Rhianyn turned her eyes away from the smoke, which was now visible from the cockpit and could be seen by anyone in the cabin as well, she was sure.
“New York, I said the World Trade Center was hit by a low-flying airplane, repeat the World Trade Center has been hit by a plane!”
Abby covered her mouth with her hand, trying to stifle a gasp. Eric, one of the flight attendants, entered the cockpit at that moment.
“Captain, we’re seeing smoke below, somewhere in Manhattan,” he exclaimed. “We’re starting to pass it now, but the passengers can see it.”
“Keep the passengers calm,” Rhianyn instructed. “That’s your primary concern. Tell Nisha and Jen as well. I’ll be making an announcement soon.”
Eric nodded and returned to the cabin. Abby looked stunned.
“Abby,” Rhianyn said to her, “you got this, okay? We’re gonna get through this. I need you to take the helm and maintain our course to SFO. I have to get on the com.”
Abby nodded, understanding, and took over flight operations. Rhianyn exhaled, then activated the mic to address the cabin.
“Ladies and gentlemen, this is your captain. You might’ve noticed smoke rising from Manhattan earlier as we were passing over. We’ve beyond that vantage point right now, currently over New Jersey and continuing on our flight to San Francisco. We don’t know exactly what happened to cause that smoke, but as information comes in, we’ll be sure to communicate that to you during the flight. The important thing is to be at ease, remain calm, and keep electronic devices turned off until we reach our cruising altitude. If you have any special requests or needs, please be sure to let our flight crew know. Thank you, and we’ll be communicating with you as things develop.”
Rhianyn switched off the com and turned to Abby. “You know, and I know,” she explained. “Our job as pilots of a commercial plane is first and foremost the safety of our passengers. Parents can’t always tell their children everything. They have to think of their children’s safety first. We’re like parents, and those passengers are children. Make sense? I know… it’s hard sometimes.”
Abby didn’t verbally respond, but she continued to man the helm. Rhianyn gave it another couple minutes before saying it.
“I’m sorry I slapped your hand,” she apologized. “In times like these I sometimes forget that my First Officer is like my co-parent… not one of my children. I apologize for treating you like that and forgetting.”
Abby managed a smile and finally gave a reply. “That’s okay, Mom,” she said in jest. “Just double my allowance next week and we’ll call it even.”
Rhianyn laughed lightly. “I’ll take the helm for a bit. Take a break, kiddo.”
Flight 1042 was over eastern Pennsylvania when Rhianyn got the news over airborne common that a second plane had hit the World Trade Center less than 20 minutes after the first crash. Some passengers had already received calls on their cell phones. The word was out. America was under attack.
Rhianyn was about to offer an updated and candid announcement over the com when the word came in from the FAA on the radio.
“All flights in U.S. airspace are ordered to begin landing immediately at the nearest airport. Coordinate with local air traffic control and your airline HQ. Repeat, all flights in U.S. airspace must land immediately or as soon as it’s safe to do so at the nearest airport. We are grounding all flights in U.S. airspace. Continue to monitor FAA emergency channels.”
Rhianyn checked one of her screens. “ETA to Harrisburg International?” she asked Abby. Her co-pilot checked. “MDT 25 minutes at current speed.”
Rhianyn nodded and got on the com. “Ladies and gentlemen, this is your captain again. As I’m sure you’ve learned by now… Within the past half hour, the World Trade Center in New York has been hit by two hijacked planes. Information is still coming in regarding what happened. The FAA has declared a state of emergency and ordered all flights in U.S. airspace to land at the nearest airport. This flight will be proceeding to Harrisburg International Airport in Middletown, Pennsylvania and landing there. Cavalier Airlines will attempt to keep you updated as best as possible with regards to alternative transportation to your final destination.”
She paused for a moment, her voice beginning to tremble as she delivered her final remark. “Please pray for each other, our families, and especially our country at this time. Flight attendants, prepare for landing.”
Rhianyn turned off the mic. She motioned to Abby. “Please get on the radio to Harrisburg and clear our arrival. I need to… stay occupied and take us in for our landing.” She fell silent, manning the helm.
