Paper Airplanes
A Novel
by Tabitha Forney
It’s the end of summer, 2001. Erin O’Connor has everything she’s ever dreamed of: good friends, a high-powered career at a boutique Manhattan firm, and a husband she adores. They have plans for their life together: careers, children, and maybe even a house in the country. But life has other plans. Daniel is a trader who works on the 101st floor of the World Trade Center.
Erin is drinking margaritas on a beach in Mallorca, helping her best friend get over a breakup, when she hears a plane has crashed into Daniel’s building. On a television at the smoky hotel bar, she watches his building collapse. She makes her way home with the help of a stranger named Alec, and once there, she haunts Ground Zero, nearby hospitals, and trauma centers, plastering walls and fences with missing-person flyers. But there’s no trace of Daniel.
After accepting Daniel’s death, Erin struggles to get her life back on track but makes a series of bad decisions and begins to live her life in a self-destructive fog of booze and pills. It’s not until she hits rock bottom that she realizes it’s up to her to decide: Was her destiny sealed with Daniel’s? Or is there life after happily ever after?
Overview:
• Coming on the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attached, for those interested in the what-if’s and the untold stories of those lost in 9/11.
• A story of grief, loss, and finding the strength to keep going after tragedy.
- Featuring poetry by Houston’s 5th Poet Laureate, Outspoken Bean
Tunnel to Towers:
A portion of the proceeds from sales of PAPER AIRPLANES will go to the Tunnel to Towers Foundation, whose mission is to honor the sacrifice of firefighter Stephen Siller who laid down his life to save others on September 11, 2001.
Buy Links
Brazos Books/ Indie Bound/ Amazon/ Barnes and Nobles
Excerpt:
A paper airplane hung in the afternoon air and glided to a landing in front of the park bench where Erin sat reading. It was a design she recognized, angles sharp and intentional. Daniel’s paperairplanes were works of art, sleek and aerodynamic. She smiled, standing up and searching among the people walking, jogging, standing nearby, but couldn’t find him. As it sank, the sun painted streaks of gold across the Hudson. Peals of laughter rang out from a knot of children playing a few hundred yards away. It could have been child’s play, but something told her it was him.
In the years to come Erin would think back on this moment often, as we do later in life about the moments that define us. Dissecting why we make the decisions we make, choose the people we choose when, on paper, other people would do just as well. On paper, Daniel and Erin weren’t necessarily suited—a girl from Texas and a boy from the Bronx—except, of course, that paper started it all. But how can one ever identify or sort out what makes one person attracted to another? It’s chemistry or kismet or pheromones or the subtleties of facial structure, or some combination of it all. It’s genetics and upbringing, nature and nurture and timing and choices made by you and the other person and a million other people before you that lead you to that one moment when you make your decision.
She said yes.
But what if she hadn’t? What if, instead of her heart thrilling at the sight of a paper airplane flying toward her out of nowhere, she’d been scared, or hesitant, or impressed with his intrepidness but not at all ready? After all, before Daniel, she’d never imagined this moment. Never wondered what her new last name would be, never folded up those paper fortune-tellers in middle school to divine the number of kids she’d have and all their names. Never dreamed of planning her wedding or what her dress would look like. She might have said no, or not yet, or Can I take a rain check? Or what if she’d said yes but then dreamt dreams where her subconscious brought out her fears—dreams about sitting at a table with impossibly tall stacks of invitations to address, being chased into corners, wanting to flee but feeling weighted down, limbs mired in molasses? Maybe things would have turned out differently.
Then again, maybe they wouldn’t have. We can’t rewind. Fate is hard to challenge since we never know its contenders. She reached for the airplane, breathless, and unfolded it. Pressed out thepaper’s creases. It said, in Daniel’s handwriting: I wish Erin James would marry me.
She turned circles, laughing, searching for him. “Daniel!” People in the park walked dogs and rollerbladed past. Diners atthe outdoor café across the sidewalk sat under green umbrella seating farm-fresh salads and sipping white wine. “Dan-IEL!”
