NightCurse

It was a pretty huge airport with about ten sets of revolving doors. There was not a chip in the slate-gray paintjob, and the windows looked squeaky-clean. The band was sitting on a red oak bench as they waited for us to arrive. They were all bunched together, except for Bob, who stood right next to Mikey on the right end. Frank was on the other end, and Ray was in the middle. They were all in T-shirts and jeans, something that could be rather relaxing at times, especially for a plane ride

Mikey charged at me like a bull and almost knocked me over as he went to give me a super-hug. I thought I was going to suffocate from the hug he gave me. Where were his glasses? Oh, right. I had forgotten. He was supposed to get some sort of eye surgery, maybe Lasik or something, on his eyes. Awesome. He then turned to his brother and gave him a gigantic hug. While he was hugging him, I noticed something moving in the dark bushes that looked almost black in the darkness after I glanced around for a second. Then, I stared into the darkness where it had been but could no longer see it. I felt worried, however, about whatever it was, in case it was some wild, rabid animal waiting to take us alive, so I kept my guard up.

Suddenly, I felt a tap on my shoulder. I glanced back and noticed that Frank was holding an emerald-green leash in his hand. I then looked down and saw the most gigantic creature I’d ever seen in my entire life. Its ears flopped down to its shoulder blades, and its face was fat and stumpy. Its short, jet-black fur was almost invisible in the night. Its collar was a turquoise color and had several silver studs in a line in the middle of it. That must’ve been what I saw a second ago in the bushes— a gigantic, adorable dog that looked so cuddly.

“You have another dog, Frank?” I asked in a bit of disbelief.

“Actually, Gerard said you told him that you’ve always wanted a pet, so I adopted her for you last week while we were on the road. Her name is Roxie, and she’s a lab mix. She really loves human attention. Watch.” He then began petting her on the head, and in three seconds, she began licking his hand ecstatically with her rose-pink tongue. Soon, it was all slobbery, so he grabbed the hand sanitizer in the sea-through sea-green container from out of his back pocket of his jeans and cleaned up his hands.

“Are dogs allowed on the plane?”

“Of course. I had this planned out for quite a while, and I made sure we got a plane that allowed pets. Plus, the place we’re going on vacation at—Sámbulafia or something like that—allows pets just about anywhere except in fine restaurants and grocery stores. It’s not like here at all. The natives seemed rather nice the last time I was there.”

“Wow. Awesome.”

“Yeah.”

Then, I began petting her silky, satiny head, and she suddenly jumped on me with her strong, bulky legs and knocked me down with great vigor. While I was down on the moist, freezing ground she instantly began licking my face with her freezing, slimy tongue and breathing on me with her stale, beefy breath. I continued to pet her on the head but finally had enough and got myself up off the hard ground.

Ray, who was wearing a navy blue fleece, autumn coat, then suddenly said, “C’mon, it’s getting cold out here!. Let’s go in and wait for the plane to get here. I bet it’s almost time to board.”

“Yeah, you’re probably right,” Gerard replied, “Let’s get in.” He then entered the doors of the airport, so everyone followed right behind him. Once we were in, Frank handed me Roxie’s leash. Ray had been right; it was almost time to board the plane. The gigantic, antiquated, analog clock above us read, “nine-thirty;” we only had about thirty minutes to go through security and get all the way down to the concourse. First, Frank, Bob, and I got our stuff luggage checked out by security and sent off as everyone else went to the bathroom.

The floor of that side of the airport was fully covered by a Christmas tree-green carpet and a lighter-colored diamond pattern. The walls were painted a plain-old, boring white color, and on the wall to the left of me were about fifty or so awards to pilots with photographs of the pilots at the top and golden plaques with their names and what they were awarded for at the bottom. One that really stood out to me was Katherine R. Weaver, who was a passenger in a Boeing-737 and saved all of the passengers of the plane with her novice aviation skills when the pilot took a heart attack during flight. I was quite impressed with that. I know I would never be able to do such a thing. In the photograph, her scarlet, satiny hair blew behind her due to a probable wind behind her, and her lips were covered in a blood-red lipstick. The photograph had to be at least thirty years old. It was torn at the edges, and part of it had begun to turn yellow. I’d probably kill all of us if I tried that. When our luggage was checked and sent off, we sat down on a bench and waited for the other three.

In about fifteen minutes, we were ready to go through security, which was all the way at the other side of the terminal. Our carry-on luggage consisted of our cell phones, a few iPods, some water for Roxie, a bag of chips, and a few, random magazines to read on the way down. Roxie had to be escorted by a security guard around the security gates, so the metal on her leash and collar wouldn’t set the alarms off.

Soon, we were on our way to the concourse with our carry-ons. When we were there, we sat down on two benches to wait for the plane to land. The bench was rather hard, but it was tolerable for the moment. The background music was just instrumental and enough to put you to sleep for a good five hours. Suddenly, Roxie put up her cold, slimy, nose and began to sniff to the right of us. That’s when I noticed a tiny sparrow that must’ve gotten in. Its wood-brown color and ruffled-up feathers gave it the cutest look ever. As soon as it began to fly off to somewhere, Roxie darted away, taking her leash with her. Before I could even get up to chase after her, I could not see her. Where had she been? What if they kicked us out for this? Oh, NOOOOO!