Chapter 2: Crosswinds
My breath was caught in my throat, my heart missed a beat, and I started bawling. Mumma and Papa had never seen me like that, and they broke down in tears.
"Beta please, it's not your fau-"
"D-D-DON'T T-T-TELL ME IT'S NOT MY FAULT. JUST DON'T !! I DON'T DESERVE THIS. I DON'T DESERVE ANY OF THIS!"
"Rishab, please! Please listen to us, none of this was your fault. It was an accident"
"H-H-HE'S GONE BECAUSE OF ME"
"IT'S A-A-ALL MY F-F-F-FAULT, M-M-MUMMA. THIS IS ALL MY FAULT!"
The nurse rushed in.
"Mr. and Mrs. Harikumar, I need you to wait outside."
"Sir, sir, look at me… you need to calm down, please"
But the pain in what I caused was too great to ease, so I had more sedatives shot into me, drugged for at least 48 hours and sent back home to New Brunworth. After a few days, Mumma discovered that I was depressed as a result of what had transpired at the Academy and notified Papa about it. Papa was best friends with Mr. Kapur, who initially helped him settle down in New Brunworth and recommended me to his daughter who worked as a therapist and hosted therapy sessions at Westmoor High School.
I went despite my initial reluctance since I knew Mumma would find it difficult to see me in this state, and it was then that I met Dr. Sarah, Mr. Kapoor's daughter.
"Hi Rishab"
"Hello…"
"First up, are you here out of your own consent or did your parents force you ?"
"Well, I know I'm supposed t-t-t-to be ho-oo-onest but I'm here for the sake of my mom cause… the last few weeks weren't e-e-e-ea-easy for me and the last thing I want is for my parents to get affected"
"Fair enough… Rishab, how can I help you ?"
"I can't let go off it"
"The accident… I-i-it was my fault. I should've b-be-been dead. Not hi-hi-him"
"Who's him, Rishab ?"
"Captain Terry… he was m-m-my instructor"
"Can you tell me what happened ?"
"I was training two weeks ago. We were go-go-go-going to land. He told me to reduce the airspeed to 80 knots and.. I did, but I don't know how… the plane bounced back and had a pretty hard touch down because of which, it sk-sk-sk-ski-skidded off the runway and we crashed into a maintenance hangar.
I woke up the next morning and found my parents with me.. and the news, th-th-that he's gone just… breaks my heart. I can never forgive myself."
"What happened wasn't your fault"
"Yeah, n-n-n-now you just sound like my parents, thanks."
"No.. that is not what I mean, Rishab."
"Yeah, thank you. I'm outta here."
Now it is clear why Brunworth folk have never had faith in therapists. Every single one of them keeps repeating the exact same thing. Nobody pays much attention. Until my program director phoned, I didn't want to give therapy a shot because it was obviously never going to help but he said something that changed my mind.
"Rishab, I know you've taken some time off of the academy in order to process all of this but we've had an investigating committee brought in to inspect the flight since the black box suggested that you followed the instructions of Captain Terry and to their surprise, it turns out the plane had outdated turboprop that couldn't be fixed so the crash was because of malfunctioning and not pilot error. I want to apologise for the inconvenience that we've caused you with this mess. I know it's hard but it wasn't really your fault. So, take it easy, son. Whenever you're ready to come back, we'll be here, okay ?"
"Okay.."
Perfect! I just left Sana without giving a damn about what she was trying to say, even though I can already feel the sincerity in her words. How do I approach her once more? After all, this is the daughter of Papa's greatest friend, therefore it would be impolite to simply leave without saying sorry. Okay, Rishab, just say you're sorry to her; what could possibly go wrong? They're not allowed to pass judgement on erratic behaviour, correct?
"Rishab, hi. What are you doing here so late..?"
"I need to talk to you, can we take a stroll ?"
"Umm… sure, but just give me 10 minutes, okay ?"