He emerged from bushes behind a fence separating the sidewalk from the café. Catapulted over the fence with one arm and strode toward her. Crooked smile, five o’clock shadow, red roses in hand.
Grinning, she launched herself into him. “Yes!” she squealed. He was warm and smelled of leather and fresh air and aftershave. She could’ve melted into him forever.
“Yes?” he teased, eyes twinkling. “I haven’t asked a question yet.” He pushed her away, dropped to one knee, pulled a small blue box from the pocket of his leather jacket. People slowed down, heads turned in their direction. Earnest green eyes looked up at Erin, hands outstretched with a diamond. “Erin James, will you marry me?”
The world crawled in slow motion. Her heart was floating, buoyed by helium. She grabbed his hand with hers and nodded like a bobblehead doll. “Yes!”
He smiled and popped to his feet, leaning in. The kiss was slow and deep. Around them, people squealed and clapped, cheered and whistled. Daniel pulled Erin in close, burying her face in his neck. Peeking out from over his shoulder, she blinked through happy tears, smiling at the crowd and feeling more content than she could remember.
Above them, the contrail of a real airplane cut a hazy line across a cloudless sky.
About the Author
Tabitha Forney writes books to appease the voices in her head. She’s a mom, attorney, and yoga devotee who lives in Houston with her three kids and a husband who was on the 85th floor of the North Tower on 9/11 and lived to tell about it.
What inspired you to write the book?
This book began its journey in September of 2015, when I toured the September 11 Museum for the first time. My husband Billy and I lived in New York City from 2000 to 2003, but we had since moved back to Texas to raise a family. He was at work on the 85th floor of the north tower of the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001 when the first plane hit. Like most people on the 91st floor and below, he was able to escape the building and get out safely, and he even helped people along the way. After that day, we tried to move on. We had kids and jobs and busy lives and we tried not to dwell on the “what if” scenarios that inevitably snaked their way into our thoughts.
But when we visited the museum, it all came back. I was emotionally overwhelmed by the intensity of the displays at the museum, especially the artifacts found and excavated from the site, the speakers overhead playing clips of news footage from that day, and, tucked away in an alcove with warning signs to those who dare enter, images of the victims who fell to their deaths. The line between my husband and those images, between life and death, was disturbingly close. I studied their faces, scrutinized their stories, wondered how their wives and husbands and parents and children moved on. After the tour, I went straight to the airport, and at the gate I opened my laptop and began to write Daniel’s story. I am lost for words to describe what the victims and their loved ones must have experienced that day, but I did my best to acknowledge them, remember them, honor them.
First, I want to thank Tabitha Forney and She Writes Press for providing me with this book so I may bring you this review.
WOW!! WOW! WOW!! Paper Airplanes by Tabitha Forney is the most intense 9/11 book that I have read. Erin’s story pulled hard on my heart strings big time throughout the book. Paper Airplanes is one book you will have a lasting effect on your way after you are done reading this book. This is one book you must add to your tbr pile!
Tabitha dedicates this book to all the victims of 9/11, and those they left behind. May we never forget.
I commend Tabitha for being upfront and warning her readers that the prologue may be traumatic for some people.
Throughout this book you learn the important significance of Paper Airplanes and why it means so much in this book. You will also find cute little pictures of Paper Airplanes at the end of each chapter.
Instantly, Tabitha sucking you into the incredibly graphic, intense, mind blowing and shocking prologue. She literally shows her readers all that Daniel is seeing and feeling in the tower on 9/11.I was at the edge of my seat the whole scene praying as he was praying for his safety! My heart was beating out of my chest with all the emotions he was going through! Tabitha literally made her readers feel like we were there with Daniel too!! There was a time or two that even a tear escaped my eye. Tabitha knows how to write an incredible prologue! I was so hooked into this story from this moment on!!
My heart was happy learning the back story of Erin and Daniel and how their relationship came to be. So many amazing qualities he possessed that any girl would be lucky to have in a guy!
Oh my heart just broke on so many levels for Erin on many occasions! I can’t imagine being put in her shoes through any of this.
0 comments:
Post a Comment