Maya did not cheer and did not weep.

She unbuckled the harness with fingers that had gone steady a long time ago and would not let themselves shake now, and she said, quietly, nice flying, Captain, and she stood, because there was a boy three rows back who had been promised she would be right back, and she had never in her life wanted to keep a promise more.

Chapter 13 — Row 8

She came out through the galley curtain into a cabin that had turned toward the front of the airplane as one body, hundreds of faces wet and shining in the half-light, hands reaching out to touch her sleeve as she passed as though competence were a thing that could rub off on contact.