Corin Burnside

“hunched lower in his seat, his arms gripped around his body. There was nothing he could do to stop her and she knew he knew it. She looked away again, and sat a bit straighter. When would he start to respect her and stop treating her like a child? She could get them to Sydney, safely. All he had to do was believe in her. ‘This is the last time you ever fly this plane,’ he yelled, loud enough for her to hear his words. A lead weight landed in Bella’s gut. Her only hope of changing his mind was to prove herself. She concentrated on flying fast and straight for Sydney Airport. An hour later, after an increasingly bumpy ride with the small aircraft being buffeted like an empty bag in a wind, they landed at their destination, just as a huge hailstorm hit the coast, battering everything in its path. Bella taxied off the gravel runway and stopped outside the main building. She switched off the engine and listened to it tick as it cooled, her ears ringing, while her heart hammered. She wanted to punch the air, yell, dance a jig; anything to release the tension in her body. John Gardner climbed slowly out of the plane without saying anything,”
― Corin Burnside, The Memory Keeper