Christopher Nicole - Her Name Will Be Faith

“Yes,” Richard said.

“And do you accept?”

Although his decision had already been taken, and JC knew it, Richard hesitated before replying. He had been very tempted to tear the contract into little pieces. But he had discussed it with Jo, and realized that would be stupid. He was a weatherman. If he didn’t work for NABS he would have to work for some other company — and the odds were he would discover another J. Calthrop White there too. At least, here, he would be listened to in the future. “I accept, JC,” he said.

JC shook hands. “Now, finally, ladies and gentlemen,” he said. “It gives me great pleasure to announce to everyone here your engagement to Mrs Josephine Donnelly. I guess everyone here knows that Mrs Donnelly’s husband perished heroically in the storm. So did two other members of her family, her brother-in-law and her sister-in-law. The Donnellys were my friends…” he paused to blow his nose. “That they could have suffered such grievous losses and come up fighting is a fitting testimony to their characters. Richard, Jo…” he shook Richard’s hand again, gave Jo a kiss on the cheek, looked uncertainly at Owen Michael and Tamsin, standing together beside their mother.

“Thank you, JC,” Jo said, keeping her face straight with an effort.

“So now I guess you’ll need time off for a honeymoon, Richard.”

“I would appreciate that, sir.”

JC smiled as he wagged his finger. “Just be sure you’re back before the hurricane season. And right now, I would like to ask you a very important question.”

Richard waited.

“Is there going to be another Faith, ever again?”

Richard looked into his eyes, while his hand stole out to hold Jo’s. “There could be another Faith this year, JC. Until we know a lot more about hurricanes, and their movement and development patterns, every time there is a disturbance out there in the Atlantic, it could be the ultimate storm. That’s something we all need to remember.”

The big amphibian droned through a cloudless sky, her crew looking down on the quiet blue of an untroubled ocean.

“You reckon this has to be the most boring job ever created?” Bob Landry asked. “Day after goddamned day, just looking at sea and sky.”

“Yeah,” Mark Hammond agreed. “Well, I guess that’s it for today, at least.” He thumbed his intercom. “You ready to turn for home, Doc? There sure ain’t anything to worry about down there.”

“I’d like to stand on a little further, Mark,” Eisener replied. “There’s a report just coming in about a large stationary cloud mass off Cape Verdes. I think we should take a look. Don’t you?”

Mark looked at Landry, who looked back. “Yeah,” the two pilots said together. “We should take a look.”