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talking about it when he came in last night.”
    “Maybe we’re getting that smog like up in L.A.” In the next instant, Eileen knew what it was, from a flash of intuition or some other source. “No. Something’s coming.” She got up and hurried back to the house on the excuse that she wanted to check on Luke. He was sitting up in bed, smiling, his face radiant with peace. “I’m not afraid now. I saw him. Everything’s going to be fine. It’s really happening.”
    “When did you know?”
    “Just a minute ago. He was here and I saw him and he told me.”
    “I knew a minute ago too. On the porch. I saw the sky and I knew. She slipped then into his arms in the tiny, fragile way that always reminded him of his love for her. Without words it was clear now that they shared a view of a future that was unimaginable a few months ago. Their tomorrows now could be endless and limitless. Their children could grow in a world of knowledge and freedom from all the troubles that had been the underlying fabric of daily life.
    When they finally pulled back to look at one another, Luke saw that the joyfulness in Eileen’s smile had returned. It was the essential thing about her that he had fallen in love with on that first day. It was her capacity for complete and uncontrolled happiness, now intensified by the idea that real happiness would be commonplace.
    “I’ve been somewhere for a while, Ei. But seeing him made everything okay again. No more of the craziness. No more living in hiding. We can take down the fence and go out again like normal people. We’re taking back our life.”
    “I was just thinking the same thing. Well, not thinking exactly. More like feeling it or dreaming it, ya know?”
    “Yeah. Me too. A dream, but not a dream.”
    “I just came out of it and I could only think of you. The way you’ve taken care of me, of everything. I’ve missed you so much, missed us. I was just gone for a while, but I knew you were there.”
    “It’s alright. You needed help and you gave yourself over to me. Do you know how much your trusting me that way meant?”
    The reporters were waiting for Bill Flowers and Jim McGowan as they stepped out of the operations center. A two-hour meeting with the FAA district manager had produced little explanation for the plane-wrenching turbulence occurring everywhere. “What happened to you up there? What was it?” The chorus of questions overlapped and merged until they were indistinguishable.
    “I don’t have any idea. It wasn’t like anything we’ve seen before. It was terrifying and I guess I would say it was . . .” Flowers paused, weighing the word before speaking it. “And beautiful. It was just beautiful is all I can think to say. I’ve never been so happy as up there. I’m sorry it’s over.”
    He knew he’d said too much. But he wanted them to know, somehow, a small part of what he’d felt. He wanted them to know there was another reality that he’d sensed in the warm, glowing, loving light. He wanted everyone to feel the sureness and peace that had been his for an instant.
    The reporters drew quiet, regarding him with a sudden, solemn stillness. One broke the silence. “So far, thirty other pilots on flights in different parts of the country have said the same exact thing. So have their passengers.” What the reporters didn’t know yet was that the passengers and crews from all the affected flights now intuitively understood that they had caught a glimpse of the near future. A world to come had been revealed.

Chapter 16
    “Everything’s changed now.” Luke spoke with a quiet, assured intensity that Jake had never seen before. “He was with me last night. Not a dream. Something else. But anyway, he made me know everything I need. I mean, I know for certain that it’s all real. Eileen had the same thing, the same kind of revelation.”
    “So, what are ya gonna say on the air tonight? The whole deal?” Luke was already clear about that. “I’m gonna