Short Plane Ride

a short story
by Astor W. Heinemann

My Bradbury was really good, I didn't want to stray from the pages and just wanted to keep going and going, but during one of those moments when Clarisse just vanishes I got distracted and looked up around me, then I saw her. She had just laid her suitcase against a wall and dug a cigarette out of her purse. As she lit it up, she looked around, puffed out the first cloud of smoke and whipped her bright blonde hair away from her face where the wind had blown it. I was standing about fifteen feet away from her, in the shade of the bus stop shack to protect my face from direct sunlight, she walked around, slowly breathing in the nicotine and paying attention to noone in particular, but just like the sun, she attracted all the planets in our little solar system and we orbited around her in compliance to her gravitational pull. She was tall, slender, long blonde hair and wore a tight green blouse and black mini skirt. She was as confident as any woman who was popular in highschool. But I wanted to get back to Guy and his new friend, so I panned back to my book and read on, turning away from the real fire next to me, back to the fire in the pages.

I rode the bus for about thirty minutes before it dropped me off at the airport, something prompted me to look back as I was walking the long, glossy, mostly empty marbled floors, and she was walking several feet behind me pulling on her big leopard patterned carry on, talking on her cell phone, still whipping her long bright hair off her face. I thought it was so cute the way she struggled with her purse, phone and suitcase while trying to walk rapidly towards the check in line.

Most of my life I've hated flying. It was something my mother injected in me from a young age, all the stress and nervousness about the boarding process, freaking out when the plane goes through clouds or turbulence, I was messed up for life. I hadn't taken a plane by myself in a long time, today I was flying south to see some old friends and for whatever reason I was relaxed. I packed lightly, just a backpack with a change of clothes, toothbrush, deodorant and some tunes. My earphones were on the whole time and I may have had a bit of a skip to my step, I was feeling particulartly good. Standing in the security line I was nodding in time to my songs when I turned a post and glanced at the people in line behind me, by now running in parallel facing me. She was there looking kind of anxious, my mind raced with thoughts of what was going on with her, was she escaping an abusive lover? affraid that security might find drugs on her? scared of flying like I was on other days?

After the security check point I went and had something to eat, as I hadn't eaten all day. I took a few anti-anxiety pills to help me enjoy the ride. While I awaited the boarding procedures I talked on the phone for a while, about this and that and the other with whomever.I looked around for the girl in the green blouse, hoping she would sit close by, if she was even on my flight, at least on at one of the other nearby waiting areas sitting in my line of sight. She was beautiful and I couldn't get her off my head.

As I boarded the plane the weirdness started. I was convinced I had asked for a window seat, since I enjoy watching the miniature world from above and pretend I could destroy it with just a finger snap, but instead I found a little girl of about eight crying on the window seat and the most beautiful flight attendant that has ever existed, young...about twenty two or so, I guessed. Her eyes were big and bright blue, her hair was short and naturally blonde and her face and skin were like that of a porcelain doll. I stood there silently watching her comfort the crying child. She must have sensed my presence because she turned around, looked at me smiling the most gorgeous smile in the world and said "oh honey, I'll be out of your way in a minute, let me help this child calm her nerves". I was forcefully keeping my jaw from droping down at the amazement that such beauty even existed. "No problem, take your time". I just sat on a seat across the isle and just watched her work. She was good, too! She had such tenderness about her, caring for the child, comforting her like she was her own. When the child stopped crying a few minutes later she got up, shot that killer smile back at me again and said, "here, all yours" while she did a little tippy toe hop and tilted her head to the side gesturing towards my seat. She stayed there until I was seated. I could have easily fallen in love with her right there and then. But she was just nice, just nice to everybody, I wasn't any special case.

