FALLING

A broken turbine blade blasts through a jet engine, destroying a window in the fuselage next to where Mike Logano is sitting on a flight from his home in Bellingham, Washington, to Los Angeles where he hopes to find Lisa, his runaway sister. He is sucked out of the plane and in 127 seconds falls 25,463 feet, every few thousand feet reliving moments in his life as he anticipates ending as a squash of raspberry-jammed organs and splintered bone. The montage from his past includes: ...ignoring a plea for help from a Navy petty officer who is pushed overboard from an aircraft carrier by another sailor. ...rescuing a stray dog from being terrorized by street thugs throwing firecrackers at him just for kicks. ... his guilt-ridden sister, Lisa, running away after falsely implying a relationship with the parish priest. ...the suicide of high school friend Patsy, a nerdette loner devoted to restoring an old jeep, who he took to the senior prom, mistaking his friendship for something more. ...chasing wannabe gangbanger, Poocho, onto a rooftop after he beat a woman Mike worked for during an attempted robbery. Trying to get away, Poocho tries to jump to another roof, falls, and is paralyzed from the waist down. But Mike is one of the lucky few who survives a free fall from that altitude, his terminal velocity slowed by a thick Olympic National Forest canopy of spruce and hemlock over a 15 foot deep snowdrift. However, beyond his physical injuries, the trauma of his fall leaves him in a deep fugue state of dissociative amnesia without memory of his past identity. He is found by Kaydee Metcaff who was hunting for elk nearby when she heard the crash through the trees. An ex-army sniper, she has sought the solitude of the forest as a refuge from her PTSD. As she nurses his physical injuries he realizes he is presumed dead and must build a new identity instead of trying to recover one he has totally lost. He decides to build his new life as Mike Logan, and discovers he is a talented chef, perhaps a remnant of his past. For a close circle of friends he creates unique wild game meals and he and Kaydee successfully open a restaurant on the shore of nearby Lake Quinalt. But he is confronted with how to create a recipe for the identity of Mike Logan with ingredients from Mike Logano's past.