Chapter Four: Into the Storm:

Joe looked up when she felt a drop hit her cheek. She lifted her head and it started to rain.

“Uh-oh,” the little pilot said.

“I think we should go back,” Matthieu said. He was used to flying in the rain, but Joe was too young for these type of weather conditions. The man sighed to himself. What a disappointment. He had hoped to fly around until sundown.

“Matthieu,” Joe said. “How do we get back?”

“What does the radar say?” he asked.

“I don’t know. The screen’s acting funny.”

“What?” The navigation screen started acting haywire. Matthieu straightened up his goggles. The lines in front him started bouncing around. What the hell?

“Try and contact ground control,” Matthieu said.

“Okay,” Joe said. The young pilot turned and turned on the radio. “This is Black Betty, do you read us?” A soft crackle came over the radio. “Hello? Hello?” The radio went silent. She turned to Matthieu.

“The radio’s broken,” Joe said.

“What do you mean?” Matthieu said.

“I can’t get anything on the radio,” she said. “I had a signal, but then it just turned off.”

“That can’t be right,” he said. “Everything is practically new on this plane.” However, the old man’s attention went elsewhere as he looked around the plane. The clouds had gotten thicker and darker. He noticed the strange pattern in them. The clouds began to form spirals and wavy lines. When large spots started to appear in walls on either side of them, the old man’s stomach turned. He had heard about this phenomenon before.

“This can’t be,” Matthieu murmured. Until today, he thought this display was only a myth. The child’s grandmother’s father said that he saw it only once. His speech went so fast that the children of that time couldn’t keep up. Still, Matthieu remembered every detail and image as if he had just heard it yesterday. It all started with the functions of the dashboard on the plane would go haywire. He counted down to what was coming next.

“What’s wrong, Matthieu?” Joe asked. The old man did his best to stay calm.

“Joe, please do not panic when I tell you this,” he said.

“What do you mean?” the little pilot asked.

“Please listen to me,” Matthieu said. “We are heading into a jacket storm.”

“A what?”

“I can’t realize explain it to you. Just stay calm and do as I say, okay?”

Joe closed her mouth at the sound of his tone. “Okay.”

The old man grabbed the back of her seat. “Are you buckled up?”

“Yes.”

“Good. I’m going to need you to hold on tight to the wheel as you can.”

“What are we doing?” Joe asked. Matthieu clenched his teeth and closed his eyes.

“We’re going to fly through the storm!” he shouted.

The little pilot whipped around with big eyes. “What?!”

“Keep your eyes forward!”

“Yes!” Joe turned back to the windshield. The plane began to pick up speed as the wind pulled the plane deeper into the storm. All sound disappeared in the small vacuum surrounding them. Joe couldn’t even hear herself screaming as the plane went faster.

“Calm down, Joanne!” Matthieu tried to yell. All he could see as her long blonde hair whipping around in front of him and the white clouds hitting his face. Time seemed to be running slowly as they sailed deeper into the storm. The wavy clouds closed in around them tighter. Little drops of dew formed on the cracking windshield. The rapidly dropping temperatures didn’t help the situation either.

Joe held onto the steering wheel, screaming with her eyes closed. Her ears felt like they were going to pop. So many images skipped around in her head. She hurled over the dashboard, shivering from the temperatures now below zero. Matthieu tried to remember through the chaos what was going to happen next. The wind blew around the top of the wings. Unlike the windshield, the paint chipped, but the wings weren’t damaged. Matthieu did his best to stay awake. He poked the little pilot in the back of her right shoulder. She didn’t budge as her grip tightened on the steering wheel. The old man could at least take comfort in knowing that the little pilot was still conscious. Stay with me, Joe. We can make it out of this, soon. I don’t know how long we’re going to be in this storm, but just fly through it just a little bit longer. We can do this! It was then Matthieu noticed it was raining as heavily as it was before. He opened his eyes when he felt a little mist on his jacket.

Wait… This is…

Suddenly, it all stopped. The plane seemed to be floating in the sky. Matthieu took a good look around them. The clouds had lightened to give the appearance of a thin white curtain surrounding him and the little pilot. In fact, the sun almost blanked them overhead. The wind blowing over the wings had dropped down to a light breeze. It still felt cold around them, but at least the temperature was above zero right now. The old man reached forward and tapped the child pilot on the back of her right shoulder.

“Joe! Joe!” he called. “You still awake?” The little girl lifted her head and turned around to her co-pilot.

“Are you okay?” Matthieu asked. Joe lifted her cracked goggles.

“Yes,” she said. “What happened back there?” Matthieu pushed his cracked goggled to his cap.

“That was what was called a jacket storm,” he explained.

“Jacket storm? Does such a thing really exist?”

“We just crossed through it.”

“But what was it?”

Matthieu closed his mouth as he tried to think of the best way he could explain the passing phenomenon in the best terms possible. “To be honest with you, I don’t really know myself.”

Joe gave him an odd look as she tilted her head. “Okay… but where are we?” Pilot and co-pilot turned around when they heard a soft whispering behind them.