My seat ended up being the isle seat, not the window as I had requested, so there was an empty seat between me and the little girl. I set my backpack under the seat in front of me, got my tunes out again, and got ready to enjoy the ride. The pills had already started doing their job and I was feeling good. I lifted the seat's arm rest on my right out of the way so I could just hang my arms comfortably and the weirdness continued on. A Lady in her late forties with some mental problems was trying to get to the lavatory, she talked to the angelic flight attendant before going by (she was standing next to me helping another passenger), the lady asked if we were going to Hawaii, "No, sweetie, this flight is going to Charlotte, South Carolina! are you sure you're in the right flight?", "Yeah, Charlotte, that's what I meant". The angel looked back and me and giggled, looking for someone to share the funny moment with, I suppose. "Weird flight" I said, she winked at me.

I strapped on my seat belt and pulled out my Bradbury to find Guy now questioning his life, his job, his society. That's when I felt someone which I thought was gonna walk by towards the lavatory, but instead just stood there. I looked up and to my incredible surprise it was the girl with the green blouse. She was there smiling at me, waiting for me to take my earphones off, and I did. "Hi, I guess that's my seat over there". I said "oh, sure, let me get out of your way so you can get in". I helped her put away her suitcase on the overhead compartment, as any gentleman would do with such a lovely lady, and stepped aside to let her sit down. I spent what seemed like hours contemplating her, my luck, which never goes this way, the beautiful girl I saw at the bus station about a hundred miles back, is now here, sitting next to me, but it was only a couple of seconds and then I started to get a little nervous. I said "hi", she turned to me, whipping her blonde hair, again, out of her face, smiled and said "hello!" with a beautiful southern accent and voice.

The little girl started crying again, and she stroke up a conversation with her. She asked me if I knew what was wrong, I said she's scared of flying alone. The girl was heart broken by this and started to talk to her about random kiddie stuff to get her mind off it. I was glad to see she had such a kind heart. Then more bizarre events started to happen. "Hooooolleeeeer! y'all take off your ipods or whatever it is you have blocking your ears and pay attention to the safety announcement". The girl and I looked at each other, almost simultaneously, and we laughed. "This is one weird flight!" I said, "I know!" she said. It was the only man out of the three flight attendants which spoke with an affeminate voice, but got a bit more serious when he started explaining the safety features of the plane. The other two female flight attendants could not hold their laughter and were just cracking up while trying to keep composture at such a serious presentation, but they couldn't. Everyone in the plane was just laughing out loud.

And we took off. The girl next to me pulled out a book, something about "Good In Bed", which I thought was so typical of a girly girl to be reading a chick book. The little girl asked her about the book, she said she just got it at the airport so she would have something to pass the time during the flight. That sparked my curiosity, but at that moment the plane's PA came back on, this time it was the captain speaking. "Hello everybody! I just wanted to say 'hi' and let you know how thrilled we are that you decided to fly with us...", I looked over at the girl and she was already looking at me laughing. "I'm telling you! something's going on here! This flight is just too weird!", she laughed harder. "...and in addition to that I wanted to call your attention to our beautiful and talented flight attendant Angela..." YES! I thought, she couldn't have had any other name! "...not only is she beautiful and extremely efficient at her job but she is also an accomplished professional choreographer who has worked on music videos by leading stars like P-Diddy, Britney Spears and the such. She will be leaving us to participate on the TV show 'Dancing with the Stars'. So please take a minute to congratulate her and wish her the best as she serves you refreshments for today". I could see the poor little thing blushing and smiling trying to keep cool and continue doing a good job. The girl next to me and I looked at each other again, and at the same time said the same thing "this IS a weird flight!", and we laughed.

We both continued reading our books, I on the other hand, could not concentrate much on mine. I keept looking to my right at her, examining her face, her hair, her hands, the skin on her legs...she had a few freckles on her thighs and I thought those were the sexiest legs in the world. It was very hard for me to control the urge to caress them softly and feel the satin beauty that they were. She noticed that I looked at her, I could see her panning her eyes towards me everytime I turned my head around. I started to get nervous as I thought I'd share one of my stories with her, see what she thought of it. I couldn't get up the urge to ask her, just start talking out of the blue, so I resumed my faked reading and listened to my music.

