’ll fix the airplane.”
“Is the airplane broken?”
“It’s fine. Just needs some minor repairs,” Wilson lied.
Mary exhaled. “I miss you already. Five more months?”
