Marianne breathed a sigh of relief as soon as she heard Cherry's voice on the other end of the line. She had been worried sick about her best friend, unable to shake the feeling that something terrible had happened to her on her flight. Cherry had been traveling out of the country with her new husband, and the thought of a plane crash had kept Marianne up all night.

"I'm so sorry for not calling sooner," Cherry said. "We had a bit of a scare, but we're both okay."

Marianne was flooded with relief. "Thank goodness. What happened?"

"Well, we hit some turbulence," Cherry said. "It was really bad, but...