Percy Jackson: CHB Again?

Chapter 18: Do Boars Play Frisbee?

When my eyes opened, I was sitting in a plane terminal, beside windows that showed off the planes landing and taking off and loading.

The terminal wasn't that full, there weren't many people walking around, and there were even fewer people sitting in the seats around me.

Two seats to my right, a little girl with brown hair and sea-green eyes sat, wearing a The Little Mermaid rain coat and little Finding Nemo rain boots. She couldn't have been older than six (8 years younger than me), and yet she was all alone, smiling contently at the airplanes gliding past the window to my left. I noticed she had a little present in her lap, it was badly wrapped in blue paper, and had a messy attempted bow on the top, but it was the thought that counted. I wondered who she was waiting for.

I didn't understand why I was here, so I just sat there quietly and watched.

One of the ladies behind the counter of this flight terminal walked over to the girl, and kneeled in front of her.

"Hello, there." She smiled. She must've looked scary to the kid, because she was wearing more make-up than a clown. But the girl just smiled.

"Hello!" She said cheerily. I couldn't help but smile, too. She had one of those cute little voices, and a mouth only half full of teeth. "Can you tell me when flight 103 from Toronto is landing?" She sounded really grown up for a six year old.

"Of course I can," clown-lady said softly. "It lands in ten minutes. We'll have to go to the landing terminal, so you can see who you're waiting for."

"My mom," the little girl giggled. "She's coming home. I want to see her plane land, and then you can help me find mommy in the landing terminomal." The fact that she couldn't pronounce terminal right made her even cuter, but I wondered still why she was alone here. If she was waiting for her mother, maybe her father or aunt or something else would be with her. How'd she even navigate herself to a terminal?!

"I can watch her until the plane lands." Offered the woman sitting behind the girl. She had sunglasses over her eyes, and was wearing an expensive looking black coat. Something seemed off about her. She smiled as if she were looking at her next meal. I didn't want to trust that.

"That's okay, I can do it."

Nobody seemed to hear me. I frowned, and repeated my sentence. Nothing. The clown-woman walked back to her desk in her too-high heels, and the other woman walked around so she was sitting in the seat beside the girl.

The girl seemed to be worried about this woman also, but she held a brave face. I moved over two seats so I was on the other side of the girl. Still, nobody seemed to notice. I wondered if I was invisible or if someone had taped a sign to me that said 'Don't talk to me or acknowledge me or I'll attack'.

"I'm...G." The woman said to the girl after a few minutes. The girl looked from the clown-woman, back to G, and I could tell she was about to say her name. Clown cut in.

"That's the plane, Sweety." She pointed at a Canadian Airlines plane descending from the sky. The little girl clutched the present in one hand and excitedly ran to the window, smudging her face up against it as if to get a better view. I stood and walked to her side, not that she noticed me.

The only way you could spot the plane was by the flashing lights. There was a storm brewing, and although it hadn't been this black moments before, I felt uneasy. It hadn't even started to rain when a lightning bolt shot at the plane.

With a loud 'crack' and 'boom' the plane's nose tilted straight down and the plane was on fire as it spiralled out of the sky.

"MOMMY!" The little girl screamed and started crying. My heart broke as the plane collided with the runway. It started pouring, but the rain didn't put the fire out. Plumes of smoke traced their way towards the sky, and firetrucks started making their way to the mess.