Abby made the call, then waited a couple minutes before speaking to her captain again. Out of the cockpit window, they could see the earth below getting closer as they made their descent, preparing to abort their flight to SFO and land in Pennsylvania.
“This was my first time,” she clarified, answering Rhianyn’s question from earlier, except this time offering a serious reply. “My first time flying a Boeing Triple Seven.”
The phone lines were jammed for the next couple days. Rhianyn wasn’t able to get through to Lorewyn until Thursday, and it wasn’t until Sunday that she actually returned home in person. Rhianyn wasn’t sure how long she stayed in her wife’s embrace that day when they were reunited, but she knew it was a long time.
It was three days later before Rhianyn actually talked with Lorewyn about what had happened. With the debriefs and all the talking she had to do with the airlines, the FAA, and other official channels regarding the tragic events of September 11, 2001, she just needed a bit of time and space… and Lorewyn gave that to her.
“How many people died that day, Yellowfeather?” she asked as they sat on the couch in their home in Santa Rosa. “Do you remember? Did you ever count?”
“Well, it was only a few days ago, Blackbird,” Lorewyn replied. “I think they’re still trying to find people, searching the rubble, and…”
“No, not what happened a few days ago,” Rhianyn clarified. “The war. The Second Sylestian War. The one we fought in. The Crescent Mountains. The Hill Country. All of it. Did you ever count? Did anyone ever count?”
Lorewyn looked at her wife. She had seen this kind of pain in Rhianyn before. It was rare, but when she was hurting, deeply, Lorewyn could tell. The kind of deep hollow hurt that she felt when she learned her mother Nyssina had died in that Dragon attack on Olvenshire. She wasn’t sure how to respond.
“No, I don’t think anyone did,” she answered. “I never did, no.”
“Why not?” Rhianyn asked, although it wasn’t so much a question as a reaching. “Why didn’t anyone ever count? People here in this realm counted the deaths in World War I, World War II, Korea, Vietnam, and other wars where lives were lost. Some counts were estimates, but they tried to count. Like for example, it’s believed that we lost 3,000 lives a few days ago in those four plane crashes. People have been counting. Why didn’t we ever count how many people died in our wars in Cordysia, Yellowfeather? Why didn’t we even try?”
Lorewyn leaned in and put her arms around her grieving beloved wife. “I don’t know, Blackbird. I honestly don’t have an answer for that.”
“Is it because we want to forget wars like that?” Rhianyn continued, tears starting to form in her steel grey eyes. “Because as Elves we live too long and those memories haunt us century after century? Because we’d be forced to remember not only people we love like our mothers and dear comrades like Shyntiel and Ashlyn, but also the multitude of others, thousands upon thousands of others who had names, families, loved ones, lives… and if we actually count we’d have to memorialize them as well in our reflections during reverie… and it would drive us insane? But we allow ourselves to wage war without having to truly face those costs, don’t we? We pay the price we want to afford, not the full note that should properly come due upon our minds and souls. That note we don’t want to pay, do we? If we actually had to pay that note, we wouldn’t be so cavalier about wa
r, I think.”
She stopped for a moment, looking up and into her wife’s eyes. “I’ve lived so long, Yellowfeather… I’ve killed so many in my life, and I’ve watched even more get killed. And I never counted… I never bothered counting. Is life so cheap to me that I never counted? I counted how much money we lost in the Stock Market Crash of 1929. I never counted the people who died by my hand… or in the wars in which I fought. A few days ago, 3,000 people were killed… and I watched some of that number die from a distance. I don’t want to forget that number. I don’t want to forget those people.”
Rhianyn was now sobbing, her head resting on Lorewyn’s breast, her arms around her. “I don’t want to ever forget,” she cried.
Lorewyn felt her heart cry with her wife’s tears, and sat there with Rhianyn, holding her, her eyes closed.
“We’ll remember together, Blackbird… we’ll remember together.”
CHAPTER 28
It was May of 2008 when Rhianyn showed Lorewyn the article in The Press Democrat. The Supreme Court of California had officially ruled that same-sex marriage was legal in a recent case, overturning a previous ban.
