A Short Story : A Story?

This is my first plane ride since my mom and I moved to the quiet and boring Covington, Louisiana. My mom forced me to go on this school trip to New York City. And I thought the school year couldn 't get any worse. On the 3 hour flight I had to sit next to Pizza Face Pete and Stinky Sally. But hey, at least I’m not sitting next to Mr. Swanson, I heard he went to prison for drug distribution before he became our assistant teacher. The flight attendant said we were starting our descent into JFK, right as I went in the bathroom to get away from Sally’s vile stench.

The doors sealed shut and the plane rumbled to life. We began our crawl down the runway and finally, we lifted into the air. I was on the plane and it was going to be smooth sailing from there, right? Wrong. Apparently, in my 17 years, I had done something to angered the fates and now on this

It was a clear sunny day from the look of outside my window. I was relaxing with my seat reclined back, enjoying a nice bowl of french onion soup that was brought to me by the flight attendant. I felt tapping on my left shoulder. My brother Sam looked straight down at me with his smug face and it seemed like he knew something I didn’t.

Tim and I walk into the shuttle, waiting for the commander to come over the intercoms telling us to get ready for lift off. I’m anxious and excited all at the same time, Tim starts talking to me but I just tune him out and nod in agreement not listening to anything he is saying. There it is, the commander “good luck gentleman” he says, and I mutter something too nervous to think of anything substantial.

When my eyes dared to open, the Trans Caribbean airplane had touched down barreling down the runway until the wheel brakes subdued the speed. Just a few more seconds and the ordeal was finally over. “Thank you sweet Jesus,” I whispered, “for letting me survive my first airplane flight and transatlantic to top it off.” Perspiration exuded from every pore of my body and I felt exhausted. My husband sitting next to me holding my sweaty hand while my other arm was clutching my 14-month-old child cradled in the safety of my lap. Suddenly, a loud shrill noise - my fear intensified another notch, but the stewardess quickly assured us that everything was fine; she had accidentally dropped the mike to the intercom. At last, the plane taxied slowly toward the terminal. A stewardess announced our landing at McGuire Air Force Base and gave instructions how to proceed after disembarking the aircraft.

The plane bounces even worse than before. My knees crash into the tray table, sending my half-eaten package of peanuts and my entire stack of magazines raining into the aisle. I instinctively grab for the armrest once more, and the businessman next to me lets out a

Now it was time to go, the clock ticking, planes departing, the chase of bags all the way-away from home. My blood felt as if it were clogging my ears, pores expanding in a sweaty downpour, head dizzy by the frenzy of terminals and people. I simply wished for a quiet ride home. I then thought perhaps

After going through the quick check-in and a long security line, she went to the gate to wait, for what would seem like hours, to board the large plane. When the gate finally opened, she waited in line to show her boarding pass and board the plane. The plane that seemed so large from the outside suddenly changed into a small and cramped cabin. There was a

The awkward cowboy and the man with a fetid outer, compress me in a compact area. After several hours, the plane lands and we come to an abrupt halt. We dawdle towards the baggage claim anticipating

Acquiring our seats at the far end of the plane, my worst fears are now coming apparent. I tuned to my mother for a reassuring smile, only to be met face-to-face with the flight attendant. “Would you like a bag of peanuts? A glass of wine?” she pressed, extending her hand full of treats. Politely declining, I shift my head towards the glass of wonders. Take off. Peering at the everlasting sky sucked you in like a drain sucks water from the tap. Stars seemed so much more apparent in contrast to the velvet black sky; reminding me of diamonds. The roaring of the engines sent chills up the back of my spine. If only father were here to comfort

After the short drive to our terminal, we wait for my other classmates to arrive. After waiting what seemed like years, the group was all there. Mrs. Nick, my instructor, was her usual fun-loving self; which of course meant that she had to take photos of all of us together. She was so excited for the trip. To her, it didn’t matter if it was 6:00 in the morning, yet I was really nervous since I had never been on a plane before. Waiting for the plane to take off, flashes of Final Destination popped into my head.

My fingers nervously tapped the scratchy carpet as I stared at the ceiling, waiting for my first flight to be called. At the time, all I wanted was for the ground to swallow me whole, for my arm to suddenly fall off, or even to have godzilla smash through the building-- anything to get me out this. There was no way I was going to do anything but embarrass myself, so why even go?

There was another boom and screaming after that. I looked out the window to see if there was smoke coming from the plane, but there was none. No one on the plane was even panicking! The booms were so loud but no one but me heard them. I reached for my ears to make sure they were clear and hearing things correctly, but I grabbed headphones instead. There was nothing wrong with the plane of any of the passengers. The only thing wrong was that my peaceful music playlist wasn’t long enough. The playlist ran out of songs so switched to a different one that happened to be rock. A stewardess was coming down the aisle with a selection of foods. “Hello sir, can I offer you something to eat?” she asked with a smile. “Well I am a little hungry, so what are my options?”. “There is a choice of a spicy tuna sushi roll with a side of rice, or grilled salmon with asparagus sir.”. “Can I have the salmon please?” I asked as I reached for the food, mouth watering. I quickly gobbled down the delicious smelling and tasting food then got up to use the restroom. The intercom on the plane spoke as I was about to ask the stewardess how much longer the flight would be. “Attention all passengers, we are seven hours into our 11 hour flight and everything's going swell. We would ask that everyone find your seats because we will begin to ascend to our new safe cruising altitude of 10,000 feet. Thank you and have a nice day!” Continuing my

I woke up from my nap when I felt a light tap on my shoulder by my brother, Alex. He told me that it was time for the plane to begin its descent so I gathered my belongings and adjusted my seat until it was upright. As the airplane began to descend, I was filled with excitement and enthusiasm. I could feel so much energy rush through my veins as my ears popped and I finally heard the flight attendant say, “Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Singapore Changi Airport!”

When I’m finally off the plane I look awful because I freaked out and had a small panic attack, then passed out for the rest of the ride but, hey, at least I didn’t try to get off the plane. I thought at first ‘Hey, that wasn’t that bad. I could do that again… someday.