Here Comes the Sun

I sat back down in my chair and focused on a spot on the ground. I was getting dizzy.

Maybe I was overreacting. Everyone else here was about to board an airplane, and they weren't freaking out.

Of course, they wouldn't know before hand if their plane was going to crash into the open sea in less than an hour.

They cheerful lady on the intercom announced our flight again.

"Flight 686 to Hawaii will be boarding now. Passengers- please make your way to boarding passage C. That's boarding passage C, flight 686 to Hawaii"

I took a deep breath and headed towards "Boarding Passage C", leaving Mom to gather all of her things. I would help her, but I was afraid I would drop something, I was shaking so bad.

I guess I looked sort of ghostly or even green, because I got some strange looks from people passing by. I just smiled at them weakly and tried not to think about the flight that lay ahead.

Maybe I could get myself to sleep for the whole time.

Mom caught up to my and guided me to a hallway that slanted up at an angle. The airplane was parked at the far end of the hallway, and two happy stewardesses greeted us at the entrance. They checked our tickets and guided us to the right part of the airplane. We had upper-class tickets, courtesy of Vivian, Sara's aunt, so we were guided to the front part of the plane.

I sat down in my ticket's assigned seat, number 11. It was a window seat. Just my luck. Mom sat next to me in number 10. At least mine was a lucky number.

I knotted my fingers and squeezed my eyes shut, trying to force scary thoughts out of my mind.

You're 16, for heaven's sake! Stop being such a wuss.

I opened my eyes, and saw Mom pushing my suitcase into a compartment about three feet above my head. She was struggling, to I stood to help her. We both shoved the thing in and sat back down right before a stewardess appeared on the televisions on the back of the seats on front of us. She had perfectly curled blonde hair, bright red lipstick, a blue stewardess hat, and a fake beauty mark on her cheek. She looked suspiciously similar to Marilyn Monroe. I snapped a picture to send to Sara. She might get a laugh out of it.

The lady began by introducing us to our "captain", Mark Lenhoff. He apparently had 32 years of flying experience. That reassured me. She guided us around the airplane, showing us the bathrooms and emergency exits. I memorized those. Miss Marilyn Monroe then showed where each of our seats kept an "emergency sickness bag". She wished us a happy flight and with that, the screen went dark. I was grateful. Her cheerful voice was getting on my nerves.

We were told to fasten our seat belts and turn off any electronic devices. I was beginning to think I might need to use the "emergency sickness bag".

Then the airplane began to move. I could barley tell at first, but then it began getting bumpier and bumpier. Then the bumpiness stopped abruptly, and it was perfectly smooth. The airplane was tilted at only a bit of an angle, but when I peered out the window, I saw we were already very far up in the air. The planes below were just toys to us now, and I gasped when I saw how tiny people looked. I could barley see them. I completely forgot about how the airplane could crash at any second, and was mesmerized by the tiny city below. It was so pretty.

Then I saw the ocean.

The white waves lapped at the yellow sand, and the surfers were simply black dots in the water. It was a vast, deep blue sheet, rippling in the wind. So pretty.

And that was when I knew the trip wouldn't be half as bad as I thought it would.