Aesthetic

Chapter 2

     The thing about airplanes is that whether it's day or night, you can't see anything but the clouds or the sky. It's just you and the blinking lights of the wing, flashing red in the inky blackness of the night. You can't see anything.
     But my favorite moment is when you just break the clouds and you start to see all these flashing lights in the night. And you know that down there, people are watching and going on with their day. And each one of those people has their own life, their own story. It really blows your mind.
     I'm sitting here in this seat, crammed right next to the window. The woman next to me is fast asleep, after trying to talk to me (unsuccessfully) for an hour. My neck aches from looking out the window, but I can't seem to stop. In reality, I know we should be landing soon, so I should probably try to make myself look presentable. But I don't have the willpower. I'm just too lazy.
The intercom crackles on. Good evening ladies and gentlemen. It's me again, your pilot, James. We are about to land, so if you could fasten your seatbelt, bring all seats to upright position, and put all trays up, that would be great. The cabin attendants will be coming around shortly to make sure that everyone is ready. Thank you.
I look out the window, not bothering to check anything. We're still above the clouds. When I was young, I used to want to jump out and sit on the clouds. Then, my sixth grade science teacher crushed my dreams by telling our class that clouds were just big collections of water vapor and we would die if we tried sitting on one. Nice guy.
A sudden lurch in the plane told me that we had started going down. My breath hitched as I saw all the lights appear and glimmer, flashes of red and blue. I couldn't stop staring as the ground got closer and closer and finally-
Thud. We were officially on the ground. There was a commotion as people started rummaging for their phones and purses. The plane was slowing down, so I checked the time. 12:44. I groaned. Hopefully Id be able to find a hotel that would take me at this time. With my luck, I'd have to sleep on the streets.
I grabbed my luggage from the conveyer belt and say down for a second to see if there were any hotels. To my relief, I was able to book a room. I headed outside to hail a cab, but stopped immediately. I looked at the view and thought, New York.