Question: How does a twelve year old boy move forward in his life as the lone survivor of an airplane crash that kills 191 people...especially when three of those victims were his family? Answer: Little by little with the support of people who desperately want him to heal.
Ann Napolitan crafts an unusual story. One of my high anxiety moments is getting on a plane, but I choose to do it because my grandkiddos live in CA and it a necessity for me to see them! So imagine my difficulty in opening the first chapter and realizing that the author will give us a "play by play" of the hours preceding the crash. It took me a few days to pick this book back up, but it was a deeply worthwhile decision. Not only does the reader get a glimpse into the lives of everyday people traveling to Los Angeles with hopes and dreams for their futures; but the singular story of Eddie trying to find his hopes and dreams again is heart wrenching as well as uplifting.
When Eddie wakes up in the sterile hospital room to see his stricken aunt and uncle, ready to step into their new parental roles (roles that will be an uphill, day by day struggle), he is numb with denial and pain. Not wanting to move into their "nursery", a reminder of the many losses his aunt has suffered through miscarriages, Eddie chooses to find solace at the neighbor's home. His sleeplessness can only be reversed on the sleeping bag of Shay's bedroom floor each evening. Shay, also twelve, seems to be the one person who can allow Edward (renamed by his aunt) to be himself --and Shay definitely remains herself: brutally frank with questions about his brother Jordan, about the flight, about the "idiot" kids at school, about pushing him to move ahead when he is unsure. Edward doesn't need to tiptoe around Shay as he does so many others, so their relationship gives some normalcy back to his upended life.
So many others step into Edward's world to fill in little pieces of his emptiness. Compassionate Principal Arundhi offers a small job of fern-caring to Edward, not only sharing his joy in flora, but also knowing that Edward might find some peace in developing an interest in something. Ever protective Uncle John eventually discovers ways to communicate better, bringing honesty and vulnerability into Edward's healing. Patient therapist Dr. Mike offers small steps of counsel when Edward wonders why he continues to think about the crash on a daily basis after three years: "What happened is baked into your bones, Edward. It lives under your skin. It's not going away. It's part of you and will be part of you every moment until you die. What you've been working on, since the first time I met you, is learning to live with that." Having experienced the deaths of my two sisters, this line deeply resonated with me. As I muddled through several years of pain, this truth became firmly imbedded: loss does not go away, it becomes a part of your story....but somehow, at some point, God gives the wisdom to learn to live with it.
Juliane Diller had to learn this truth. In 1971 she fell from a burning plane, still strapped to her seat, after lightening struck the wing. This 17 year old had to summon the courage to find her way out of the Peruvian jungle on her own....the sole survivor of the 86 passenger crash. One victim was her mother, who sat right next to her as the plane descended. Her story is also one of learning to live every day with her memories and loss...just like Edward.
Sometimes truth is just as strange as fiction.
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