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Tracy checked her digital and then looked far below the first outlying islands that her navigational equipment told her were there. In the darkness she couldn't see anything except the white breakers on the reefs that surrounded these little atolls. Her heart began a rapid tattoo as a queer sense of foreboding overcame her. She looked back at the sleeping children, knowing they had only an hour to go. It was after eleven p.m. Her sudden indrawn breath alerted Richard who sat up, rubbing a hand over his eyes.

"Sorry." He mumbled. "Didn't mean to conk out on ya. Everything okay?" His eyes focused above her head and to the east and he rubbed them again. "What's that?"

Tracy had been watching Danny's eyelids flicker with a dream, and his mouth gaping open in childlike repose was so darling. 

"What's what?" She turned to see what he was looking at. Dark clouds were looming out of the ocean below them and gathering at an alarming rate.

"Storm?" he said. "Nah, couldn't be. Nothing is going to mar this trip, baby. We have to trust that it's going to be perfect weather."

"I checked the weather predictions before we left, we had a relatively clean slate. A few low pressure systems moving in from the south. But I think we are too far west to actually see anything from them."

"Maybe it's a fog bank then?" Richard shrugged.

Tracy eyed the thickness ominously. "Maybe it's the Tracy McCaffrey curse."

Richard's initial reaction was to slam that kind of talk out of existence, but he vowed not to address it negatively on their wedding night. So he simply said, "There's no such beastie, love."

But Tracy's nerves wouldn't let her dismiss it. "Oh yeah? What can go wrong, will usually kill you?" she quipped as the little plane dipped in a gust of unexpected wind. She flicked the radar which was detecting a solid line of agitation just ahead of them.

"I never thought such a thing, and you shouldn't either." Richard said firmly. "It's just a little tropical squall."

"A squall is a big storm, Richard. I don't want us in a squall. Very dangerous." She said and her voice was tense.

Ten minutes later, her voice was even more tense as it activated the radio to call Honolulu tower for advice. The return message came instantly. Heavy winds and rain had closed the airport for approach and Maui was experiencing hurricane warnings from the south. Richard listened to the static filled air and squinted into the dark murk, as lightning flashed in the distance. The word Hurricane had sent Tracy into a full on build and as he reached to touch her her hair took on the same bluish glow as the clouds outside.

Honolulu tower was sending coordinates of a small landing strip where they could land and wait out the storm, a small island that had been used during the war and was abandoned now.

Tracy shook her head and gave a Richard a look that said "I told you so" as she set her course heading to the new coordinates.

They flew in silence another five minutes, glancing nervously out at the lowering clouds as the wind did indeed buffet the little plane causing even Richard 's normal security to take on an edge. He left his seat to wake the children, gently pulling on lifejackets and securing them with their little backpacks. He glanced into the back and asked Tracy which was his own emergency gear and when she answered, he crawled further to the back, feeling a moment of sickness as the plane dipped precariously.

"ls this the most important bag?" he indicated the one he had hauled up to the front and Tracy glanced at it furtively. 

"I think so. I can't be sure. One of them was an emergency one. I think it was black.

"We need to get life vests for you and me." She gasped as the plane edipped again and she struggled to keep it upright and on track. The winds were becoming more and more unstable.

The baby was awake and crying. The twins were struggling to get out of their seatbelts, and as usual, Megan was succeeding. 

"Megan , sit still." Richard 's voice held a tone of command that made her freeze, but as her round eyes turned to his in fear, her little mouth puckered in a silent scream of rage.

Tracy gasped again, which seemed to be her only indication of fear as the murk cleared and she could see below them for a few seconds, the tossing waves, the high rolling seas, surging and cresting with an eerie light that seemed to come not from the illumination of the moon, which should have been visible, but from beneath somehow, with a greenish undersea sort of iridescence that Tracy, who loved the ocean, was not familiar with.

"I have seen turbulence." She said tightly.

"Oh, yeah, me too, but that light... have you seen that?"

Tracy shook her head without taking her eyes off the navigational equipment and the flashes of lightning approaching.

Danny's immediate and incessant questions were an outlet for the sudden trepidation they were both feeling. Richard began to answer him as best as he could, with as much truth as possible. No, they weren't planning to crash, yes they were going to be safe. Yes, if they crashed he could save Melia, and Mommy would hold the baby, while Daddy Richy held Megan. Yes if they crashed in the water they'd have to swim, but you're a good swimmer Danny, and the life jacket will help keep you up. And he was strong and could hold onto Mia. Yes, they both thought he was very strong.

