Actually we didn’t have room to fall for more than twenty seconds; that’s all it takes to stoop a thousand feet. But twenty seconds can be horribly long . . . long enough to regret every foolish thing I had ever done or said, long enough to say a prayer for us both.. . and to say good-bye to Jeff in my heart. Long enough to see the floor rushing toward us and know that we were both going to crash if I didn’t overtake her mighty quick.
I glanced up and Jeff was stooping right over us but a long way up. I looked down at once.. . and I was overtaking her… I was passing her — _I was under her!_
Then I was braking with everything I had, almost pulling my wings off. I grabbed air, held it, and started to beat without ever going to level flight. I beat once, twice, three times. . . and hit her from below, jarring us both.
Then the floor hit us.
I felt feeble and dreamily contented. I was on my back in a dim room. I think Mother was with me and I know Daddy was. My nose itched and I tried to scratch it, but my arms wouldn’t work. I fell asleep again.
I woke up hungry and wide awake. I was in a hospital bed and my arms still wouldn’t work, which wasn’t surprising as they were both in casts. A nurse came in with a tray. “Hungry?” she asked.
“Starved,” I admitted.
“We’ll fix that.” She started feeding me like a baby.
I dodged the third spoonful and demanded, “What happened to my arms?”
“Hush,” she said and gagged me with a spoon.
But a nice doctor came in later and answered my question. “Nothing much. Three simple fractures. At your age you’ll heal in no time. But we like your company so I’m holding you for observation of possible internal injury.”
“I’m not hurt inside,” I told him. “At least, I don’t hurt.”
“I told you it was just an excuse.”
“Uh, Doctor?”
“Well?”
“Will I be able to fly again?” I waited, scared.
“Certainly. I’ve seen men hurt worse get up and go three rounds.”
“Oh. Well, thanks. Doctor? What happened to the other girl? Is she. . . did she…?”
“Brentwood? She’s here.”
“She’s right here,” Ariel agreed from the door. “May I come in?”
My jaw dropped, then I said, “Yeah. Sure. Come in.”
The doctor said, “Don’t stay long,” and left. I said, “Well, sit down.”
“Thanks.” She hopped instead of walked and I saw that one foot was bandaged. She got on the end of the bed.
“You hurt your foot.”
She shrugged. “Nothing. A sprain and a torn ligament. Two cracked ribs. But I would have been dead. You know why I’m not?”
I didn’t answer. She touched one of my casts. “That’s why. You broke my fall and I landed on top of you. You saved my life and I broke both your arms.”
“You don’t have to thank me. I would have done it for anybody.”
“I believe you and I wasn’t thanking you. You can’t thank a person for saving your life. I just wanted to make sure you knew that I knew it.”
I didn’t have an answer so I said, “Where’s Jeff? Is he all right?”
“He’ll be along soon. Jeff’s not hurt . . . though I’m surprised he didn’t break both ankles. He stalled in beside us so hard that he should have. But Holly . . . Holly my very dear . . . I slipped in so that you and I could talk about him before he got here.”
I changed the subject quickly. Whatever they had given me made me feel dreamy and good, but not beyond being embarrassed. “Ariel, what happened? You were getting along fine — then suddenly you were in trouble.”
She looked sheepish. “My own fault. You said we were going down, so I looked down. Really looked, I mean. Before that, all my thoughts had been about climbing to the roof; I hadn’t thought about how far down the floor was. Then I looked down and got dizzy and panicky and went all to pieces.” She shrugged. “You were right. I wasn’t ready.”