Come Fly with Me: A Novel

by Camille Di Maio

Mass air travel—made possible in the jet age—may prove to be more significant to world destiny than the atom bomb. For there can be no atom bomb potentially more powerful than the air tourist, charged with curiosity, enthusiasm, and goodwill, who can roam the four corners of the world, meeting in friendship and understanding the people of other nations and races.

Oh, to be a child again. To have minds and skin unblemished by life’s inevitable burns.

a life of simplicity surrounded by the ones I love is the greatest luxury imaginable.

Only fashion models and movie stars garner more notoriety than a Pan American stewardess.

My dad gave me a copy of Frank Sinatra’s album Come Fly with Me when I was nineteen.

Now this song is stuck in my head

But there is one very important difference between the two companies: Pan American only flies international routes, and I need to get as far, far away as possible.

She reminds me of Marilyn Monroe, who recently made headlines for singing to Kennedy on national television. Happy birthday, indeed, Mr. President.

Like me, Beverly has no mementos of home to adorn the room, and I wonder why that is. What does that say about us? That we have everything ahead of us? Or nothing to go back to?

I hereby claim her for womankind.

how this giant fortress can be thrust into the sky. And stay there. “It’s all a little surreal, isn’t it?” I say to break the ice.

Yes! That's exactly what I always say

We are subject to the circumstances of our birth, for better or worse. Mine happened to be more posh than most.

I sneak a glimpse at Judy and find exactly what I expect to see. She’s blushing. Isn’t this going to be fun?

I think I really like Beverly!

Jakarta: HLP HLP sounds like help, a word that definitely races through my brain as I struggle to rest.

Please. She's so funny. I have no idea why but the way she said this just reminded me of Mia Thermopolis

I think again that Lucille Ball could do wonders with a scene like this. I’m sure from the vantage point of the cement deck it looks like a physical-comedy routine par excellence. Almost worthy of her chocolate-factory antics.

Chocolate Factory episode metioned!!!!!!! This book has sooooooo many good references!!! This is my absolute favorite episode of I Love Lucy

Praying that you won’t be stranded before food runs out. And most of all—you’ll be getting terrified passengers to safety.

I'm glad I'm not reasing this whilst in a plane

“And to never having to make a water landing.” Beverly shudders.

Amen to that

I’m learning that people present a facade to conceal the wounds they are not yet ready to share.

The loss not of what had been. But the loss of the opportunity for what might have been.

“It was an accident,” I begin. “In the sky.” “In an airplane?”

I AM 100 percent glad Im not reading this on a plane

Large tote bags are nice in theory, but now that I need to dig around for my wallet, I find it cumbersome.

She's so real for this

“Blakesworth for trading. Caldwell Corp. for banking.”

Ohhhhhhhh

I wonder if anyone today even knows who Pollyanna is.

I do

I let out a big sigh before continuing. Here we go. “Joe, I’m married.”

I cant believe she actually told someone

know there is little to fear, it is still my instinct to wonder if this kind of turbulence will send us down into the belly of the Pacific.

Me everytime I fly

But you, Beverly, always made decisions that went against the grain, and I loved you for it.

Oh no! Beverly is the one that died!!!

I hang my head and feel the cry start in the pit of my stomach, crawling up my chest, making my shoulders quake, and letting out a sob that sends a group of birds flying off in fear. Sometimes the most painful memories feel like they’d happened only yesterday.

I decided to read this book right after finishing A LITTLE LIFE because I thought it was a light read!!!!! I was so not ready for this

“I’m telling you, Judy. When I die, I want my ashes to be spread right here on this beach. Then I’ll never have to leave it.” “That sounds perfect.”

:''(

It was to be my last because he and I were married the week after that. Valentine’s Day.

Awwwnnnn

And I smiled. Because in spite of knowing you on this earth for such a short time, you became an indelible part of my soul. Forever.

Although you and I know they weren’t and aren’t your real ashes. There was nothing to gather. No body to bury. But I visited the site. With your parents. Grief stricken, all of us. We scooped up earth from where we’d lost you, and we let our hands sift it into jars—one for them, one for me. I’d like to think that even a bit of you was there. It’s what I told myself at each place I traveled.

Wow!!!!! This is one sad paragraph

But loss gravitates us toward the eternal as it looks for meaning.