Lightning jagged across their vision making the twins scream again, and Tracy to get a much needed visual of the small islands they were covering, her entire focus bent on finding the one with the little runway. They had passed several sets of breakers indicating reefs and other small islands, but none with a beacon or any other signs of civilization.

"We should be coming up to something. They said forty miles right?"

"That's what I heard. Yes." Richard answered, staring intently below them, and then back up at the threatening storm.

"Momma." Melia sobbed. "Tummy hurt."

"Tummy." Megan repeated and her eyes lit with a flash of lightning. Thunder boomed directly around them and they all yelled in reaction.

Tracy spotted more breakers, hoping against hope that they were the ones she was looking for. She went lower, causing a huge and unexpected loss of lift. Megan screamed and began getting unbuckled again, her little fingers nimbly working the buckle. Richard yelled at the children not to leave their seats, but he secured the baby to his chest with the loose strap from his own belt.

"I see it!"Tracy cried softly, and then louder. "I see the island." 

Richard's reply held more force. ''Yes, but do you see the runway?''

Tracy shook her head. "I'll try and circle. It may be on the other side." She pulled hard to the left, but found that pressure seemed to be pulling her down. Even Danny was screaming now.

She felt a crazy careening dip. "Shouldn 't have done that." She cried and reached for the switch to retrieve the gear, but shook her head as instructions came into her mind full force. It was hard to concentrate, what was best?

What should she do?

She braked, coasting over the little island, as the hurtling winds buffeted them like a toy in the sprinkler. The rocky frontal cliffs loomed ahead as if the hand of Poseidon was rising out of the deep. Fiercely billowing vegetation seemed to be a testimony to the rollicking winds. Melia threw up.

"Mommy!" Megan yelled, her tears running down her little cheeks and reflecting in the sudden and brilliant flashes that came from all around them now.

Tracy began to circle, hoping to see a beacon light at least, but the winds prevented her from making the full tour, and she was afraid she'd be pushed further away from the island if it was the one. "What should I do?" she yelled.

"This can't be it." Richard stated and turned to look out to sea again as if hoping to see another island closer by. What he saw made his jaw drop and his hands begin to shake. Behind them, pursuing as if they were a prize catch for dinner was the twisted funnel of a water spout. He knew what it was, even though he'd never seen one. And it sparked a terror in his chest that made it hard to breathe.

"Set this puppy down, Trace, set it down now! Friggin ' now! There, on the beach."

"We'll crash!" she screamed, searching frantically in the area he'd pointed to. "I can't land in sand! It'll tear this plane up and leave us scattered in a million pieces."

"It's that, or what's coming will, hon. Set her down, we'll take our chances on land."

Tracy had looked up. She saw the twisting funnel heading straight for them and a kind of weird panic assailed her, and right before it made her want to obey her initial instinct and drop the stick and run away from the disaster and the impending death and destruction of all she loved, a sudden calm also permeated her.

The plane crash eight years ago. That helpless horrid feeling of not being able to stop it happening, and like the fire that had taken the Iives of others she loved, that same sense of sick unreality. Everything flashed before her eyes. And then suddenly peace settled and she heard a voice. 

None of these things are your fault. You can only do the best you can with the circumstances you are given. All I ask is that you endure to the end, and this isn't the end.

Her vision cleared. "There, on that beach. We can get to higher ground." she pointed and banked hard. Richard nodded, strapping a diaper bag onto Kylie's back.

"Richard! What are you doing?" Tracy screamed. ''The baby can't--"

But Richard had grabbed Megan now and was strapping another smaller backpack on her as she staggered to stay upright in the dip and plunge of the violent rocking.

"Tracy, when we get out of this, we're going to need as much of this stuff as we can get,  because that thing--" He jerked his head toward the huge flailing spout coming their way at alarming speeds, "Is going to eat anything alive in its path, including this plane."

Tracy stared at him in horror. "But we'll be stranded! I'm not even sure this is the island we're supposed to--" A huge gust dipped the plane treacherously close to the breakers and Tracy pulled back with all her might. "It's not coming!" she screamed.

A hard blow knocked the plane to one side, a wing dipped precariously low. The beach loomed up and she instigated landing procedures, trying to line up with the shoreline, but she felt out of control and the plane spun sideways.

If it happens, Richard thought, it's going to happen too fast to do anything about. I can't lose consciousness. No matter what. Brace. Brace. Grab the children. Brace.

Tracy tried to keep the nose up as they skidded across the breakers. Water splashed up on the window seconds before they all felt the rending tug and tear as they hit the water itself and the landing gear ripped off as the nose dipped into the surf. A horrible shriek rent the air and then water was rushing into the cabin.

