Modern family ~ Emily Pritchett

Come Fly With Me

Phil was standing awkwardly with his hand on his hips near the couch. I kinda liked him struggling with dad. Its funny.
"Do you have to just stand there?" dad said, "You're making me feel uneasy."

"Oh." he replied but continued to stand there.

"Oh for god sakes, sit here." dad said finally done with him, "Here hold this wing like this while I adjust this."
Phil moved towards the couch and sat on the armrest gently holding the wing like a scaredy cat. "C'mon, here." dad said while patting the space beside him. Phil slowly moved forward and the leather of the couch started squeaking. He had hints of a smile on his face when dad interrupted him "Not too hard." "Okay."

I snorted while dad gave me a look.
"That'll do it." dad kept the plane on the table, "Don't touch it." after an awkward silence dad suggested to go fly the plane.

***

"Now can I try it?"
"No."
 This has been going on for the past 15 minutes we've been here.

"I should get one of those. I've always loved planes." Phil said, "You know if things had gone a little differently in my life, I think I would've been a pilot. Hey what would happen if you turned the remote off and then back on real fast?"

"Yeah you would've been a great pilot." I chimed in. 

"So, can you do a... can you do a loop-de-loop?"

"If I wanted to."

"No way! Now can I try it?"

"No."

They have been going on back and forth on this thing. I think Phil is too much of a golden retriever to see that my dad doesn't want to share his toy.

"Hey dad, I'm getting bored. Can we thread the needle?"

"What's that?" Phil turns towards me again.

"Its a trick that dad would do with us when we were little. He made us grab one of those hoops over there and stand at the far end of the field and then he would fly his plane through the hoop."

"Um that sounds awesome!" he expressed, slightly surprised that dad could do something fun. "And then I get a chance to fly it?"
"No." dad denied, "But you can stand holding the hoop with Emily."

We both grab the hoops and run down the cemented path in the middle of the field. when we finally reach the end dad instructs "Now stand still! And don't move!"

"Okay lets do it." Phil turned his face towards me, "Y'know you're pretty quiet for a Pritchett. What have you been up to these days?"
"Oh, nothing" I replied, "Just college stuff."

"Oh yeah college. I remember college. Y'know I used to be in a cheerleading tea-" Phil couldn't continue with his sentence because dad's plane had hit him right on the face.

"Oh my god! What did you do? Claire's gonna be so pissed. Why would you do that?" I tried to help Phil up but only managed to turn him when dad came up to us.

"You drove the plane into my face." Phil said in a daze. His face was all bloody.
"You must have moved." dad replied and I looked up at him. "What?"

*Interview POV*

"A toddler who's jumping up and down with her sister and her brother behind, standing in a row and still managing to thread the needle. There is no way that, that man could not have thread the needle." I say, "I remember the details because it was a great day."   

***

"Little accident nothing big." dad said as we made our way into the Dunphy house.
"I was in a plane crash." Phil said drowsily. Claire asked what happened as she tried to check over Phil.