Velocity To Never Exceed

Chapter 14

Her eyebrows raise. "Any chance you know how to fly a plane?"

I shake my head and she snaps her fingers with a swing of her hand, in an exaggerated oh-shucks kind of way. Still, despite her half grin, something isn't adding up. She didn't ask the most logical question of all.

If I had a summer-long internship, why was I leaving in early July, only halfway through the summer?

And I've learned that despite Evelyn Werth's chaotic energy – which might have something to do with being stuck in four hundred of these awful loops – one thing is for certain. She's perceptive as hell.

My stomach drops a bit, which seems odd since there isn't any turbulence. I lean towards Evelyn, but I'm looking past her, out the window. In surprise, I watch the plane gently tilt to the side.

"Do you see that?" I ask.

"Do I see what?" She leans back in order to see through my vantage point, and I still at her closeness. She smells like a breath a fresh air. Like the air after a rainstorm. And there's a warmth in her nearness that, like the loops, rings of familiarity. But in the best kind of way.

I refocus, and pull out my phone that was tucked in my back pocket. I bring up the compass on the screen.

"The plane," I tell her, as I watch the arrow turn. "It's changing direction."

She grabs my wrist, pointing the screen towards her. "What? How can you tell? The Internet is down."

"The location system and compass don't need any network connection since there's already a full GPS receiver built into the phone," I tell her, focusing on the digital compass.

She shakes her head. "Sorry, I don't speak Technology."

"My point is, the compass still works even with the Internet down. And it says we're headed south now." My heart rate increases as I glance out the window as the plane levels from the turn.

"So?" Evelyn shrugs, but she's watching me closely.

I straighten, feeling a sense that I'm onto something. Something important. "This flight should be heading east and north. Hawaii to California is northeast to be exact. But it's definitely not south. That's the completely wrong direction."

"I never noticed that before," she says, almost apologetically. "Maybe it has to do with the turbulence? Maybe the plane is just trying to move around it?"

I shake my head. "But we're already through the turbulence."

Evelyn looks uncertain. "I don't know, maybe there's more turbulence up ahead – or you know, there would be more up ahead, if time continued like normal. The attendant back at the airport said that there are storms along the west coast." She stands up, and peers around the cabin. "Let's ask Heather." Her eyes scan the aisle. I see Cheyanne in the back, and Lydia serving a passenger alcohol in the middle of the cabin.

"Wait a second, where's Heather?" Evelyn asks.

But we don't have a chance to figure it out because at that very moment, Janelle stirs.

I jump up, and I'm standing in front of her. Janelle grabs her cardigan and wraps it around her tightly, just like Evelyn said she would. Then she stands, unsteady on her feet. She's a few inches shorter than me, wearing dark jeans and sandals. Suddenly she looks up and her hazel eyes lock on mine.