The Last Flight

by Julie Clark

the weight of who he was expected to become already bearing down on him.

“If you pay attention, Claire, solutions always appear. But you have to be brave enough to see them,”

Whatever I’ve walked into, I’m here because I chose to be.

Everything you ever wanted is on the other side of fear.

This is what it’s like to die, having left so much unfinished. It still tethers you—like an unbreakable thread, always leading your thoughts back to if only.

Liz saw only what was in front of her, while Eva worried about everything hidden beneath the surface that might float to the top, where Agent Castro waited to collect it.

Take some advice: people will believe whatever you want them to, as long as you don’t hesitate.

It was a slice of life Eva thought only existed in movies, this idea that everything could be so perfect—the grass, the sun,

“Being unwanted is a heavy burden,” she said quietly. “You never fully learn how to engage with the world. To allow others to see you.”

I needed to show them they couldn’t fix me. That I didn’t want to be fixed.” “You wanted to be the one to define who you were,”

“You don’t know what they were dealing with at the time. Your mother’s problems probably took up every inch of space inside of them. I can only imagine what kind of hell that must have been.” She glanced down at the platform and then back at Eva. “You can’t blame them for knowing their limits. Even if those limits included you.”

“Look, I appreciate what you’re saying. I really do. But that kind of rejection does something to a person. It breaks you, all the way down to your core. And makes it impossible to be vulnerable. To open yourself up to anyone.”

Identity is a strange thing. Are we who we say we are, or do we become the person others see? Do they define us by what we choose to show them, or what they see despite our best attempts to conceal it?

But instead, she cleared her search and closed her computer, settling herself into the darkness, and got to work fitting this new rejection, this new heartbreak alongside all the rest.

As she handed it to Eva, she said, “I wanted to be the one to give you your first Christmas ornament. I hope that from now on, wherever you are, wherever you go, you will think of me when you look at it.” Eva unwrapped the layers of tissue paper, revealing a handblown glass bluebird. “The bluebird is the harbinger of happiness,” Liz said. “That’s my Christmas wish for you.”

Liz pulled her tight, embracing Eva in a way she’d always imagined her mother might, and she nearly broke, so strong was her desire to be known. To be seen, instead of constantly protecting herself, measuring her words and actions against discovery.

Eva stared at him, her options narrowing down to just one. “Why me?” she asked. Castro locked his eyes onto hers and said, “Because you’re the one I want to help.”

wishing she’d met Liz all those years ago instead of Dex, wondering how different her life would have been if all she’d had to confess was one bad mistake in the chemistry lab.

But the sight of Liz’s glass bluebird ornament on her dresser caused her to pull up short. She picked it up, running her finger over the swirls of blue, the delicate beak, the edges of the wings. The only thing that was ever given to her out of love. From the only person who ever truly cared about her.

I hope I’ve become someone who doesn’t get angry when others are just trying to get by. I hope I can be the kind of person who looks toward forgiveness first.”

But what I’ve learned in life is that in order for true forgiveness to occur, something has to die first. Your expectations, or your circumstances. Maybe your heart. And that can be painful. But it’s also incredibly liberating.”

If we don’t tell our own stories, we’ll never take control of the narrative.

it’s a system that tells women we are unreliable, and then expendable. That our truths don’t matter when set side by side with a man’s.

In this moment, I have all I ever wanted. And for the first time, for the only time, it’s enough.

What are you hoping readers gain from The Last Flight? I want readers to be inspired by the courage of both Claire and Eva, who did what felt impossible to each of them. No matter the circumstances, there’s a way out. As Claire’s mother put it: If you pay attention, solutions always appear. But you have to be brave enough to see them.