Twin Engines

“I did it to stop you from nosing around. You were supposed to leave. You were
supposed to be satisfied with Vera’s answers and go home. But then you let on how you were
going to stay on a while. You were poking your nose around too much, asking too many
questions. I thought if I destroyed the Baron you’d have your reason to give up and go home, and
stop asking questions.”

“What were you afraid I’d find, Bob?”
Everyone’s eyes, including Vera’s were on Bob, waiting to hear the answer.
Bob hesitated, his gaze drifting to nowhere, his memory transporting him to a different
place and a painful time. Tears were building, but not quite there.
“Dad’s secret,” he managed to say. “I wanted to keep my Dad’s secret safe. It was all his
fault that Merritt Kelley crossed the lake.”
Barbara, Vera, Jack, nobody moved. Nobody breathed.
“Dad was on duty that day. Merritt called Dad on the radio as he was approaching the
lake. They were having a great time getting caught up as much as they could over the radio, like
good friends would. Talking about what they were going to do once Merritt landed. They hadn’t
seen each other in years. Merritt said he’d be there in a few hours, that he was just about ready to
head North and fly around. Dad asked him why he didn’t just fly across. He’d be in Manistee in
no time and Dad would pick up steaks for the barbecue. Merritt said he didn’t think that was a
good idea.”
Barbara listened intently, her hands clenched.
“Dad didn’t know I was in the back office and could hear him. I heard papers being
tossed around. I could tell he was looking at the weather report. He told Merritt the weather was

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clear; there should be no problem, to just keep her cool in the motor pool. When I heard that
Merritt’s plane went down I fished the weather report from the wastepaper basket. Dad didn’t
notice there was a small front blowing in from the North. He missed it. If he would have spotted
it he could have warned Merritt to turn around and head back to Oshkosh. And, similar to what
happened to you, Jack, once he started, the unforeseen storm front gave him no choice but to fly
over the lake where the weather was slightly better. Just like Dad had said. No one could have
forecasted Merritt’s engine was going to malfunction. But Dad was never the same. He always
blamed himself for what happened to Merritt. He ended up drowning himself in a bottle and that
killed me inside. I loved my Dad more than anyone in my life. I never told him I knew his
secret.”

Bob turned and looked somberly at Vera. “They had no idea, but that’s why I helped
Betty and Vera all this time. I felt bad my Dad had a major part in them losing their family,
Merritt and the boy. I thought the least I could do was help them when they needed it. I didn’t
mean to do anyone any harm. I just miss my Dad.” Bob said and began to choke up.

Keith and Duane stepped in, placing Bob’s hands behind his back and cuffed him.
Everyone remained silent watching Bob being escorted to the patrol car. Everyone,
except Jack.
Jack saw Bob as he saw himself. They were sons, damaged for a lifetime by the innocent
mistakes of their fathers, fathers who had been alive on the outside, yet dead inside. He and Bob
needed to find a way to heal and move on with the rest of their lives. For Jack, it was finding the
truth, for Bob it was revealing the truth.

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Jack recalled those who were touched by the chain of events following his father’s
accident. Vera gave up her life caring for her brother. There were Jack’s neighbors, Carl Graham
and his mother, whose lives were altered by the absence of their close friends. There was
sculptor Ernie Mier and his bedridden son, Art, whose lives were enriched by the company of
two airborne travelers. Tony Henderson the disabled Vet, who stuck to what he believed when
no one else would. Harvey, the air traffic controller who thought it was his fault Merritt wasn’t
found. Dominos, they were all dominos. They all had been searching for their way to heal, to
take away their pain. Now was the time they could take a step forward and distance themselves
from the past. Jack realized the entire truth had won out. It was over. This was Bob’s chance as
well as his own to finally be free. This was the time they all could be free. But nobody could be
free if Bob was not.

Jack turned around in time to watch Bob slide into the back seat of the vehicle that would
take him away to jail.

“Uncuff him.”
All eyes left Bob, snapping sharply to Jack.
“You heard me. Get him out of the car and take the handcuffs off. Now.”
“Jack, what are you doing?” Elizabeth asked.
Officer Keith started laughing. “Why would I want to do that?”
“I’m not pressing charges, that’s why.”
Keith scratched his head. “No?”
“No. There was no attempt to do me any harm. I went into the hanger on my own to get
something out of my airplane.”

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“While the building was blazing? It must have been something mighty important?”
“It was. I forgot my lunch.”
“That’s okay for you to say, wiseguy. I still have to run Bob in for arson.”
“Arson?”
“That’s right, Mr. Kelley. Setting a building on fire is considered arson in Manistee.”
Jack turned to Walter. “Walter, didn’t you say the barn was scheduled to be destroyed?”
“Uh, uh…that’s right? Wait a minute, that’s right, that’s right! I forgot I had it on the
schedule.” Walter smiled at Bob. “Thanks for getting on that as quickly as you did, Bob.”
“It wasn’t just the hanger, Walter. Two airplanes were also destroyed.” Keith insisted.
Walter cracked a smile and laughed. “Keith. Those were my junk planes I used for spare
parts. If you would have seen them before the fire you’d a noticed they were missing all sorts of
pieces, from a left wing to a rudder.”
“All right, all right. Get him out of my car, Raymond.”
“What? You can’t just…”
“That was a direct order, Officer Dubey. Release him pronto or I’ll drop you off at your
Uncle’s on the way back to the station.”
Just like that, Bob was released.
Keith and Raymond said their goodbyes, put the patrol car in reverse and backed out of
the driveway.
“Thank you, Jack. Thanks, Walter,” Bob said shaking their hands.
“Let’s get back to the airport. We still have a mess to clean up,” Walter said, steering Bob
in the direction of the beige minivan.

