A WING AND A PRAYER Page #2

I wrote this story because it is a true experience of mine and has two happy endings. It is a heartwarming story that this crazy world of ours could use more of.

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Sounds like the end of the story, right? Nope, that’s just happy ending number one. 
Now, this part, is nothing short of amazing. Fast forward twenty two years, to about a few months ago. One day, I get a letter in the mail, guess who from? Michael, the grandson, who is now in his early thirties, and married himself. He came across my name and address, and thought I would like to know an update on the famous plane with no wings story. It turns out that Michael’s grandfather had died about two years after his surprise of getting the plane at the field. He never could get up the nerve to fly that plane because he wasn’t taking any chances on anything happening to it ever again. And so it just sat up in grandpa’s attic, for the last twenty years. 
     One day, he had to go up in the attic to look for something, and he spotted the plane in the corner, still covered the way he had left it twenty two years ago. He uncovered it, and kept looking at it, and then the promise he had made to grandpa came to mind. That whenever he wanted to be with grandpa, all he had to do was to take the plane to the field and fly it into the clouds so grandpa could jump it, then they could spend some time together. He had never kept that promise yet, and he figured now was the time. He took the plane down from the attic, and told his wife it was time to keep his promise to grandpa, and fly the plane into the clouds, and he left for the park. When he got there, there were still some old timers that knew Michael, and the whole story behind the plane, and they all greeted him with loving arms and told him how much they missed his grandpa.
     He got the plane prepared, and started it. He taxied along the runway, and gently took off perfectly into the wild blue yonder. The plane handled beautifully, doing rollovers and dives, everything that was asked of it with no problem. His grandfather’s old friend Jerry came over to Michael and said, “It looks beautiful Michael, you’re grandfather would be so proud of you. ”Michael smiled, and felt the same way too. He brought the plane around to the far end of the field, and then made a long low and slow flying pass the length of the runway. But when the plane flew past Michael, Michael took a double-take, because he swore he saw his grandpa’s face in the side window of the plane waving at him. He shook his head like,” What the heck was that?” He made another pass and looked closely at the cockpit as it flew by, nothing. He did it two more times, but still nothing in the cockpit. Finally he just figured it was his imagination, and forgot about it. All of a sudden, Michael heard the one sound that all fliers don’t want to hear, he heard his motor sputter, and shut off in mid flight, he had just run out of gas! Michael’s heart sank, Oh my God he thought, I’m going to crash grandpa’s plane again, please God, don’t let that happen. No sooner had the engine stalled, but the wind started to pick up making it even harder to control. Michael was beside himself with fear. He was doing everything he could to control the flight of the plane and get it into landing position for the runway approach. As he was nearing the field, the plane was getting thrown all over the place. He was so upset he just wanted to run away, but knew that was not an option. He just couldn’t let that happen to grandpa’s plane again. 
                    Just as the plane got near the beginning of the runway, to make the touchdown, the strangest thing happened, the wind just shut off completely as if someone threw a switch. The plane settled down, and glided to a perfect landing right in front of Michael. Everyone at the field knew what was going on, and they all cheered and applauded Michael, it was unbelievable. Michael just wanted to get home and put that plane away forever, he was never again going to fly it and take another chance of it crashing. He started to pack everything up. He put his table and chair in the car, then the plane’s wing, and then the fuselage. All he had left was the remote control, and the box it went into, As Michael slipped the remote into its box, he stopped dead in his tracks and looked. There, in front of the remote box, were the four new batteries for the remote. Michael had picked up his grandfather’s habit of putting four new batteries into the remote every time he would go out flying. He didn’t have to, but he always felt better doing it. “Gee”, he thought “ Thank God the old batteries held up for the flight after all those years of not using them”. He opened the battery box to replace the batteries with the new ones so he wouldn’t have to worry the next time he took out one of his other  planes, and stood there in shock, THERE WERE NO BATTERIES IN THE REMOTE CONTROL, NONE! How did he control the plane throughout the whole flight, no less the landing? He walked over to the car, and when he put the box in, he noticed the wing of the plane, and the name on the wing, “ANSWERED PRAYERS” All he could think of was that God and grandpa, went flying with him and landed that plane. There just could be no other explanation, none. Michael finally made it home, and when he got into the house, his wife asked,” Well, did you and grandpa have a good flight?” Michael smiled at her and said,” Yeah, you could say that, we made a good crew, the three of us”. “The three of you? Who was the third?” “GOD”, said Michael, GOD was with grandpa in that plane for the whole flight”. His wife looked at him with a very puzzled look. Michael just smiled at her and headed up to the attic with the plane. He put the plane back where it was, and gently covered it with a sheet, and walked towards the stairs. At the top of the stairs, he paused, and shut the light, looked  towards the plane, and whispered, “ Thank you GOD, and thank you grandpa”, and left the attic. Michael never flew that plane again, but he knew one thing, he had finally kept his promise to grandpa, and that was all he needed to know.
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