"Yeah, okay.. I'll wait do-do-downstairs."
After about fifteen minutes, Sarah came over, wearing her pyjamas over a thick snow coat. She was rushing to meet me, so I can tell that she was concerned that I might be dealing with something terrible but the only thing I prayed for was that she wouldn't get furious because I called her at one in the morning to apologise, but I was willing to let her be upset because I couldn't go to sleep unless I did and gave her a chance.
"Hey, is everything okay ?"
"I'm going to tell you something but promise you won't get mad"
"Rishab, it's my job. Go on."
"I'm really really sorry for how I behaved the other day. I really c-co-cou-couldn't stomach this whole, it wasn't my fault until I heard from the academy, that what happened wasn't really m-m-m-my fault."
"That's… great news then, you must be feeling okay now, right ?"
"Sarah, that isn't the point. I'm sorry."
"You called me at 1:00 AM to tell me you're sorry ?"
"Yes, I-I know it's stupid but I felt so dumb being rude to you and you were only trying to help…"
"Rishab… it's alright. I appreciate what you've done. Thank you. Would you like to see me at the office later, today ?"
"No… here's.. here's good actually"
"Alright, I'll see you later then. Good night"
"Go-go-go-good night, Sarah"
I had no idea what was wrong with me, but my thoughts seemed to be pushing something against my will. I feel as though I have a thing for Sarah. How, though, is that possible? I only had a 5-minute conversation with her, and I'm already feeling something? No, that can't be right. I'd even talk to Rachel at Horizon around lunch, but I was undoubtedly not feeling this way. Love might be strange at times, but I think I started to feel at ease with Sarah.
We met up at Central Park as scheduled, took a stroll, and enjoyed watching children play, babies on strollers, and people feeding the birds at the lake or the pigeons perched on lampposts. We talked about how we had immigrated from one Middle Eastern country to another as children before landing in the continent of New Brunworth. It was heartening to hear Sarah communicate, and the more we conversed, the closer I felt to her. It's only been two days since we met, and I'm sure saying anything now would freak her out, so I should probably play it safe and let our friendship develop even though this was the first time I had real feelings for someone. When she advised me to return to Aerofly as soon as I felt ready, I knew she had won my heart because she truly understood what it meant to have a goal come true. It was just a matter of time until I decided to accept her request and go back to the academy.
Even though it was difficult to enter because of the flashes of what I'd done, the security officer who had initially promised me I'd be accepted waited at the door and smiled warmly as he welcomed me.
"Welcome back, Mr. Rishab" said Miguel Antonio, the director of the flying programme
"We've been expecting you."
"H-ha-happy to-to-to be back, sir"
"Let me assure you that all is forgiven and the academy has nothing against you, okay ? Losing Captain Terry was a tragedy but I can guarantee that it's behind us now and as a student, I'm sure he'd want you to continue finishing the programme."
I nodded in agreement with Marcel
"Ye-ye-yes, sir"
"Good. Your new instructor will be Erik Skuterud"
"Hi sir, ni-ni-nice to me-me-meet you"
"Pleasure's mine, son"
"Mr. Skuterud has experience flying the Horizon 475 to haul freight. One of the biggest planes in the world of aviation that requires about 14,500 hours of flying to manoeuvre. The difference is that he graduated from this academy... and not from UBT" Marcel jokingly said.
"I'm still from Kerring, director." Erik jokingly replied.
"You flew the 475 ?"
"Yeah, it's not as hard as people make it out to be."
"Well, you'd be happy to know that Mr. Rishab worked with Horizon before joining the academy." said Marcel
"Oh, what did you work for ?"
"I was the one of the, umm… p-p-project engineers for the Horizon J17."
"Man, that is an incredible plane to be honest. Never really understood why it was abandoned by most of the airlines."
"Uh, w-w-w-we got a couple of orders from this start up called Air Dash so…."
