The plane dipped down, roiling black clouds appearing around it without warning. Angry slashes of lightning sliced through the sky, illuminating it with bright blue light as rain pelted against the window like pebbles. I gripped the armrest a little tighter, trying my best to remain calm. It wasn’t until this moment that I realized that I was afraid of heights. I’d always been uncomfortable being so far above the ground, but now in the face of such obvious doom it gripped my heart with icy panic.
Beside me, my mom leaned back in her chair and watched me out of the corner of her eye. “It’s okay.” She murmurs, patting my hand, “Just a little turbulence.” It does little to soothe the prickling skin forming along my arms and the back of my neck.
Suddenly, the plane drops down 10 feet. I lift up off my seat, kept in place only by my seatbelt. My eyes go so wide, I feel like my eyes are going to fall out of my sockets. The winds pick up and rock the aircraft side to side, up and down, like an vengeful cat god trying to get a can of tuna open.
There’s a loud clicking sound followed by a thump. My mom cocks her head to one side, listening to it. “Uh oh.” She says, “I think the engine just stopped running.”
At first, I’m not sure I heard her right. The idea that could happen just didn’t register inside my brain. How could the engine just stop? We’re in the middle of the biggest storm ever millions of miles in the air and now we’re going to die because the engine just stopped.
“Huh?!” I ask intelligently.
I look at her and she returns it. At first, I see nothing but a mask. Then, I notice it. A tiny smirk at the corner of her lips. My mom notices that I saw it and smiles a little wider, “Sorry, couldn’t help myself.”
“Very funny, mom.” I mutter.
As quickly as it started, the storm passed and the sun beamed happily through the window. I look back to see the roiling inky clouds continue on their way, their quest for airborne people unsatisfied. Relief flooded inside of me, but at the same time, I wanted to go again.
Behind the Random: This is sort of an amalgamation of all the times I’ve been on a plane. Every time has been with my mom and she has been a cruel prankster every time. Definitely where I get my sense of humor from. The one good thing that came out of it, however, was that I overcame my fear of heights through her antics.
642 Things 