“He’s coming around for another pass,” a boy reported. “Just wait a minute.”
“If this is your idea of a joke …,” someone else said.
“I’m telling you, the plane’ll be back.”
Carley heard the buzz of a small engine moments later. She gazed heavenward, and all at once saw the single-engine plane swooping down from the west.
“There it is! See, I told you,” the boy shouted.
Fascinated, Carley watched along with the crowd of students as the plane dipped lower and lower.
“What’s that guy doing?” Janelle asked.
“Beats me,” Jon answered.
Carley continued to watch along with everyone else. Trailing behind the plane, she now saw, was a sign in big red letters.
“He’s got a sign,” Jon announced. “What’s it say?”
“This must be some dumb advertising gimmick,” another kid said in disgust.
As the sign unfurled behind the small plane, Carley couldn’t believe her eyes. “ ‘Carley, Be Mine. K.W.’ Who’s Carley? Who’s K.W.?” someone asked.
Carley’s heart skipped a beat. She remembered what Kyle had said about his uncle and his own love of flying. Had he somehow persuaded his uncle to buzz the high school and fly the banner? Was Kyle in the plane with him? She read the banner again and laughed as she heard a girl say, “That’s the most romantic valentine I’ve ever seen or heard about!”
On the other side of her she felt Janelle take her elbow. “You hate Valentine’s Day? Kyle and you are through, huh? My, my, baby sister, remind me never to believe anything you tell me again!”
Carley stood speechless, watching the plane pull the long sign across the sky directly over the school.
“Are you saying this is the work of that guy, Kyle, from the hospital?” Jon asked, unable to disguise his disbelief.
“And very good work it is,” Janelle cooed. She turned to Carley. “So what do you say now?”
Carley couldn’t speak. A lump the size of a fist was clogging her throat. Kyle truly cared about her. Why else would he have gone to so much trouble and expense? Why else announce to the world he wanted Carley as his valentine?
“Actions speak louder than words,” Janelle said in Carley’s ear. “If I were you, I’d make one very important phone call as soon as you get home from the doctor’s office.”
Behind them Carley heard someone ask, “Who’s Carley?”
She wanted to shout, “I’m Carley! Me! The girl with the messed-up face.” But of course she didn’t. The whole school would discover the identity of Carley. Janelle would see to that.
Elated and overwhelmed, Carley managed to answer Janelle, “I think I will make that call. I’d hate to leave the guy hanging.”
Janelle groaned over Carley’s bad joke, but Carley scarcely heard her. She looked up to see the plane cut a wide circle, dip its wing as if in greeting, and head off. The sign fluttered behind it in the wind, the large crimson letters stamped across the face of the sky, bright as the flare of a rocket.
Lurlene McDaniel, I'll Be Seeing You
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