Back Into Your Arms

"So what happened after that?” she asked me.

We looked up as we heard them announce that they were boarding the passengers in our section.
We boarded the plane together and took our seats.

“I was called at night by Julie, she was frantic and crying. She told me you had gotten in a car accident and were at the hospital”

“Did you go?”

“Of course I did, but they only let me in as far as the waiting room”

“Wait, so you never got to see me again?”

“No, I didn’t. Julie was the one to tell me about your condition, she mentioned you had broken your left arm and that you were all bruised up and that they had noticed brain damage in your CT scans but they had to wait for you to wake up to fully assess the situation, that is if you woke up. I was crushed Melody and the worst part was that I couldn’t even see you”

“But John, what about my brother, did he, did he not take my side?"

I looked at her and sighed and shook my head.

“I would go to the waiting room everyday Melody, every day for two weeks waiting for you to wake up and request to see me…but when you finally woke up, they realized you did not remember what had happened, which was normal, but when you saw Julie and didn’t know who she was, that’s when things turned out more serious, they asked you what year it was and you couldn’t remember”

“Yeah, I only remembered that the previous year in my head had been 2002, and my last memories were of like mid-8th grade, but wait...so you were outside that whole time?”

“I was Mel”

“Had-had I known” she said her voice breaking.

“I wasn’t in your life until freshman year and you didn’t become friends with Julie until sophomore year, you had forgotten us both…and although your parents were scared at first when they realized you had forgotten me they were rejoiced…and then your brother came up with the most brilliant idea Mel”

“What did he do?”

“He got all the things that had anything to do with me and threw them away, he then went over to my house to talk to me and in front of my parents he told us that they did not want you to remember me and that they hoped we would cooperate by not interfering with them. He asked my parents to keep me away from you”

“My brother, my brother sided with my parents?” she said wiping a tear from her face. She was angry.
We were interrupted by the flight attendants beginning their demonstration.

“I hate planes” she whispered to me.

“How come?”

“I always feel like it will be my last day of living when I get into one” she said as she was still drying her tears.

“You still sufffer from anxiety huh?”

She nodded as she fidgeted with her hands and a lose thread in her shirt.

“We prefer driving to be honest, but we don’t mind the planes”

“You guys travel a lot huh?”

I nodded.

“You should come to one of our concerts once we start touring”
She smiled. “I don’t really know many of your songs”

“We can change that, we have plenty of time for you to learn them on this flight” I grinned taking out my phone and earbuds.

“How about we continue our depressing story after we are off the plane?” I suggested.

“That-that would be a good idea” she said as she realized the plane was beginning to move.

Her eyes went wide as the plane began to ascend, she looked over at the window and when she saw the plane taking off she closed her eyes.

I reached for her hand she squeezed my hand tightly, she didn’t seem bothered by it at all. The plane began to reach a normal altitude.
She then opened her eyes.
Scared and nervous she still looked over at the window.

“It looks amazing” she said nervously, still sounding frightened but in awe.
She then looked over at her hand still in mine.

“Thank you for being there for me, I’m worse when the plane is descending so prepare yourself” she said to me and released my hand.
I just laughed and handed her the earbuds.

“You’re not going to listen with me?”

“Gosh no, I still find it weird to have to hear my voice on a recording”

“Oh c’mon!” she said putting the right earbud in my ear.

I handed her my phone so she could be in charge of choosing the songs.
She took it in her hands and chose to start with our most recent album.

“Same Suit, Different Tie? Why this one?” I asked her. She was already swaying from side to side.

“I lied, I kind of know the songs from this album. This one is probably one of my favorites, trust me if we weren’t on a plane I’d be singing along” she said to me and raised the volume. She just mouthed the words to me as she continued jamming out. She hadn’t changed a bit, and it saddened me that she didn’t know that. She was still as lovely as she was 10 years ago. The song changed and she sat straight in her seat again. The song was 24 Floors, the song I wrote about my depression. I wondered what she would think about it.

“I can really relate to this song” she whispered to me.

“I’m glad we are both still here” I whispered back. She nodded and closed her eyes as she leaned back.

We continued that way, listening to the rest of the albums but by the second hour she had already fallen asleep. I removed the earbud from her ear and watched her sleep.
I wrote lyrics during the rest of the flight.

They announced we were going to start descending, her seatbelt had been on all the time so I didn’t have to worry about that.
I didn’t wake her up and she didn’t have to experience the descend at all.

I woke her up once the plane had landed and was just traveling to the place where it was to stop.
She opened her eyes startled and look outside then looked at me.

“Did I really sleep through it?” she asked me rubbing her eyes.

“You sure did”

She yawned and smiled.

“Goodness that’s a relief, I usually scream when it’s landing, I’m glad I didn’t have to embarrass you this time” she said laughing as she stretched. She stopped stretching midway as if realizing something and looked outside the window again.

“Phoenix, Arizona” I heard her whisper.

“Welcome back” I whispered back, she turned to look at me and smiled.

We were back to where it had all started.