The flight to Heathrow was a red
eye, and after take-off dinner was served.
Before cabin lights out, complimentary drinks were brought around, and Jade
ordered a glass of wine. Before Ellen
could raise an eyebrow, Jade cut her off, “I’m old enough to drink in
international waters and in Ireland, Mom, and this is a Pub Tour.” And Jade was surprised when Ellen ordered a
glass of wine, too. White Zinfandel – a
wine Jade could never understand. It was
all the negative points of wine without any of the positives, like good
flavor. But every woman deserves freedom
from judgment in her nightcap selection, and Jade gave Ellen her airline
blanket before turning out her reading light.
Ellen was chronically cold, comical since they lived in the desert.
As they drifted off dreaming of
their ensuing escapades, the pilot came on the loudspeaker. “Folks, I have some news,“ he said in a
rather serious tone. “There is no danger at this time.” Instantly all
passengers were wide awake; this was not a phrase one wanted to hear while
airborne. “We have had a fire on
board. It’s bad to have a fire on a
plane, especially when you are flying over the middle of the Atlantic,
people.” Ellen’s face was barely hiding
her panic. “Someone smoked in the
lavatory, and brilliantly, instead of putting out the cigarette, they threw it
in the lavatory waste bin. Smoking on a
flight is illegal, folks, and tampering with an airplane smoke detector is a
punishable offense. Luckily for us all,
another passenger was waiting to use the same lavatory and not only identified
the fire and alerted the airplane staff to safely extinguish the fire; but also
identified the smoker. This person will
be escorted off the airplane upon our arrival in London and punished to the
fullest extent of the law. Thank you for
your time, and again, I want to reiterate that there is no current danger
aboard this aircraft.”
Ellen was by this time gripping Jade’s
forearm in a grasp beyond firm.
“Jade, this is what happened to
the TWA flight, I know it. Remember that
flight? They took off from New York City
and just fell out of the sky into the black ocean. The investigators pulled the wreckage up from
the sea, even those black boxes or whatever it is that tells you why the plane
went down, and they still never figured it out.
This is what happened to those people – don’t you think? I mean, it really could be.”
The attention chimes came on
above Jade and Ellen, and the cabin lights came up, too. “Ladies and Gentlemen, we are pleased to
offer an additional complimentary beverage service during this transatlantic
flight- please have your order ready when we reach your seat,” purred the head
stewardess, in an obvious effort to subdue the nerves already on edge
throughout the plane.
Ellen went rapidly raving on with
her revelation, almost as a conspiracy theory subscriber would, but Jade
shrugged her off. “Mom, seriously, the
fire’s out and we’re already stuck on this flight anyway, so there’s no point
worrying about it. Just go to sleep and
when you wake up we’ll be in London. Who
could ask for more than that? Everything
will be fine, I promise.” Jade thought to
herself that she might have even managed to sound legitimate in her
endeavor.
Jade nodded off to snooze in her
coach window seat, a commendation to her age, while Ellen continued to fret
about the on board fire. At some point
during the overnight flight, Ellen must have drifted off, because when Jade
awoke to the sun rising slowing over the ocean, Ellen was snoring in a slack
jawed, un-ladylike fashion.
Jade watched the red orb,
mirrored in the water beneath her, in a sphere of mauve and gold. As she would grow accustomed to, Jade found
her thoughts wandering to all corners of the impossible, the infinite. She would learn that when traveling, anything
became attainable, and opportunities abounded all around her, even if only in
her imagination. There was nothing like
an airplane flight to expand one’s mental horizons. Some people took drugs to get this high, but Jade
realized the travel bug was just as freeing, and much healthier for the price. Jade thought of her grandmother, whose
passing had made this trip possible, and of her own future. Jade’s grandmother, Evelyn, had told her once
that she had wished to go to college but hadn’t been able to because of World
War II. And here Jade was, on vacay from
college at the very school where her grandfather had worked as a Finance VP
after his service in the war.
It was a different era, and Jade
felt compelled to prove her worth, even though the effort was, shall we say,
somewhat needless. Jade was hard headed
in an independent way, the kind of woman who never anticipated to marry,
planned to support herself, and had no experience against a glass ceiling. She considered a man’s world a thing of the
past, while roadblocks were merely speedbumps.
As the sun assumed it’s more
normal assignation with the horizon, the flight attendants subtly began
clanging dishes in preparation for breakfast service in coach. Ellen awoke, mumbled her appreciation for the
late stage sunrise, and adjusted the recline of her plane seat. Breakfast service was unremarkable, and the
pilot soon announced descent toward London.
Ellen and Julie both thought of
the new world that awaited them, cute accents and tea service; neither could
fully fathom all that another culture had to offer. Not that the ladies hadn’t experienced culture
outside their comfort zone, after all border town Mexico was only 60 miles from
home, and during years of safety offered the allure of tourism and bargain
shopping. Provided one parked on the
correct side of the Dennis De Concini Border Gate.
The ladies were coach class for
this flight, and so they missed the arrest of the anonymous lavatory smoker as
he deplaned. But by the time they’d climbed
out of the cramped coach seats and gathered their carry-ons, both girls were
excitedly interrupting one another with vacation fantasies.
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