On the Road Again

Chapter 13

         "How in the world did Indi end up with two seats to herself?" I hear my sister ask although her voice is muffled due to the fact that I have pillows covering both of my ears.

          "She didn't sleep at all last flight or the flight before." My mum's soothing yet bubbly voice answers. "Just let her sleep on the way to Paris." I whisper a thank you to my mum who politely nods her head in return. Mimi shuffles out of our row and takes a seat in between Brian and Vay, before plucking Melissa out of Brian's arms. Although he instantaneously fights back, saying that Mimi will be super tired taking care of the restless baby, Mimi insists, assuring him that she is fully capable of feeding, changing and doing any other baby oriented tasks.

My mother takes the seat closest to my feet and Donnie seats himself beside her. In the row behind me my dad has been forced to sit alone with some random woman who has already called her dibs on three seats by sprawling her body across them. And to my left Tea has already fallen asleep, with little Tyler luxuriously napping across two seats.

          The plane hasn't even taken off, yet two out of ten members of our family have already dozed off. I slide a stick of gum into my mouth, knowing that there is no way I will be asleep before take off. It's just a weird habit of mine: I have to be awake during take off. I chow down of the rock-like piece of gum until it finally softens.

          I watch as my screen displays a small safety film. The mandatory film explains that flight attendants should be showing us our nearest exits. I peer down my isle and see a flight attendant chatting away to her fellow flight attendant whilst standing underneath a glowing, green exit sign. I can't help but feel that these attendants are failing to do their job properly. The film specifically said our flight attendants will show us our nearest exits, not chin-wag beneath an exit sign.

          In an attempt to ignore the fact that I am possibly stuck with the least-trained flight attendants ever, I pull out my earphones and listen to some music. This only makes me realise how much music I will need to catch up on when I return home.

          When the captain announces to prepare for take off, I do not feel the least bit uneasy. After two flights both roughly six hours long, I feel ready. Like an apprentice chef who is yearning to take on a lead role in the kitchen.

          With gum in my mouth and music in my ears, I am qualified to take on the world.

          The plane goes through the normal process of take off; rounding the corner; speeding up; slowly lifting the front wheels; gradually having the back wheels follow and accelerating into the air.

          And not a single part of me is troubled. My achilles don't tense and I don't feel the need to grip the armrests. My throat doesn't tighten and my stomach doesn't have a swarm of flying insects whizzing about inside it. I feel completely normal and I can proudly say that I have disposed of my travel jitters.

          As the plane finally straightens out and the seatbelt sign turns off, I rip off my earphones and tuck them away in a small pocket of my bag. After two sleepless plane rides, my body is incapable of staying awake any longer. I find the wrapper of my chewing gum and neatly fold my gum back into the paper. As a flight attendant walks down the isle closest to me, I swiftly chuck my wrapper into the open rubbish bag fastened to the end of her trolley.

          It dawns on me when I collapse back into my sleeping position, that I am already in unfit holiday mode. The amount of effort it took to lean over and dispose of my junk was just unbelievable. It's either I've become accustomed to the less stressful and lazy life of being on holiday already, or I'm just plain, ol' tired. For my sake, I choose to vote for the latter, I mean we've planned to go to Disney land on our first day, I can't already be feeling lackadaisical!