Ford took a sip of his beer, and looked at his parents. He gave a half smile, and considered what he had to tell him about Wu. He knew it would be tough. “Mom, Dad. I have some news to tell you about Wu.”
“Ole Wu! How is he doing? We haven’t heard from him since his Christmas!’ Marion commented. “Both boys, pilots,” as she pointed to Ford. “We’ve known Wu since we lived in China so many years ago. These guys were kids, then both pilots! And look at them now.”
“Mom, well, Wu is very sick. Very ill. In fact, terminally ill, Mom.”
“My gosh, what happened?” his mom said.
“He is? God… well, what’s going on?” said Mr. Stevens.
“Wu and I, err, met on a web chat with a camera. You know, on the internet with the computer. He told me he has cancer. Pancreatic cancer. He only has about three months to live, at best.”
“Oh, my. Poor Wu. He was like another son to us. Another boy in our family. And his mother passed away a few years ago,” Mr. Stevens said quietly, letting out a sigh. He held onto Marion’s hands. “He doesn’t have anyone else. No family.”
“Is he being taken care of? Is the medical community in China making him feel comfortable?” asked Marion.
“I’ll see. I may be seeing him in the coming weeks, so perhaps I can take care of him before he passes. I’m pretty upset about it, but if I can get out of work and burn up some leave, I’ll go over.”
Robert and Mark exchanged glances, not knowing if Ford was going to blow it. They were sure that his parents would not know a stealth bomber from a crop duster, but that wasn’t the point. Ford was sworn to secrecy until death, and beyond, and the exchanged glances were precautionary.
“We have heard so many great things about him. It is a terrible shame that he’s come down with his disease. So young, too,” Emily added. She looked at Ford and put her hand on his arm. “We know you’ll do your best to go there and take the very best care you can of him.”
Marion started to cry, and she wiped a tear away with a tissue from her purse.
Ford thought about the logistics of the trip, and how much his parents were going to ask him about the details, but they didn’t. Slowly, the subject changed, and the table was off on something new to chat about. Everyone talked over dinner and drinks, got caught up with each other, and the rest of the dinner table conversation was warm and entertaining.
After dinner, as they made their way to the exit on the far side of the restaurant, Ford led the way. As he turned around to make sure everyone in the party was following and navigating ok, he saw his Dad and Robert talking quietly and closely. Ford had not seen that before, and wondered what they were talking about. They were standing and not following the rest of the group. Ford thought that was weird because they had just sat for a few hours talking.
They said their good-byes and Ford and the crew got into their car to head over to the hotel. Once inside the car, the topic went from the beaches of Hilton Head to their mission.
“What were you and my Dad up to back there?” Ford asked Robert, pointing with his thumb back towards the restaurant.
Robert was driving again, and Ford sat in the backseat just behind him this time around. Robert made the right turn out of the parking lot and back to Highway 278 for the Hilton Head Omni Hotel.
“Oh, ahh, just talking college football. Turns out he is a University of South Carolina fan, too.”
Ford immediately thought that was strange. Dad doesn’t like college football.
Normal flight operations in any sane flight department or military flying squadron would have you declaring an emergency over the frequency for a fire, as pilots were taught world-side. From solo students in a Cessna 172 to a Boeing 777 Captain, when an emergency happens, and you’ve trouble shot it as much as possible, you declare the emergency for special handling to the airport of your choice so that the fire department is waiting for your arrival. Unless, you are piloting a secret stealth bomber that doesn’t officially exist, which in that case, you don’t tell a soul until you land.
Wu and Liu rolled to a stop after landing safely and parked the jet where they just left from. The ground crew was shocked to see that they were back, and both Wu and Liu could tell from their finger pointing that there must have been some fire or smoke damage visible on the airframe. The Director of Maintenance, as well the Chief Engineer, both came out to see Wu. Luckily, no Chen, yet.
“A FIRE? You had a FIRE?” the Chief Engineer asked, but was more like yelling.
The Chief was mad at something the jet did to them, for heaven’s sake, Wu thought. We didn’t cause the fire, we put it out.
“What happened?” he asked again.
“We were running the planned flight profile past 2.0, and we had indications for a fire. Oil pressure dropped. Temps were high, in the red. Smoke and fumes in the cockpit,” Wu explained. By now the maintenance guys were all standing around, listening in. “Pulled the T-Handle, shut her down. Number two.”
“What else? You have avionics problems?” asked the Director of Maintenance.
Liu perked up. “No, sir. Nothing else.”
“Why didn’t you land earlier?” asked the Engineer.
“We discussed that option, but since the fire was out, and you were all still here, we decided to continue a bit further and come back to you,” Wu shared. He hoped that was enough to stand down the browbeating.
The Chief Engineer and the Director of Maintenance looked at each other, and were appreciative. Landing that far out would only delay the repair, and who knew what kind of additional parts they would have to fabricate to get her back on the flying schedule.
“You are right, Lee,” the Chief said, “you bring her here.” It nearly pained him to say it, but he did. “Good job. All right everyone… get her in the hangar, NOW!”
“Thank you. Liu was a great co-pilot. Tremendous help. Was there the whole way, right in the checklists,” Wu added, breaking a smile among men who rarely did.
Wu wanted to get back to maintenance as soon as possible, so he downloaded the mission from his smart phone into the computer database in the hangar’s portable computers. He spent some considerable time writing up the details for his post-flight report, in enough detail for even Chen’s questioning. Who knew what kind of questions he would have, but after talking with Engineering and Maintenance, Wu was satisfied.
Wu was exhausted after the flight and just wanted to take a shower at the hotel and rest. He wasn’t hungry, but did crave some sugary snacks. Perhaps even some cookies, if available. Wu passed through the lobby of the hotel again, where he was last evening, so he knew where the vending machines were. He looked over the lobby chairs, the small bar and restaurant, and the front desk, but what he wanted were those machines. Easily located, he stood in front going through the options, and smiled into the reflection. What caught his eye again was how old and aged he looked in glass reflection. He put in some yuan, selected all sorts of snacks for his junk food dinner, and headed up to his room for some more meds.
Wu got into his room, and let out a long breath. He pulled out his smart phone and attempted to write a text to Ford. Looking at the screen, he saw that the traffic light icon was in the red, although the Peanut was installed. He shut down, then restarted the smart phone. Looking at his screen again, he had a green light. Wu thought it was pretty cool technology. What doctor or nurse thought of this little software?