The Guardian of Threshold Read Free Page B

They were examining every inch of it and jotting down notes.
    “They must be from the FAA,” my dad said as we drove slowly by.
    I turned my face the other way and pretended not to pay any attention. I didn’t feel like talking about it. Not to mention that I was afraid the FAA guys would want to talk to me. I still hoped for a peaceful end to an otherwise hectic and emotionally charged day.
    We ordered pizza on the way. We were both exhausted, and honestly, neither one of us was what anyone would call a great cook.
    I headed upstairs and hopped in the shower. I had every reason to be happy, but I wasn’t. On the contrary, I felt even more depressed. It’s true that I was alive and well, but my mother wasn’t. She died all those years ago, and it was my fault. It wasn’t her time. Unable to hold all the emotions in any longer, I just stood under the water and cried. The water was so hot it burned my skin, but the physical pain eased my emotional pain, so I didn’t bother to turn it off. When I couldn’t take anymore, I shut the water off just in time to hear the pizza guy ring the doorbell.
    I rushed downstairs and grabbed a couple slices of the extra cheese pizza and went back up to my room to watch some TV while I ate.
    I had almost forgotten about the events of the day when the ten o’clock news started.
    “Breaking news: an amazing emergency landing was performed by the sixteen-year-old Mark Anthony Ryser after he ran out of fuel.”
    The news anchor then proceeded to show footage from the helicopter.
    I watched myself stumble out the airplane and glance around, looking dazed and confused. My forehead was bleeding worse than I remembered. I gazed in awe as I almost fell but barely caught myself. I saw the Burlington police officer park her patrol car as she rushed over to help me. She sat me on the grass, and in no time at all, she had assessed the situation and opened her first aid kit while checking my limbs and head. She flashed a flashlight in my eyes, which I didn’t remember. Come to think of it, she did a lot of things that I didn’t remember. I guess I was truly in shock.
    The news cut to someone reporting live from the scene of the accident.
    “Good evening. For many of us, this was a day to remember during this holiday shopping season. After all, it’s not every day we see an airplane land on the interstate. Luckily, no one was seriously hurt.”
    “Is it true that he was just a kid?” the news anchor asked. “Here at the station, we heard that he’s just sixteen.”
    “That’s right, Phillip. Sixteen-year-old Mark was performing his first solo flight when the weather suddenly took a turn for the worse. After several failed attempts to land at Hanscom field, the young pilot ran out of fuel and had to land on the interstate.”
    “Wow, this is just amazing. This kid is a hero.”
    “Well, that’s debatable. He could’ve hit the Burlington Mall. One little miscalculation on his part and hundreds could’ve been hurt,” said the reporter in the field.
    I really didn’t like that guy. I wondered what he would have said if he knew I hadn’t done any calculations at all; there weren’t any to do.
    “I personally think he’s a hero. I can’t imagine being sixteen and having to perform an emergency landing on the busiest New England interstate,” the news anchor said in my defense. I was so tired that I couldn’t even appreciate the fact that he was trying to help me, so I changed the channel to Comedy Central to see if I could relax a bit and hopefully fall asleep.
    Maybe I should skip school tomorrow
, I thought.
I’m sure all anybody will want to talk about is my emergency landing. I will probably have to explain it a million times to Jonas, my best friend, but at least him I can stand
.
    I ended up spending most of my Friday sitting in front of the computer playing video games in my pajamas; I couldn’t bear the thought of going to school.
    It was almost four o’clock when the