An Extraordinary Flight

Sometimes we fall asleep in our lives, and keep drifting away from our souls, we do things that we do not normally do, we transform ourselves into insensitive creatures, and we continue doing this, until we are awoken by a simple brush of death. This is what I would like to share with you in this story.

It was a normal a plane, like any other plane that surfs in the wide blue skies. The passengers were like normal passengers; a lady with two children, one on her arm and the other in her right arm, with a back pack on her back, and she was struggling like hell with the children, especially the one that was walking beside her. As they entered the plane I could hear her giving him orders each time he blinked his eye, as if she is his guardian angel. Another man sitting at the side, reading his newspaper, he was sitting on the external side of the left row of the plane. The other two seats beside him were supposed to be for the lady and her children. In front of them were two lovers that seemed to freshly be in love, for their looks in their eyes showed love and ignorance, as if they are still getting to know each other, still pure from the main of the trick of time that is called routine. In front of them was sitting the girl that I once had incorrectly loved, with her parents. She was sitting in the middle of them, as if she required the maximum protection from my harmless presence. In front of her was a boy watching something I cannot determine on his IPad, with his headphones that almost hid half of his face, while the rest of his smooth light brown hair that almost covered his eyes. Beside him was a lady. The vagueness of her looks made me wonder whether she was alone or just pretending to be. I could see the seat between her and the boy empty. I was sitting in the row beside all these people, on the external side. On my right were a Japanese man, and his wife. They already looked quite bored from each other, their hands were limited to each ones chair, as if they would like to cut each and every link they could have together, yet destiny is just inevitable, is not it?

In front of me were lots of people that I did not care much about. The lady with her children sat in their places after the newspaper guy gave a frown on letting the lady in. the lady with total politeness apologized for her children, and the bag that hit his face while she was removing it from her back. He seemed quite a tough guy, with well contoured biceps, actually the newspaper did not look as his game. The plane went off, with the regards of the pilot and the repeated CD of the flight attendant about the instructions. I used to listen in my first few flights, but later on I would just look at the chair in front of me, and wonder how difficult it is to repeat the same words in the same arrangement, each and every time they work. They must despise it.