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Jeffrey rode up on a bicycle with rented fishing gear from Cast-A-Ways, passing the
minivan on the way out. “Did I miss something?”

Jack smiled and said he’d fill him in later.
There they all stood on the front lawn: Jack, his mother his brother, and Vera. His father
and daughter were inside the house. Jack had finally found what was missing, what he had been
searching for his whole life, the love of his family.

##########
Jack walked into the kitchen finding Elizabeth tying an apron.
“Do you want to go see how they’re doing while I get dinner started?” Elizabeth asked.
Jack walked the long hall leading to the sunroom where he’d found his father almost a
month earlier.
Vera was sitting in her favorite wicker chair with direct sunlight striking her, writing in
her journal.
Barbara was sitting in another wicker chair, as close as she could get to her husband. His
body looked frail, attached to all of his necessary medical apparatus.
Barbara waved Jack to sit beside her.
“Elizabeth is getting dinner started,” he said.
“Has Jeffrey come back yet? He went for a run on the beach,” she asked.
“No, not yet, Mom.”
Vera put down her journal and walked to the bed, lifting Merritt’s wrist. She routinely
checked his vitals just as she’d done hundreds of times before.

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“How is he?” Barbara asked, relying on Vera as if she were the only one in the world
who could keep her husband alive.

“Not well.”
“Do you think he should be in the hospital?”
“When his time comes where would you like him to be, here or there?”
Barbara didn’t answer.
Vera put her hand on Barbara’s to comfort her. “He knows you’re here.”
“Does he?”
“He does. He’s happy you’re here.”
Barbara smiled softly.
“I’m glad you’re here too, Barbara.”
“Thank you. Thank you for taking care of him.”
Vera nodded.

###########
Jack woke up sweating. He checked his watch. It was a little after four in the morning.
His heart was racing. If it was from a bad dream, he couldn’t remember. Something wasn’t right.
He dressed, looked in on Amy, then quietly went downstairs. He stepped outside on to the porch
and sat down on the steps, staring at the half-moon.
He knew.
The sky was clear, the stars were bright, a perfect night to fly to Heaven.
Jack took a deep breath, then walked into the sunroom to face the moment.

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He saw his mother’s silhouette sitting in the same position she’d been in all day. She had
never left Merritt’s side.

“Sit with me.”
Jack walked to his mother, putting his hand on her shoulder.
“What happened to us?” Barbara asked. “How did we grow so far apart? Why didn’t we
see each other when we had the chance? We wasted so much time.”
Jack didn’t answer her, not at first. He looked at his father. “I didn’t think you wanted to
see me. I thought you blamed me for what happened.”
“I should have known that was it,” she said. “Sometimes when something traumatic
happens in a child’s life they think it’s their fault, that they made it happen, that they were
responsible. I should have known you would react that way. You were always the sensitive boy.”
“I wasn’t a boy. I was seventeen.”
“You were still young.”
“Yes. But, so were you. Too young to lose a husband and a son.”
“I’ve lost my husband, twice now.”
Jack didn’t say a word.
“He’s gone,” she said looking up at her son. Her eyes filled with tears. “Your dad is
gone.”
Jack looked down at both his parents. “I know.”

#############
Merritt had passed away on a clear, warm, summer night with his family near.

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In the following days, memorial arrangements were made for him to join his son, Kevin,
in the Mountain View Cemetery.

On the day of the service, brothers Jack and Jeffrey Kelley escorted their mother to the
Rhododendron Court where she was greeted by her long-time friend, Mrs. Graham and her son,
Carl.

Elizabeth and Jessica had flown in from Manistee, as did Cousin Vera.
Vera stood serenely beside John Thun, next to an airplane-shaped wreath.
After the service, Jack placed Kevin’s fishing pole on Kevin’s marker where he had
found it.
“I was hoping it was you who had taken it. It went missing the day you dropped by the
house,” Carl Graham said, grinning at Jack.
“You put it there?”
“Every June for the last twenty-five years.”
“You had it all this time? It was supposed to be with Kevin.”
“Yeah, I know. A few months after Kevin was buried I got a call from Terrance Fauve,
the funeral director. Turns out he’d misplaced it and didn’t find it until Kevin was already in the
ground. So, I kept it. I’ve been bringing it here every June for twenty-five years now.”
“I don’t know what to say.”
“Don’t say anything. It will be here next year, and the year after that,” Carl said,
returning to his place beside his mother.
John Thun hobbled over to Jack on his crutches. They looked at each other, then down to
Merritt and Kevin Kelley’s final resting place.

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“Yep.”
“Yep.”

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