Right Here in My Arms

“Ladies and gentlemen, we are about to land, so we will now ask you to please fasten your seatbelts and place your tray tables up and have your seat in the full upright position,” a woman’s voice came through over the plane radio.

I quickly put the tray table up and then buckled myself in the seatbelt. I closed my eyes and tightly grabbed onto the arm rests that were on both sides of my seat and tried to calm myself. I strongly hated flying, especially if it was a long flight. I think I had seen too many movies and TV shows where the plane crashed and it kind of freaked me out every time I boarded a plane.

“Rowan, it’s going to be fine,” my father chuckled before kissing the side of my head to comfort me.

I took a deep breath and opened my eyes to look over at my father. My father was a rather clean cut businessman. He was an owner of a record label and was always busy with bands and such. His facial features were soft and kind but stern at the same time, pretty much the same as his personality. He was an older man with short brown hair; grey beginning to grow in at the roots, revealing his age. His soft crystal blue eyes showed his emotion and expressed exactly what he was feeling.

I put a small smile on my face to assure him that I was okay and slightly nodded, “I know... I’m okay.”

He stroked his rough hand against mine and smiled at me, “Don’t worry.”

I sighed and nodded, looking straight ahead and bracing myself for the landing.

The plane wheels screeched as the tires landed on the runway and the plane shook. As soon as the pilot stopped the plane, he went to the radio which had a second of feedback before he spoke.

“Ladies and gentlemen, we have safely landed in Helsinki. You may now unbuckle and retrieve your things. Thank you and have a nice day,”

I slowly unbuckled my seatbelt and stood up to dig through the overhead compartment for my luggage. I grabbed my father’s luggage and handed it to his and then grabbed mine. I followed the crowd of people off of the plane and into the airport where I then followed my father to a cab that was parked out front.

“Welcome to Helsinki,” my father said, smiling over to me.

I sighed and sarcastically chuckled, shaking my head. “Yeah... Helsinki. Great,” I mumbled and looking out the window at the cloudy looking place.

“Oh, come on. It’s a new place and a new start to everything. Cheer up, honey,” he mentioned to me before telling the cab driver the address to, I assumed, our new home.

“I liked everything back home, dad,” I told him, looking over at him.

“I know, sweetheart, I did too,” he mentioned, wrapping his arm around my shoulder and pulling me into a hug.

I sighed and rested my head on his shoulder, thinking. We were just moving to Finland and I didn’t even have any clue about this place. It was a last decision to come here because my father thought that Finland had a lot of great artists he wanted to sign; a certain one in mind. I didn’t even know the language and of course that would have to be something I’d have to learn. “Why couldn’t you and mom have worked out? I hate moving, especially somewhere so far from where I’m used to,” I muttered, beginning to feel resentment.

He sighed and shook his head, “I’m sorry. I know how much you hate this and I know how much you hate moving, but let’s not dwell in the past. We’re moving forward, though. Things will be better now.”

I pursed my lips and looked back out the window and watched as everything passed by. “Yeah... I hope your right.”

I hated leaving my home back in America. I hated leaving my friends, my family, my everything back in California. My life was there. I was going to college for business and music and I hated leaving that behind as well. I knew that I was going to miss all of that terribly but I hoped that all my friends would at least try to keep in touch with me.

But now here I am out in Finland with my father for his work. My father used to own a record company back in the states, but sold it so we could move out here for his new job. He’s now an artist liaison for Soulless Productions. He finds the talent, obtains material to record with the artists, and schedules recording for both the musicians and producers. I work as his assistant. He teaches me how to do all these things so that one day I can continue on in his foot steps if I still want to do that. If he’s busy with auditioning of bands, he lets me take over some things like meeting up with some of the talents we’re interested in or I help with scheduling for recording.