“I want us to get legally married,” she told Lorewyn.
“I remember you saying not long ago when Mayor Gavin Newsom approved same-sex marriage licenses in San Francisco, even though it was technically against state law at the time, that marriage was just a piece of paper,” Lorewyn mused, quoting her wife’s words from about four years earlier.
“I know what I said, you S’trysthyl,” Rhianyn replied, taking the newspaper and swatting Lorewyn with it playfully. “And yes, marriage is just a piece of paper… but it’s a piece of paper that carries some weight in this society. I know, we’ve been domestic partners for a long time, publicly living as such for the past three decades. But in Cordysia, where we joined, it didn’t work like it does here… you know that. Joining was an act that was recognized equally amongst our kindred, regardless of sex. The Humans of this realm who are same-sex couples are still fighting that battle for legal recognition. This is a big step in the right direction! I want to honor that step by getting married legally, you and me.”
Lorewyn just smiled and took Rhianyn’s hand. “You’re my wife,” she said. “Paper or no paper, we’re joined both in manner by Cordysian ritual and in the manner of our hearts and pledge to one another… that choice we make each day to love the other. To be validated as a couple in society is to have that love honored. So yes… I will marry you, Rhianyn, daughter of Traphaunes and Nyssina.”
They kissed. Lorewyn pulled away after a moment and looked at Rhianyn, a hint of mischief in her eyes. “Was that a proposal you gave me a minute ago? I didn’t see you get down on your knees… and I don’t see a ring anywhere.”
Rhianyn scoffed, putting her palm up to her face for a second, then reaching for the box of Froot Loops that was on the kitchen table next to them. She grabbed one of the small cereal circles.
“Here’s a ring.” She threw it at Lorewyn, laughing. “It’s even green!”
They did get rings, however. Both of them… a matching set. They wrote their own vows. And they set a date to be married in San Francisco City Hall… June 21st.
Lorewyn had used some connections from her days at UC Berkeley to book an officiant for their ceremony. It was a very simple ceremony, but Lorewyn had arranged it to be performed by the District Attorney of San Francisco, who happened to be available for the occasion… Kamala Harris.
The smiles on the faces of Lorewyn and Rhianyn, and the joy in their hearts, as they said those two magic words, “I do,” in front of a civic magistrate and legally sealed their marriage was one of the happiest days of their lives.
When the rings had been exchanged and the official proclamation of “partners and wives, in life and in love” had been made, Lorewyn surprised her wife by presenting her with a single purple foxglove bloom.
“Always,” she whispered to her.
Brett and Gail Williams had bought the property across the road from Lorewyn and Rhianyn’s house in the Bennett Valley area of Santa Rosa about ten years earlier, not long in fact after Lorewyn and Rhianyn themselves had moved to Sonoma County from Berkeley. They were in their late 40’s, two kids in college, with a full-sized truck and a camper. They were members of the Church of Christ. Lorewyn and Rhianyn had gotten to know them a bit initially, and were on friendly terms for a while… and then Gail invited them to attend church. Lorewyn and Rhianyn accepted the invitation as an act of neighborly kindness… they were no strangers to Christianity, after all, having had a considerable history through the Middle Ages and later. However, it became clear after one visit that the Williams’ intention had been to corner the two women on the “sin” of their lesbian relationship and marriage. The awkward conversation with the pastor afterward was pretty strong evidence of that!
So, they avoided the Williamses best they could. Both Lorewyn and Rhianyn were cordial if and when they ran into them in the neighborhood, but they kept their distance. That proved challenging, however, after their marriage in San Francisco and later in the year when Proposition 8 was up for voting on the California state ballot.
Prop 8 was a reactionary measure, an effort by those opposed to the pro same-sex marriage court ruling, trying to get a state constitutional amendment passed to once again ban gays and lesbians from being legally married. It wouldn’t nullify existing marriages, such as Lorewyn and Rhianyn’s, but would prevent future same-sex marriages. Domestic partnerships were not affected.
