"Route for the Home Team"

Chapter 3

Stepping out of her car, Lidia walked toward the mall waving to Keely and Jazzelle as she crossed the street. "Hey, sorry I'm late, important meeting over lunch."

Jazzelle stepped closer looking her up and down with a grin in place, "You were with Altan."

"What? How did you know?" questioned Lidia, taking a step back from her friend.

Keely giggled, walking over toward them. "You see the glassy-eyed stare into space, where you're most likely day dreaming about him."

"That goofy grin plastered on your face." added Jazzi with a nod.

"Okay, so maybe I was." she hestitated feeling defensive of her personal life for the first time in a long time. These friends of hers hadn't let her shun them out of her life as was her normal pattern. No, they'd thrown the door open to her heart and made themselves comfortable. "Now are we going to shop or talk about my personal life?"

"Both!" decided Jazzi, linking her arm through Lidia's with a flourish.

"Um-hum!" Keely added, grabbing hold of her other arm.

"I have the feeling this is going to be a long day." complained Lidia good naturedly teasing her friends.

Together they went in and out of stores for hours, until all three of them were thoroughly exhausted. Jazzi checked her watch, "What do you say we call it a day and meet Charity and Bethanie for dinner?"

"Sounds great to me." she answered decisively, taking a seat on the bench outside the mall.

"Me too." added Keely, taking the seat beside her.

Within the hour, they were at the food court in the mall ordering pizzas for the four of them, laughing about the recent situations in their lives. After catching up on the latest guy stories, and cute children stories from Charity, the group sat in near silence.

"Wow...we're growing up." whispered Jazzelle after a long break in the conversation.

Lidia nodded, "I guess everyone has to sometime...right?" She looked around at the group of friends who'd been through a lot with her in the past years. Together they were unbreakable, yet so much had changed in each of their individual lives. Just as she was going on to think about Altan, a hand shot over her shoulder and grabbed a slice of pizza from the tray.

"Hey Andre." said Charity very casually glancing over Lidia's shoulder.

"Hello ladies." he mumbled around a mouthful of pizza.

"Always eating!" stated Jazzi, shaking her head at him.

He grinned, "Man's gotta eat!"

"Yes, but why not somewhere else?" asked Lidia smiling over her shoulder at him.

Chuckling, he grabbed another slice of pizza, "Oh you all love having me around, admit it."

"Okay, we love you..now go away..we're talking about boys again." Keely giggled as she spoke, looking around for someone to add to their collection of 'available men.'

"Don't say I stopped your quests for husbands...I'm gone. See you all later!" he walked away, joining a group of friends before he was out of their line of sight.

--

Altan frowned at the feeling of foreboding in his gut as he climbed aboard the charter plane he was to fly to San Francisco today. Shrugging it off as a fluke, he did a quick routine check of the gauges and the plane itself. Satisfied, he took his seat and got the flight under way.

Staring out at the thick clouds under him, Altan felt the joy of his flying. He still loved every minute of it, no matter how many flights he'd been on. The feeling wasn't the same with both feet on the ground. He'd always enjoyed being up in the air, and being in control of the plane. Just flying for the sake of the love of it. However today, instead of just thinking of flying, he was also thinking about Lidia. The way her eyes lit when she laughed, or the way she could read what he was thinking before he even said it aloud. What was that? The connection that still ran so deep after all of these years.

A dinging in the background caught his attention, shaking his head, he came back from his day dream and looked down at the board of lights and gauges before him. What was happening? He was losing altitude quickly, hurtling toward the ground at a speed he used only for good weather flying. His mind flew with pictures of safety techniques that'd been drilled into his head over the years. Yet, not one seemed to be good for this experience. Quickly, he made his way to the back of the plane and strapped on a parachute.

Glancing out the window, he noted he was just above a mountain range. "Lovely, this will make for quite a splattering." he muttered, trying to find the safest place to jump to.

With what looked like seconds to go, he jumped from the plane into what seemed to be a pile of pine needles. His world was turning upside down, side ways, and every other way, ways that couldn't be natural. Closing his eyes, he wondered why he'd enjoyed flying so much in a plane if without it he was having a hard time believing he was even alive. As he came to meet the ground, he found that the pile of pine needles was really a cover up for large boulders. Sprawled out on his back against the rocks, he found the sky to be quite blue through the mess of trees and mountains. "It's beautiful here, but where am I?" Ignoring the throbbing pain in his body, he reached for what had been his cell phone. The shattered remains filtered through his fingers and lay on the rocks beside him. "Great service." he muttered wishing he could kick something. Heck, being able to move would be lovely right about now!

Not too far from him lay what remained of his charter plane. He sighed heavily, wincing at the pain breathing brought. "Well now what?" he asked no one in particular.

Rain began to fall from the sky, and not a light rain either. Sighing, he winced again. If he thought it couldn't get any worse, it just had. Lovely. All in a day's work for Altan, or so it seemed.