Vows Box Set

Chapter 6: Acceptance-2

“It’s been seven weeks,” announced Sam’s brother, Simon, quite needlessly as far as Sam was concerned. He could quote the length of time Henry had been missing to the minute.

“Did you read about the reports on the ‘black boxes’?” continued Simon. “All recordings just came to a sudden stop shortly after the last signal was received from the transponder.”

“Don’t you think it’s still too early to downgrade the search, though? Should they really end the surface search?” asked Sam’s mother.

“No, it’s not too early,” replied Simon. “As much as we hate to give up hope, we have to be reasonable. They found all of that luggage and those pieces from both the front and the back of the plane right where they expected to find debris, down-current from where the last signal was sent from the transponder, and from where the data flight recorder and the cockpit voice recorder’s underwater locator beacon signals were. They know from analyzing what they found that there was an explosion, which confirms what that f*****g maintenance worker confessed. They know they’re looking in the right place. Any additional debris that might have been floating is waterlogged and has sunk by now. There’s just nothing left to look for.”

“Only the f*****g island where Henry’s starving!” shouted Sam. He looked at his silent family members around the table and saw pity in every pair of eyes, but damn it, a few pieces and no bodies settled nothing. They still hadn’t found the rest of the damned plane.

He knew what they were thinking, though. From what they’d been told by the man who’d confessed to rigging the plane, it was blown to bits. The pieces were too small and scattered in the ocean’s current, and they’d settled and weren’t big enough to be picked up on sonar. Furthermore, there were no islands near where the recorders and debris had been found.

“What about the remains of that life vest that were picked up by that fishing boat last week, nowhere near where the rest of the debris was found, and not simply down-current of it, either?”

“You’re grasping at straws, Sam,” his brother replied gently. “You’ve heard the official explanation. It’s very reasonably attributed to the southeast trade winds picking it up and carrying it north and west. The current also does explain some of its movement westward of the crash site. It’s a lone piece of debris that could easily be moved a great distance in the wind. Everything else has been found right where it was expected.”

The “reasonable” explanation for that life vest’s location didn’t concern Sam. He denied the so-called reality they said he needed to acknowledge. He just wasn’t ready to give up hope of finding Henry alive.

Sam’s father caressed his arm. He shook his head sadly. “Sam, I know this is difficult, the lack of closure, but it’s time to start accepting what’s happened. You have to move on with your life.”

“We’re here for you Sam,” encouraged Regina.

“Let us help you, honey,” added his mom. “We can find you a therapist or a support group to talk with you, okay? Would that help?”

Sam felt tears rolling down his face. “Nothing will help. And nobody’s been officially declared dead yet.”

“I’ll look into it, Mom,” said Regina. “I’ll find you a good therapist, Sam. You need help. You’ve got to be able to function, and right now you’re just not.”

That was true. His sister could always be counted on to cut to the heart of the matter. He wasn’t functioning. One of the graduate students had had to take over the summer intro class he’d been scheduled to teach, and the fall semester was less than a month away. He truly did have to pull it together or his career would be in shambles.

He couldn’t bring himself to verbalize it, but he nodded. His head sank onto his folded arms on the table and his shoulders shook as he began to admit to himself that Henry was truly gone. He’d once made a promise to Henry, and he was failing miserably at keeping it.

Sam felt his father’s hand rubbing circles on his back. “You won’t go through this alone, Sam. We’re all here for you. We love you, and we’re not going anywhere.”