The conflict with the Williamses began when Lorewyn and Rhianyn started noticing Prop 8 yard signs stuck in the ground on their own property, close to the road. They removed these signs quietly, not wanting to get into an unpleasant confrontation about it. But the signs continued to appear, apparently being placed while Lorewyn was teaching classes at Redwood State and Rhianyn was on rotation with the airlines. The only other place in the neighborhood where such signs were appearing was on the Williamses’ property as well. It wasn’t hard to figure out.
Lorewyn arranged for Rhianyn to take her car to SFO one day and hide her motorcycle in the garage. Then, Lorewyn used a sick day and stayed home, keeping out of sight most of the day. She caught Brett placing a sign.
“Brett, I don’t want this to get ugly, please,” she said, confronting him in person. “What you believe is what you believe, and you can post these as much as you want on your own property. That’s your business. But this needs to stop. I don’t want to see another one of these signs on our land again… I mean it.”
“If you knew Jesus,” he countered, “you’d understand that sometimes being a Christian means doing uncomfortable things, things necessary in order to rebuke sin… and you and Marlena are living in sin.”
Lorewyn sighed. There was no point in arguing with this mindset. Unreasonable people aren’t able to be reasoned with… it was a truth she had known for a long time.
“Believe it or not, I actually know Jesus better than you’d ever believe,” Lorewyn offered her final words on the matter. “And I can assure you, this is not how that young Jewish carpenter turned Rabbi from Palestine would handle this situation.” She turned to walk back to the house, but paused, motioning to Brett’s truck across the road in his driveway… a truck that had a Confederate flag sticker in the corner of the rear windshield. “And I sometimes wonder if this anger and hate you’re dealing with is less about the fact that your neighbors are two women married to each other and more about the fact that our country is very close to electing its first African-American President in another few weeks.”
The signs stopped for a while. Barack Obama was elected as the United States of America’s 44th President, the first Black man to hold such office. Prop 8, however, also passed. And then the pamphlets started appearing.
They were right-wing religious anti-gay marriage tracts and brochures. They started showing up under Lorewyn and Rhianyn’s doormat, and in their mailbox. A lot of it included praise for Pr
op 8 and how Christians had struck a blow for “taking back the country in the name of Christ.” Lorewyn and Rhianyn were talking about it one weekend, a month after the election. They were walking together in a very isolated section of Spring Lake Park, on some trails that weren’t commonly used, especially in early December when it was colder. But the view of the lake was pretty here, and Lorewyn and Rhianyn found it to be a nice, scenic place to walk and have “wifey time” that was close by.
“I love Ursula Le Guin,” Lorewyn commented. “You know that. I’ve read all her books. I think she’s one of the best women writers of the past half century. But I don’t go around sticking ‘Team Ursula’ signs on our neighbors’ yards and slipping them Earthsea propaganda under their mats and in their mailboxes!”
“But do you believe that reading Ursula Le Guin and following what she says is necessary for salvation?” Rhianyn suggested. “See, that’s the rub. These evangelical Christians believe that unless you follow what their Bible says, you’ll go to hell.”
“But… Jesus never said a damn thing against two people of the same sex loving each other and getting married to one another!” Lorewyn exclaimed, getting heated. “I know that for a fact! I was actually there, remember? I was actually in the Middle East at that time, trying to discreetly find a place for Krysayra and her group from Cordysia to settle before the realm ended, and I heard the man preach in person! I mean, the word homosexuality wasn’t even added to translations of the Bible until 60 some odd years ago. Where is this surge of fundamentalist homophobic rhetoric coming from, Blackbird? Is it just pushback against progress? Fear that Humans in this realm are starting to come around and realize that love, marital devotion, and partnership are far bigger than their hetero-centric mindset wants to pretend?”
They were rounding a bend with a grove of trees and a slight increase in elevation, when they saw parked next to the lake, still some distance away, a truck. It was instantly recognizable as Brett’s. There was no one else around. In fact, neither Lorewyn nor Rhianyn had seen another soul for the past half hour during their walk.
Two Birds, One Feather: The Lives and Times of Lorewyn & Rhianyn in America Page 28
