The Voice (Luke Hemmings)

8. Flights

"The passengers of flight 1063 from Los Angeles International Airport to Kingsford Smith International Airport can now enter the plane." A woman's voice could be heard through the telecom. I looked at my mom and she nodded. "Here we go..." I smiled and grabbed my backpack. My suitcase was already in the plane. We were gonna leave LA. Maybe for good. I didn't know if I would ever go back here, even though there were many memories here. I just... I didn't have anything to go back for. Okay, maybe the beaches. They were pretty cool. I tossed my Starbucks cup in the garbage can and followed my mom to the entrance of the plane. "Welcome." A stewardess said and I smiled at her. "Thanks." I said and walked past her, following my mom to our seats. "Shotgun window seat!" I yelled a little bit too loud, because I heard a few people chuckle. My mom sighed and put our luggage in the compartment store. After she was done she sat next to me. "So, here we go. For real." I nodded. "Yea, and I couldn't be happier." She smiled. "I'm happy to hear that." I smiled too. I put my earpods in my ears, and began listening to Crown The Empire while we waited for the plane to take off.

I wanted to write. In my notebook. The last few days lyrics have been swimming through my head, and I just wanted it written down before I would forget it. I looked at my left and saw my mom sleeping peacefully. I grabbed a notebook and a pen from my backpack and opened it on a new page. I wanted to get all of these feeling off my chest. So they would never have to come back. They'd be locked up in this song. And with that thought I began writing away.

Four years old, with my back to the door.
All I could hear, was the family war.
Your selfish hands, always expecting more.
Am I your child? Or just a charity award?

You have a hollowed out heart, but it's heavy in your chest.
I try so hard to find it but it's hopeless.
Hopeless. You're hopeless.

Oh father, please father.
I'd love to leave you alone, and I can let you go.
Oh father, please father.
Put the work down, for the love of a daughter.

"What are you writing?" I heard a sleepy voice next to me say. My head shot up and met my mom's eyes. "Nothing." I said while closing the notebook. I'll finish this later. She looked at me for a while before shrugging and closing her eyes again. I looked out of the window and the only thing I saw was ocean. Ocean, ocean, ocean. And some clouds. I wanted to text Anna really badly, but I had to turn my phone off once we were on the plane. Ugh. What am I supposed to do the whole flight? Play Mario Kart on my Nintendo DS like the annoying kids behind me? Uhh, nope. Not gonna happen. I sighed and turned my music on again. I closed my eyes and put my head on my mom's shoulder, slowly drifting off in a dreamless sleep.

"I want to inform you that there will be turbulence, so don't worry." The voice of the pilot shook me out of my sleep. I held my head from my mom's shoulder and she looked up. "You've been out for a while huh?" She said. "How long?" I asked. "Well, I woke up 3 hours ago, and I was sleeping for 2 hours already." I didn't even have the energy to do the math and see how many hours sleep I had. "Oh okay." I just said. My mom smiled and read further in her magazine. I looked at the screen in front of me. It was a map of the world, with a line between LA and Sydney. The plane indicated where it was, and it was on 2/3 of the line. So we had a few more hours to go. I sighed and looked out of my window. Still nothing there. Only ocean. I can totally write a song about that.

"We are almost in Sydney. Please fasten your seatbelts." The voice of the pilot said and I sat up straighter in my seat. We were gonna land? Finally. I put my things back in my backpack and my mom put the things back in the compartment store above our heads. I fastened my seatbelt and after my mom sat down the did the same. The stewardesses checked the compartment stores and then disappeared again behind the small curtains. And that was when we began landing.