Chapter 22: That Distant Echo

24 November 2018 – Ski Breckenridge Resort, Breckenridge, Colorado

“You shoulda seen it, Mom! It was kinda awesome!”

“Mia, don’t make fun of Sabrina,” Helen chided her youngest while the family ate dinner at their rented house. “I’m guessing this is a pretty big deal for her, given the way she’s pushing her food around her plate.”

Sabrina looked up at the comment to see Helen smiling at her with a twinkle in her eye. She looked back down and continued to push her food around while her mind whirled. The truth was that Tommy’s kiss unlocked a lot of feelings for him she didn’t know she had. Those feelings could create many complications for her and him, however.

Sabrina still had a year and a half left at the Academy, eighteen very busy months. She would have classes, instructor duties, wing leadership responsibilities, and hockey – all competing for her limited time. Next year, she and her classmates would plan all parts of cadet life for the entire wing – over four thousand cadets. After graduation, she would attend training for whichever job the Air Force selected her for.

That would require reporting to another base, as would her follow-on assignments. Sabrina owed the Air Force a minimum of five years’ service following initial training in exchange for attending the Academy, and at least ten if selected for pilot training. Her goal of becoming an astronaut would require a commitment of many more years from her beyond that.

“Sabrina?”

Looking up, Sabrina discovered that Helen was the only other person left at the table. She hadn’t noticed before that Joe and the girls weren’t there.

“You care for him, don’t you?”

Sabrina nodded.

“I’ve known him since before we started preschool. We grew up together, neighbors. Why haven’t I ever noticed these feelings for him inside me, Helen? He’s always been right there as my best friend, but now – BLAM!”

“Sabrina, would people describe you as ‘driven?’”

She looked at her sponsor, an Academy graduate herself

“That pretty much describes everyone at the Academy, doesn’t it?”

“Right. People like us who are so focused on one particular goal often have what’s known as ‘tunnel vision.’ We tend to block out everything else while trying to reach our goals. Your dad’s a paramedic. They can get that way on calls and have to guard against it, too.” Sabrina looked off into the distance, her mind still a jumble. “Mia said your friend’s at one of the hotels nearby. Take the car, go see him, and get the four-one-one. Or whatever it is you kids say these days.”

Sabrina sat in the parking lot of Tommy’s hotel with no memory of the drive over. She shook her head to clear it before texting Tommy. Once inside the lobby, Sabrina settled into a chair that offered a clear view of the elevators. She was in the chair perhaps ten seconds before someone called to her.

“Hey, Sabrina.”

She jumped a mile.

“Where did you come from, Tommy?” she asked, willing her heart rate to slow.

“I took the stairs down once I saw your text. We’re only up on the third floor, and the elevator would have taken too long. I’m sorry I startled you.”

“You’ve startled me in more ways than one, today, Tom,” she muttered.

“Yeah, we haven’t even hinted at that, have we?” he asked, meaning their kiss. Sabrina shook her head. “Let’s take this into the lounge so we can talk a little more privately, okay?”

They found a booth at the back of the lounge where they could talk without being overheard. She took a sip of her juice.

“So, what brought all this on, Tommy? The move? That kiss?”

Sabrina’s friend sighed.

“Westfield State seemed a good fit for me, and it was at first. I made friends right away and did well in my classes. As the semester went on though, I couldn’t settle in. I couldn’t figure out why, but something wasn’t clicking. I finished the year near the top of my class anyway and went home to Lancaster for the summer. I got a lower-than-entry-level job in the finance department at Dad’s law firm, just barely above minimum wage. It gave me practical experience in the stuff I learned freshman year.

“When I went back to Westfield for my sophomore year, I hoped everything would finally start going as smoothly as things did for me in high school. It didn’t. Everything still felt off to me. I kept my grades up, and my friends were still there for me, though. I finally figured out what was wrong when I went home last Christmas.

“You stopped by to say hi to my family and me when you came home. Seeing you blew me away. The moment I saw you, I knew what had been missing all along: you, Sabrina. You’re what’s been missing in my life. Your not being there is why I was so off-center for those eighteen months. Once I got over the shock, I spent half of the spring semester last year figuring out how to fix that and the second half of it executing that plan. I transferred to Denver in the fall to be closer to you, at least. If fate hadn’t brought us together today, I was going to try and contact you after New Year’s.”

Sabrina’s head spun, trying to process his story.

“Tommy, my life at the Academy has gotten busier each year I’ve been there, and it’s going to get even worse before I graduate. After I graduate, it won’t be any picnic, either. Following graduation is initial training. Once I complete that, I owe the Air Force five years. If they select me for pilot training, I’ll owe them ten years from when I get my wings. I’ll want to stay in after that to be selected for astronaut training, but there’s no guarantee I will be selected. It’s still all very uncertain.”

Tommy unlocked his phone and tapped a few times. Music played from the small speakers. A steady rhythm on a piano defined the beat while synthesized notes swirled around them. The song built and built until the start of the last verse when the original, slower tempo returned. The song repeated.

“After I saw you last year, Sabrina, I came across this song. Back then, I looked up everything I could about the Air Force. I wanted to learn what I might be in for if this crazy idea works out. This was the background music for a video about Air Force parajumpers. I stumbled across it after following link upon link.

“It asked the most important question I had to ask myself: was I going to walk away from the feelings I discovered I had for you all these years? That answer was, of course, ‘no.’ The song also expresses how I feel and addresses the point you made about uncertainty.

“Do you hear that line in the second verse? ‘I want pinned down / I want unsettled.’ I’m gonna be the pinned-down one, the stable accountant. The one making people cringe at parties when I tell them what I do for work. You’ll be the unpredictable, exciting one with the crowd around you when people learn you’re a pilot, especially if you’re a fighter pilot. That’s just the way things are. There are a limited number of places the Air Force can station you. As an accountant, I can find work almost anywhere. Sure, if I want to get into forensic accounting, that would change things, but not much.”

“You’ve given this a lot of thought, Tom. By the way, the lyrics don’t actually say that ... It’s ‘I won’t pin down / I’ve walked unsettled... ‘“

“Whatever. But I had to, Sabrina. I know I’m dumping this on you all at once, and I’m sorry about that. I’m trying to take a page from your dad’s book here, however: go big or go home.”

She nodded to her long-time best friend. He had just laid everything on the line by offering her his heart. Now she had to decide if she was going to accept it – or break it.

“I don’t want to give you anything more to think about tonight, Sabrina. I’ve already given you plenty. Archie and I have to be out of the hotel by eleven o’clock tomorrow morning, and I’d like to see you again before we all leave. I’ll understand if that won’t work, though.”

Tommy walked Sabrina out to the Gallardos’ SUV. There, he gathered her in his arms and kissed her again.

The next time she saw her, Sabrina was going to absolutely kick Erica Thorisson’s ass for not telling her how good a kisser Tommy Jones was. Sabrina put her arms around Tommy’s neck and cupped the back of his head. He put his arms around her waist and pulled her close.

She didn’t care how cold it was out. She wished the kiss never had to end. When it did, the breathless Air Force Academy cadet needed a few moments to gather herself before climbing into the driver’s seat. Tommy waved as she drove away.

Sabrina heard Helen and Joe putting the girls to bed upstairs when she arrived back at the rented house. At eleven and nine, they didn’t really need the help anymore. Bedtime was family time, however, and that was something the Gallardos grabbed as much of as they could.