"Sorry to cut in, gentlemen but I'm afraid you'll need to carry the rest of the conversation in the classroom."
"Oh yes, of course. Sorry Marcel"
"Thank you. It's good to have you back Rishab" said Marcel, smiling as I left with Erik.
"Rishab, are you sure you want to get back on the airfield ? You can still run a couple of simulations if you aren't ready yet, there's really no hurry."
"No E-E-Erik, I-I th-th-think I'm good."
"Okay, let's go then."
Erik was sitting next to me in the captain's seat as we taxied to the runway, awaiting clearance from the Tower to take off.
"Flaps, check. Altimeter, set. Fuel gauges, checked. Yeah, we're good to go."
"To-to-tower, this is Sk-sk-skyliner 006, requesting clearance to take off"
"Skyliner 006, can you repeat ?"
I sighed in frustration, knowing that my stutter was making it difficult to communicate, but Erik remained persistent.
"Talk to them slowly, there's no hurry"
I repeated after nodding in accord.
"To-tower, this is Skyliner 006, requesting clearance to take off"
"Affirmative 006, you're cleared to take off"
We pushed the throttle in full capacity, waiting for the Skyliner to reach 54 knots.
"V1"
"Rotate."
Takeoff was successful, as Erik declared
"Gear up and bank left. "
15 minutes into take-off, the plane was at a cruising speed of 100 knots although Erik reminded me to keep an eye on the altimeter since our flight shouldn't last more than 30 minutes.
"So far, so good. You got this, Rishab"
Erik told me to get in touch with ATC for a landing clearance with barely 15 minutes left, and I sighed heavily as I followed his instructions. Although landings may take longer than anticipated, an exercise like this is only intended to test the pilot's manoeuvrability during flight so it didn't need to last long before the sky darkened and water drops began to rain on the Skyliner's windscreen as once again Erik declared.
"This is where a pilot's really tested. Request for approach"
"Aerofly Base, this is Skyline 001, requesting clearance to land."
"Skyline 001, requesting a change of seat by allowing the instructor to take over."
"What horseshit! Aerofly Base, student will be landing, no change required"
"Skyline 001, heavy rains are reported on the forecast, landing may be too risky for student"
"They want you to take over, don't they ?"
"I'll deal with that, you're flying"
"E-e-erik I think y-ou-ou-ou should listen to-to them, I-I-I screwed it up once under normal circumstances and I'm not d-d-d-doing it again"
"Hey, you listen to me, whatever happens, you're landing this aircraft. Everybody makes mistakes but that doesn't mean you gotta quit so keep your mouth shut and follow my orders. I'll deal with the comms. Now decrease the throttle, go!"
As we descended, the rain got progressively worse.
"Aerofly Base, change of orders acknowledged, requesting landing clearance." said Erik
"Skyliner 001, you are cleared to land on Runway 21 L. Descend and maintain 2000 ft."
"You heard that. Let's go."
After lining up with the runway, my view was obstructed by the runway's poor visibility as the windscreen became cloudy from the rain's intensifying.
"Erik, I don't think I can do this"
"Yes, you can. This is where you get to make things right, trust me and turn on the wipers."
Due to the runway's close proximity, we dropped to 500 ft. and the airspeed decreased to 70 knots.
"Level the plane, level the plane, don't bother about the rain. You got this."
My hands started to shake as I tightened my grip on the yoke stick due to the turbulence that the rain was causing. The Skyliner cocked into the wind just enough to keep it tracking straight down the runway, after which I used the rudder to make a last-second correction before touching down.
"50, 40, 30, 20…."
"Lower flaps, keep the ailerons aligned !" Erik shouted
The plane was about to land when I began to see flashes of the previous accident, and I blacked out. All I could see was Terry waiting for me at the end of the runway.
"RISHAB, PULL THE YOKE! PULL THE YOKE!" Erik yelled as the aircraft entered a nose-dive and was only minutes from crashing.
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