Getting Air by Dan Gutman Read Free Book Online

the world.
    “From the time I was a little girl, I always loved to fly,” she said, shaking her head.
    It got quiet. We were all lost in our own thoughts. I shivered. I didn’t know if it was because it was a little cold out, or because of what we had been through. I had never been close to death before.
    There was sound in the distance. Some kind of an animal, maybe.
    “You think there are wolves out here?” Henry asked in a hushed tone. “Squirt can’t run. She’d be a sitting duck if we were attacked.”
    “Wolves are afraid of people,” Julia said. “They’d run from us .”
    It got quiet again. All I could hear were the leaves rustling in the trees. It was getting dark.
    “I’ll say one thing,” Arcadia said. “I’ll never complain about anything ever again. I don’t care what happens to me. I’m just grateful to be alive.”
    “Thank God,” said David.
    “What do you think happened to them ?” Arcadia asked.
    “Them?” I said.
    “Those guys. The ones who hijacked the plane.”
    “I know one thing,” David said. “They didn’t go to heaven.”
    “That’s where they were trying to go,” Henry said. “Did you hear that guy yelling during the fight? He said he welcomed death and that they’d all meet in heaven.”
    I remembered. Just before Henry nailed him with the fire extinguisher, the guy screamed, “Eternal bliss will be ours!” I’ll never forget it.
    “Guys like that go to hell,” David stated firmly. “That’s all there is to it.”
    “How do you know?” Henry asked quietly.
    “Thou shalt not kill,” David said. “It’s right there in the Bible.”
    “The hijackers believed in some kind of a Bible, or holy book too,” Henry said. “They believed in a god. They thought they were doing God’s will. What makes you so sure your god is right and theirs is wrong?”
    “Because I’m sitting here and they’re dead, that’s how,” David said. “What’s the matter? Don’t you believe in God? Why do you think we’re alive?”
    “Because we got lucky,” Henry said. “You think God loves us more than all those people who died? Where was God when that guy killed the flight attendant?”
    Wow. I never heard anyone suggest they didn’t believe in God before. Julia and I had gone to Hebrew school, and I had my bar mitzvah. I knew that David went to church every Sunday and Henry didn’t, but that was as far as it went. The three of us guys had never had a discussion about religion before. Mostly, we talked about skateboarding. To be honest, I had never given much thought to religion before. I guess I just believed what I was told.
    “So you’re an atheist,” David said to Henry. “Why don’t you believe in God?”
    “Why should I?” Henry replied. “It’s not like God is sitting here talking with us and I’m pretending I don’t see him. Where is he? Where was he on 9/11? Where is he whenever there’s a natural disaster? Where is he whenever anything bad happens?”
    “God isn’t like some superhero who flies in to save the day,” Arcadia said. “Whatever happens, good or bad, is all part of his plan.”
    “So his plan was for those old ladies to die?” Henry asked. “Some plan.”
    “I believe God chose us to be on that plane,” David said. “He knew we were strong, that we would know what to do. God plans everything.”
    “Then you have to believe God planned the hijacking, too,” Henry said. “If you’re gonna give him credit for the good things, you have to blame him for the bad stuff, too. So when babies die, and kids starve, and people get run over by drunk drivers, God planned all that stuff. Right?”
    Wow. I never heard anybody say anything like that before. Certainly not Henry. He was never serious. Most of the time he was the one who kept us laughing.
    “Forgive him for what he says,” David said, putting his hands together.
    “And why would he let me survive, the atheist?” Henry continued. “There are a lot of dead believers