Seat belts buckled, tray tables raised, we nosed down into gray and white cotton candy. In sunlight and shadow, forty shades of green rose to greet us.

Landing gear rumbled into place, seemingly too soon. We hit the ground hard. Engines roaring at full throttle, the plane immediately soared upward. We held our breath.

Gripping armrests with sweaty palms, our hearts hammering, we didn’t exhale until the plane leveled out again above the clouds.

“Ladies and gentlemen, my apologies. We had to abort the landing due to severe wind shear. We’ll circle a bit until we’re cleared to try again.”

Brenda Bellinger spends mornings writing from her no-longer-empty nest on an old chicken farm in Penngrove, California. Her story “First Smile” was the non-fiction winner at the 2009 Mendocino Coast Writers Conference. She is currently at work on a young adult novel.