Jack woke up in a coast guard helicopter
on a stretcher. Every breath he took
stung his lungs and the pain in his chest
was almost unbearable.
He quickly sat up in his stretcher and
looked at the ocean below to see the
plane he was a passenger on only a few
hours ago, sinking deep into the black
waters of the Gulf of Mexico. “Sofia!
Rebecca!” He screamed at the ocean
below, but he knew that nothing he ever
did could bring them back.
1 year later Jack found himself in a
downtown
New York coffee shop watching the news
and drinking his coffee, which was black of course,
due to the fact that every sweet thing to him now
tasted sour. Ever since the “accident”, as he
referred to it, his life had changed for the worse.
He constantly regretted his idiocy for hating his
family and knew that he was not the father that
he wanted to be, the one he should have been.
Nothing could have brought back his daughter and the last thing that he said to her was “No!" And his dear wife Rebecca, who he took for granted all of these years, was no longer around to remind him to do the dishes or take his medication. What was he going to do with the rest of his life? Would his newfound depression lead him into a dead end in life? But in the middle of his train of thought, his waitress came by to refill his coffee and ended up spilling the coffee all over the table and herself. As Jack was preparing to yell at this young waitress, he took a second to think. “Was this really her fault? Is she okay? What can I do to help this poor woman?” Jack then helped her clean up the coffee and took her to the bathroom to get cleaned up. “Thank you so much! I can’t tell you how many people would have just let me clean this up myself!” his waitress said. “I’m Megan what’s your name?” she asked sincerely. Jack stuttered his name as he was truly looking at her for the first time, and hadn’t noticed this women’s immense beauty. “Megan” Jack stumbled into saying, “Can I buy you a coffee or something?” Jack asked. “I actually don’t drink coffee, but I would be happy to meet you somewhere tonight!” Megan said ironically.
2 hours later, Jack was on his first date since the accident and was a nervous wreck. He was determined to not let it show, but he knew that eventually she would find out about the accident and not want to be involved in his life. To his surprise, when she did find out about the accident, she replied with, “I’m sorry for your loss and it is all over now. The past is the past and if you do not want to talk about it, well… that is your decision!” It was at this moment that he knew that he was in love.
2 years later, Jack was preparing for another date with Megan, and had decided that he was going to propose to her. He took her to the coffee shop where they first met and he said, “Megan. I know I have had a rocky past and I have lost people that I still love and miss very much. But you have taught me that you can’t spend your entire life mourning. Every second I am with you I can’t help but smile, something that took me almost a year to do after the plane crash. You gave me my life back, you saved me, and without you I am blind to this world. The connection that we share is impossible to describe in any other way than this. Megan, I need you in my life because you are my life. You are my everything, and I don’t want to ever lose you. Jack then got down on one knee, his good knee, and proposed to Megan. She ended up making him wait another month before she agreed, but that summer they ended up getting married.
Jack and Megan had children who then had children of their own. This story was passed down throughout the generations of their children and then was given a title that could only describe the horrible events that led to Jack meeting his current wife. That title was Plane Crash on Cloud Nine.