Glory hole

Just when you thought it was safe to fly again: Part of First Officer Judd Parker's two thousand hours of flight time was putting up with his airline captain father while learning to fly and three years of fire patrol in the Pacific Northwest. None of this prepared him for a night on the West Coast in bad weather with a captain that nearly turned the aircraft and passengers into a smoking hole in the Cascade Mountain foothills. Now he is on the edge of a precipice, about to lose the love of his wife Beth and his career as an airline pilot. Judd's foolishness has left him with the only thing he can salvage out of this life, a job in the African Sahara flying cargo C-130 in the underbelly of aviation. Judd knows he is lucky to have a chance for that job, thanks to Tom Willard, who in some ways has been more a father to him than his own. This is another part of the subterranean stream that runs through his family that Judd doesn't understand. Although not visible, Judd is convinced it exists, a ghost of things past. He needs to find a way out of his current life: prayers to Mecca echoing off stone walls; fiery rocket trails seeking his aircraft over the mountains of Ethiopia; and slowly drifting from his own body in dusty hotel rooms, watching what is left of Judd Parker with a hint of disgust. He makes the decision to fight his way home and try to regain his life with Beth. But the worst is yet to come as he leaves the streets of old Athens to face the cold waters off the north coast of British Columbia in his quest to put has life back together. There, at death's portal, Judd will learn that when you lose everything you love, your last flight may be your best.