Nine Lives - Danielle Steel Page 0,11
water. Two of the crew had jumped free of the plane just before it went down, and boats were trying to reach them. Maggie saw one woman in a uniform go down with the plane, and a man was standing next to her. It was the captain who had stayed to see everyone off, and then suddenly she couldn’t see either of them, as the plane slipped under the water, and sank to the bottom of the river. They had died heroes’ deaths, while the helicopters hovered overhead dropping life preservers and ropes, and others shouted at the struggling passengers to grab them. Powerful searchlights swept the area as the desperate rescue missions continued. Maggie kept looking and hoping that Brad had been pulled into another raft, but she didn’t see him. She sat shivering in shock in the life raft as the scene became a blur around her.
She felt powerful arms lift her up and put her in a harness. She had been soaked by the icy water, and felt herself suddenly flying over the river and pulled into a helicopter. Rescue workers instantly wrapped thermal blankets around her, and she managed to choke out the words, “My husband…he’s still down there…you have to get him…” She tried to pull away from them to point to where she’d last seen him. It was a tangle of boats and rafts. The Coast Guard was on the scene by then with divers in the water. She was sure that they would find him.
Maggie was lying on the floor of the helicopter with rescue workers around her while they flew her to a hospital in New Jersey, along with other passengers lying beside her. One of them, an older man, was dead by the time they landed. Maggie had lost consciousness by then.
It was hours before the search ended. Seventy-two people had been rescued and survived, forty-nine had died, including the captain and two crew members, who had died bravely trying to save the passengers.
Aden was watching it all on TV at the friend’s home where he was staying. He had no idea if his parents were alive, and he was sobbing as he watched the horror of it in the midst of the snowstorm, with rescue boats bobbing everywhere. They had recovered as many people as they could, but several had gone down in the icy waters.
Maggie called Aden three hours later, when she was conscious enough to do so, and she told him the terrible news that his father had died. They had recovered his body, but he had drowned. She had severe hypothermia herself, but they had managed to warm her and save her. Aden was still crying when she had to hang up, unable to speak any longer and shaking violently. She wanted to go home to him, but it was another three days before they would release her from the hospital and send her back to Chicago by air ambulance. Maggie was flown to a hospital in Chicago to be checked again before she was released. Aden had wanted to meet her there, but she knew it would be chaotic and traumatic for him, and she insisted that he wait for her at his friend’s house.
When she came to pick Aden up, she looked like a ghost. It brought back all her worst memories of her own childhood, when her father had died, and later when her brother was killed in Iraq. And now it had happened again. A simple, easy trip to New York had turned into a nightmare. She and Aden went home to their silent house. They had already brought their Christmas tree home, but hadn’t set it up yet, and left it tied up in the garage, along with the lights they didn’t use that year. Maggie dragged the bare tree out to the trash on Christmas Day.
Brad’s funeral was a week before Christmas. They buried him with his parents in the family plot. Maggie’s mother was buried nearby in the same cemetery, and the only family she and Aden had now was each other. He was inconsolable, and the entire community rallied around them, brought them food, and offered to do anything they could to help. Aden and Maggie ignored Christmas entirely, and kept to themselves, mourning Brad. She wished she had her mother to talk to, to teach her how to be a widow. She had no idea what to do next. She was consumed with guilt that she