It was just a matter of time till the pilot announced that we will be facing some turbulence. All of the passengers automatically looked at their seat belts, as if it was their hero. The turbulence was violent, if there was a cup filled of water, it would probably have spilt it all over the floor. People were afraid but they became terrified when they understood from the captain later on that he is doing his best to control the situation of the violent turbulence .The mother began holding her two children, putting her hand on the chest of the big one, and holding the baby to her breast with the other hand. The man beside her left his newspaper and started looking down to the floor. In front, the couple were holding hands each other so tightly that I could see the yellowness of their hands. The girl looked to the boy with a tear dropping from her eyes, as if she is saying “I will always love you, this is probably goodbye”. In front of them was the girl that I once loved, she was scared, she was afraid, although she tried her best to conceal it, yet the feeling was too strong, her back was in an inclined position as if she was praying, her father on her right. He placed his hand on her back, and then she suddenly returned her back, as if she detested the situation, as if she was proving her vulnerability. Her mother on her left was saying some words that I could not tell, yet I bet it was something related to God. In front of them the boy left his IPad, and sat with his legs on the chair, between his arms. He looked downwards to the ground with his neck almost becoming a part of his chest, as if he regretted wasting all his life in nothing, as if he resented each and every bad action he did in his life, as if he wanted to cry, yet the manhood inside of him refused to. The lady beside him was calm just like me, after I glanced at her, I returned to her back again with my eyes, I could see that she was wearing her sun glasses as if she wanted to sleep. She was stable in her place, she did not even move her hand. She was so silent, as if there was nothing happening. I envied her tranquillity that exceeded mine by stages. Deep inside me I left all the fear, I forgot anything bad that could happen to me, I muted all the noisy sounds around me and stood up, as I approached the lady, I passed by the biceps’ man, he was in a situation where his strength was in no use, he was just like one of us, his muscles could not stop the wind from blasting towards his direction, nor could his chest muscles save him from the trap of destiny. The mother beside him was bending on her child beside her asking him to be brave. As I passed by them, I saw our lovers sitting beside each other, the girl was laying her head on the shoulder of the boy, totally relieved, totally surrendering. Her lover was stroking her dark smooth brown her with his right hand, whilst his left was hugging her.
As I passed by I saw the girl that I had once loved, I could not believe the coincidence that she is riding the same plane, I could not believe that if we die, we would die together, I had wished one day that we could have been like the couple behind her, yet she insisted on staying away, she rejected me and now look at her, look at her striving for her life. She noticed me, she looked at me with desperate eyes as if she was apologizing for hurting me, as if she was saying “I wish I had let my heart love you, yet it now is too late, maybe in another life”. I cannot deny that I blamed her for the reason of lots of pain in my life, yet I forgot all about the wounds she had caused me that moment, as if she I was looking at her for the first time, as if I was falling in love her all over again. I stood still for a couple of seconds, and then I left her stare with a smile that denoted that I accept the apology. I was just about to reach the woman, when I found the yellow masks fall from the top of the plane, I found the flight attendant run towards me, obliging me to sit down. Yet I resisted, and I kept on resisting till she fell to the ground, and left me. The sounds returned back again, the adrenaline was seriously pumping inside my body. I came beside her and glanced at the boy, he was also in total surrender, yet with regret, I quickly wondered what he repented, what made him so sad, was that he always disobeyed his parents, was the he broke a heart of an innocent girl, was it that he ran away from his home, was that he did not do anything useful in his life. I kept calling the lady with one hand on my bent knee and the other one on the shoulder of the lady. She was not answering, she was completely silent. I felt her hand and it was cold as if she was a cold blooded creature. I tried calling out louder, holding her hand tighter, yet a sorrowful notion began to arise inside me about this lady. I reached out my hand and felt her pulse it was so weak. She was in a shock, as a medical student I tried to help her, I tried to shout for help. I kept shouting “there is a lady that needs help, please come and help me” yet nobody was answering, everybody was placing their masks on their face, looking at me as if I am an alien. I left the lady behind with her head resting on the chair in front of her, and I raced to the hostess asking for an adrenaline shot, to treat the lady yet she did not reply, she was already sitting with a strange mask on her face. I held her from her thin shoulders and shook her, yet her only response was to remove my hand and then she began swearing. I ran back to the lady in shock, and I tried to put her on the ground and apply any medical training that I had received, yet she was too heavy for me. I insisted, and she finally got to the ground, with a hard bump on her head. I tried to raise her legs, yet it did not work, I tried and tried yet I could not make her return to her conscious. I looked at the people sitting beside us and I could feel the blood leaking from the conscious of the people around me, I could feel that they resent their selfishness, yet I figured out that the human being was born to be selfish. I tried to increase their wounds by shouting asking them for more help, yet nobody left their seat, as if they were glued to it, as if when they sit they would be protected from all the hazards that surround us. They began looking away after I managed to catch their attention, as if they are saying “Just let her go in peace”. Deep down inside me, I was wondering how could the human be so cruel, how could they just look at this dying lady and do nothing, yet I realized that we were all dying, I realized we were the ones that needed to be saved. I could feel that the plane was now going down, as if it was falling in love with earth, falling in love with the skyscrapers. Suddenly, I felt the floor being stolen from beneath my legs, forcing me to the ground towards the front of the plane. I did not resist, I allowed everything, I imitated the regretting boy, I discovered that this was the easiest way to go. I could hear the people screaming, I could hear the people weeping, and I could hear different sorts of sound, yet deep inside me were a voice saying “the end is close”. Suddenly I got up on my feet, using the handle of the chair beside me, and I looked towards the front of the plane, and found the pilot’s cabin open, and I could see the ground directly in front of me.

I would leave the end for you to decide, yet if the ending were that each one of those people were to continue living, I bet that each one of them would begin exploiting each and every second of their lives in a different way, in a meaningful way that not only affects themselves, yet also affects the people around them. I bet those people would live with death each second in their next life, I bet that they would enjoy life much better and I bet they woke up from their dreams.