Accidents Happen A Novel

CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT



‘No, Jago,’ Kate said, braking on the single-track country road, right outside the airfield. She knew her action would block traffic. She didn’t care. ‘Not a chance in hell.’

She put her hands on the top of the steering wheel, and tensed her jaw.

Jago snorted with laughter.

‘What?’ she snapped.

‘I was just thinking I was glad you didn’t have a brick in your hand.’

She realized he was trying to stop smiling. She shook her head, determined not to be coerced into joining him. He took both her hands in his.

‘Listen. Hear me out,’ he said.

She sat stiffly. ‘I can’t believe this. Why on earth would you think I would do this?’

He held her hands tighter. His tone softened. ‘Kate, listen. You mentioned skydiving. I’ve always wanted to do it. After the canal boat, I looked it up on a whim, and found this course. I had nothing else to do last Sunday, so . . .’

She looked out of the window at a small plane taking off, praying for him to say this was a joke. That they were now driving on to some nearby village pub for lunch.

‘. . . So I came here and did a one-day static-line course. Did my first jump on Monday.’

She looked at him, disbelieving. He lifted his hand and she realized he was trying to hide a beaming grin.

What had she done? She should never have told him.

‘Please tell me this is a joke.’ But then she saw his tapping fingers, the wired tension of his body, and realized she’d seen it before. Hundreds of times, at the parachute school in New Zealand.

He wasn’t joking.

‘Four times!’ Jago exclaimed, making her jump. He laughed at her reaction. ‘Sorry, I’m completely wired. The adrenalin just . . .’ He blew out his cheeks. ‘Whoo! Sorry, I’ve hardly slept. I’m completely high on it. Addicted. Do you know what I mean?’

Kate let her head fall helplessly. She knew exactly what he meant. It was how it had been for her the first week she’d jumped, too. Weakly, she shook it. ‘Jago. Please tell me you don’t think that I . . .’

There was a loud beep behind them. She looked in her mirror to see a lorry approaching from behind.

‘You’d better, um . . .’ Jago said, jerking his head towards the opening to the airfield.

With no choice, Kate took off her handbrake and turned into the long driveway. Before she could pull in again, a minibus appeared from behind the lorry, and followed her up the narrow drive, forcing her to continue towards the airfield.

Jago perched on his seat, like a schoolboy who’d done something naughty and got away with it.

‘OK, listen. I know you’re mad, but it’s going to be amazing.’

Was he mad? ‘I’m not jumping, Jago,’ Kate said resolutely, as they bumped along the driveway into a half-full car park. She swung round in front of three brown hangars, and put her foot on the brake hard, without turning off the engine.

Jago kept tapping his fingers.

Ten small two-seater aircraft, their wings like flattened rabbit ears across their little mousey noses, sat in the grass airfield beyond the fence, signposted to keep spectators OUT. A group of grinning charity jumpers stood lined up on the other side in matching T-shirts, having a photo taken.

Hang on. Kate swivelled around. She knew this place. This was where she had done her refresher course five years ago, with Hugo and Jack in tow.

This was real. Not a joke.

Jago leaned over carefully, put the car in neutral, pulled on the handbrake for her and turned off the key.

‘Kate. Come here,’ he said gently. She was so shaken, she let him, yet keeping her body rigid in protest as he wrapped his arms around her. ‘Right, listen. First of all, I’m doing it with you. And, second, it’s incredibly safe. We did all that stuff on Sunday about how to deal with line twists and cell-end problems, and you know yourself that even if the main parachute did malfunction, you have a reserve. Kate, you know all this. I mean, how many times have you jumped – twenty?’

Kate kept her eyes on the floor of the car, shaking her head gently.

‘Twenty-six.’

‘Shit. Have you really? Well, there you go.’

Panic pulsed through her at the thought of what he was asking. ‘No,’ she exclaimed. She jerked out of Jago’s arms, pushing them aside. ‘I’m not doing it. There’s no way.’

But he wouldn’t let her go. He grabbed her hands again. ‘Listen. You’re not doing a free fall from 12,000 feet like you used to. This is just a little static-line jump from 3,500 feet. A piece of piss for someone who’s done free fall. All you have to do is jump, let the static line pull out your chute for you, then enjoy it.’

She looked past Jago’s shoulder to the canteen garden, where she saw a man and woman doing the ‘pre-jump dance’ she recognized from New Zealand, sucking too fast on their cigarettes, turning randomly one way, then the other, as they waited for their jump, grinning at each other manically.

She felt Jago’s eyes on her. ‘Come on, Kate. Step Five. Face the Final Fear.’

‘Jago, it’s just not that simple,’ she said, her shocked brain desperately looking for a way out. ‘I can’t just jump. I don’t have my licence.’

He sat back. ‘OK, well, don’t be mad but I gave them your details and they found it on the international register.’ She stared. He was serious about this. ‘As long as you match the online photo, and you show them a bankcard or something. And they want you to do a half-day refresher course one-to-one with an instructor, too.’

A droning noise approached. Kate saw the nine-seat Islander far above them. A little figure appeared mid-air. There was a burst of yellow in the bright blue sky as the static line from the plane pulled out a parachute. She watched the tiny figure wriggling for a moment then relax back into the jump.

Right at that moment, Kate had a flashback to New Zealand so powerful she almost gasped.

She was up there, thousands of feet up in the sky.

Hearing the loud drone of the propellers dropping away into silence.

Feeling the wind whistling on her face.

Her limbs losing all resistance.

Relaxing like never before.

Falling into the void.

Utter euphoria descending.

Flying like a bird.

And, all of a sudden, unbelievably, Kate wanted that feeling again.

Jago pulled her to him again, and this time she did not resist.

She had loved it.

‘Oh my God,’ she whispered.

Jago murmured in her ear. ‘Listen, you were going to do it after your parents died. This time it’s even more important. You need to restart your life, Kate. You said yourself, Jack needs you.’

She watched the jumper gracefully turn in a semicircle back towards the white arrow on the landing field.

Could she do that again?

Jago carried on. ‘And for us, too. Let’s make it the start of how we plan to go on. Having fun together.’

She let him move even closer and nuzzle into her ear. He kissed her cheek, once, twice, three times, playfully. For a second, she thought of Jack and the way they used to show their love to each other so unabashedly when he was a toddler, and how she wanted that again. She imagined telling Jack she had jumped out of a plane today. Seeing the pride in his eyes as he told his friends. His mum was not weird and anxious. She was fun and brave.

‘What are you asking me? We jump once and it’s over?’

Jago’s eyes shone with delight as he realized she was considering it. ‘Once and it’s over. Then we head straight back to Balliol and lock ourselves in my room for the rest of the weekend.’

His words reached inside her and unlocked a door. She felt the anxiety rush out of her, and turned and met his lips full on. The waves that had started in her kitchen last Saturday when he kissed her pulsed back through her body.

As Jago kissed her, she thought of what he’d done for her. He’d faced his own fears up in that plane, to help her return to life. He was giving her a chance to jump back into the real world, faster than she’d ever imagined, and he was going to do it with her.

‘OK,’ she whispered.