As she started to get more comfrotable on her seat her elbow moved and it touched my arm. I could feel all the hair on the back of my neck stand up and then I noticed she just stayed there, our arms touching, connected as if by magnetism and suddenly I was transported to my youth, my early teens, one of my first real loves, Gia the girl from across the street, older of four sisters. We used to sit across from each other on the front porch of my mom's house and play cards. Both of us barefoot, I used to slowly slide my foot close to hers, in an almost squid like motion barely touch our toes. I remember she didn't move, so I tickled her a little and she just smiled, but never looked up from her cards, she blushed. It was the same feeling now, I was getting aroused. Her soft skin against mine, the hair on my forearm felt like rye fields on a breezy late spring afternoon. I moved my arm closer and she didn't pull back. Only then did I remember than a few minutes after she sat down, she looked to the adjustable arm rest that could have separated us, like steel bars on a jailcell separate the free from the imprisoned, but she hesitated for a second, then put it back up and out of the way, leaving just air, nothing between us. I got more comfortable and moved my body close to hers so our hips were touching, and again got no resistance. She moved around a few times, moved her arms, crossed her legs this way and the other, always remained in bodily contact. I put my book down, pulled out one of my stories, took off my headset and hesitated for a few seconds. I turned to her and spoke in her ear softly, she leaned towards me curious. "Can I ask you a favor?", she said "of course". "Would you mind reading a short story I wrote and tell me what you think of it?" I said. "Sure! I'd love to, let's see it." I handed it to her. She started to read and I just sat back, rested my chin against my left hand and listened to her body language speak to me in response to my story.

In only a few minutes I felt like I was getting to know everything about her just by watching her. She smiled, laughed, opened up her eyes wide in amazement, covered her mouth with fright and suspense. I couldn't blink. She was done, put the book down and stared straight a head, then her eyes looked up and down, she was doing some deep thinking, a slight smirk she hinted before turning to me. "It was really, really good" she said, in a very serious tone, but with smiling lips and glassy eyes, it looked like it made her sad. I thanked her and asked if there was any critique she wanted to give me. She said, no, "apart from some minor grammatical things, it's a very good story and very well told, it makes you think about things", "what kind of things?" I inquired. "You know, about people, prejudice, how we really are". Those were some very deep comments and I was glad to hear how much meaning she found on it, some her own interpretentions, things I never consciously intended. I was glad she was not a "dumb blonde".

"Well, thank you very much, I really appreciate you taking the time to read my story". She replied "no, really, it was my pleasure, I really liked it a lot!". I smiled and stared into her eyes for quite a while, she smiling back, I introduced myself. She said her name was Jenny. We got into a really nice conversation, made the rest of the trip end too quick for what commonly feels like an eternity in normal situations. I wanted the plane to remain flying forever, so that I wouldn't have to leave her. She was a geniune southern belle, native of South Carolina, traveling south for a friend's wedding. She said "They're dropping like flies! I feel like I'm a bride's maid every other month!", I flirted and said I was glad she was still available. She blushed.

As the plane landed the child started crying again, people trying to get up off their seats before everybody else, trying to make a run for the door as if the craft would take off again with them still on board. She took the child into her arms and held her and told her nice things. She would look at me every few seconds smiling. We talked a bit more before it was my turn to leave. She said she was going to stay with the child until Angela, the beautiful and talented flight attendant, came to get the child. As she said so, her eyes remained on me, as if she wanted me to say I would stay with her, but I didn't. All I said was "Jenny, you will never know how nice it was meeting you. This flight, you, this experience, has given me a morale boost that has probably saved my life". She laughed, said she had a nice time too and that she hoped we would see each other in the future. All I could think was "I hope you are still a bachelorette", I leaned and gave her a kiss on the cheek and walked out.

Walking down the isle inside the plane, towards the exit, I somehow felt I was leaving a very good thing behind, experiences that were to be, a part of me that I hadn't yet come to grips with. Jenny will stand out in my thoughts for quite a few years to come. For some reason, at that moment, I felt like it she should have been walking that isle with me, same as her friends would be walking the isle towards what would hopefully be years of happiness together. And all I thought was "why did this have to be such a short plane ride".

Ende.