Richard was moving, seeing Tracy let go of the stick and cover her face. He grabbed her. "Get out! We didn't make it. Get out, Tracy! Get out!"

Tracy felt the momentum of the still moving death trap she was in, and the tumble of buoyancy as the water took over the place of air. Richard already had his door open. Water was covering her all the way to her stomach before she got unstrapped and tried to open her door.

"Don 't!" Richard yelled as they dipped to her side and she fell headlong and smashed her head uncontrollably. She heard the twins screaming as the water rushed at them sucking and pulling them.

Richard fell on top of her for a brief second and then with a force of will and strength she didn't know he possessed, he climbed over her and shoved Danny and Melia out his door into the crashing surf. Tracy scrambled, screaming, as floating luggage hampered her way out. 

Richard was out, and had Megan in his arms as well. He reached for her as the plane was tossed forward and he disappeared from her view. Tracy screamed his name as water covered her face for an instant, and then with a sense of impending ferociousness as great as that of the funnel eating storm, she shoved herself out the door into the roiling surf. The noise was horrendous, jagged lightning ripped the sky, illuminating the scene with sudden clarity. They'd almost made it. The plane had crashed in the shallows.

"I can stand, Trace! Come on!" Richard had her arm and was dragging her toward the shore, but Tracy's every moment was hampered by the suck and pull of the sinking plane wanting to take her down with it.

Every plane crash movie he'd ever seen came rushing back to him, and Richard felt paralyzed by what was real and what wasn't. He could only imagine what Tracy must be thinking to have had it happen twice in her lifetime.  All the same, instinct made him secure the children with the tethers of their backpacks and drag them to the shore. 

An engulfing blackness separated him from Tracy for a few brief moments as he flung the huge duffel off and whirled, still grasping Kylie and Melia above the threatening waves and wind. Tracy was struggling in the shallows, she gasped a watery breath and choked and then pushed with determination against the metal that was sinking beside her.

"Come on baby! You can make it. You're a survivor! Come on!" He yelled at her and then dropped Melia on the sandy shore and ran back into the water to help free Tracy from the suck of the plane as it's nose dipped below the water.

Tracy slumped onto the sand, her legs unable to bear the weight of her body, and the children rushed to her. Her arms came up to encircle the twins who climbed on her bent knees and buried themselves in her wet clothing. Tracy's hands came in contact with bare feet, and she looked down to see Megan's little toes digging into wet sand. Dismay engulfed her as she looked back out to the broken plane.

Lights flickered and went out as it sunk into the surf. Tracy's hair mingled with Megan's and Melia's as the wind whipped it into their faces. She tried vainly to hold it away from her so she could see better, and she felt herself being hoisted up.

"We've got to get away from here." Richard was hauling her by the arm. She stood, realizing that she no longer wore shoes either and this wasn't the soft sand of the beaches she was used to, but the hard gritty pebbles that tore and lacerated soft skin as it was full of broken shells. She winced as she stood and a ragged shell pushed into her already cut foot, not even knowing how she'd received the cut in the first place, but she looked down past Megan's head and could see the blood marring the white of her skin.

The wind howled with an eerie tone that made them all look back out to sea and what they saw made them begin to stumble and run across the sand to the sharp incline. Richard broke one of the hazard lights and swung the largest duffel bag onto his shoulder taking Melia by the hand. 

"This way!" he yelled. "Come on, faster! Danny, follow me!"

Tracy was reminded in that moment of some proud and fierce Viking warrior, defending his family. With the duffels and the children clinging to him, his body seemed contorted in the darkness, but the slicked back wet hair and the shadowed features in the dim light from the flare illuminated his determination. Tracy hefted Megan who couldn't walk without shoes in the grit. She was awkward, as they all were, strapped with backpacks and duffels, but Richard knew they would need the things contained in those life-saving kits. 

"Richard, trade me for the baby!" she screamed, thinking that if she had the baby and they got separated, she could take care of her, and he couldn't. He could probably hike faster as well, not hampered by the little bundle. Richard turned and slid Melia down his body, her hair whipping into their faces as she screamed. Tracy drew as close as she could to him, staggering against the buffeting wind, and then he loosened the straps on Kylie's carrier and they fastened them to Tracy quickly. Tracy covered Kylie's face with the top of the carrier immediately, and Richard looked at her askance. ''Then she can't breathe!"

''Trust me, she can breathe. It's the wind that takes their breath." She hefted Megan against her hip again, and slung the backpack against her other hip.

"Come on." He managed to squeeze her hand and look into her eyes for a second before turning back to the sharp incline and the rugged foliage waving shore line.

*****