Michelle’s high heel shoes clacked on the tile as she paced up and down the hall.
“Sit down. Just watching you is making me nervous,” Patrice said. She sat on one of the black metal folding chairs that lined the hallway, clutching her purse in her lap.
“I can’t,” Michelle said. “Pacing is the only thing keeping me sane.”
“Keep pacing then. I don’t want to see what happens when you stop.” Patrice chuckled. “I’m just afraid you’ll wear a groove in the floor.”
“What’s it matter? It’s not your floor anyway.”
“True.” Patrice pulled the crinkled Belvedere Flight Academy pamphlet from her purse and started flipping through it. She’d read it so many times already that she practically had it memorized.
Michelle stopped pacing and turned to face the large window that ran the length of the hallway. An airplane roared as it taxied up the runway. She still couldn’t understand how these giant silver beasts could fly. From this distance, it seemed to be moving so slowly.
“Were you this worried when Anthony auditioned?” Michelle asked.
Patrice returned the pamphlet to her purse. She got up and walked over to stand next to Michelle. “If you love your child it’s natural to be nervous. Even though we raised them for this, it’s still hard.”
Michelle nodded. She remembered the day the Flight Academy dropped Alex off at her house with instructions so specific that in the beginning, it made it difficult for her to pretend he was hers. She stared down at him in his bassinet wondering what would happen if she got it all wrong. She carefully read the booklet of instructions before laying a finger on him. His large brown eyes and soft downy head were difficult to resist. Slowly he started to feel like hers. She’d sit in a rocker holding him against her chest as she fed him, his heart-shaped mouth suckling on his bottle. Before long, he became her son just as much as he was theirs. That was the danger and why so few women volunteered.
The door at the end of the hall swung open, and the man in a white lab coat stepped out. “Michelle Washington,” he called, as if he hadn’t talked to her just a few hours earlier. There was no one else in the hallway, so before he even called her name Michelle knew he was there to see her. She started walking toward him quickly.
“Here,” Michelle said, raising her hand as she approached.
The man reached into the pocket of his lab coat and pulled out a green card. He smiled as he handed it to Michelle. “He passed,” the man said. The man retreated back through the door closing it tightly behind him without waiting to see Michelle’s reaction.
Michelle fell to her knees, tears sliding down her face. “He did it! He got in!” She stood up and rushed over to Patrice, embracing her.
Patrice reluctantly put her arms around Michelle and tried to squeeze her tight, but the ache in her own heart made her feel weak.
As if suddenly remembering, Michelle stepped back and looked into Patrice’s eyes. “I’m sorry. I’m so insensitive.”
Patrice shrugged. “It’s okay not everyone can get in.”
Michelle looked down at the green card in her hand with Alex’s face printed on it. “Either way we never see them again,” she said.
“Yeah,” Patrice said. “But at least you know yours gets to keep on living even if it is someplace else.”
Michelle nodded. “For now at least.”
The women stood shoulder to shoulder and watched as a silver plane sped up the runway and lifted into the air.