Script

Chapter Twenty-Four: Tin Can

The next hour was pretty laid back. Amy slept in the back seat, and I stared out the window listening to music while Mark drove. We pulled up to the airport about ten after nine. Mark dragged the bags out of the truck, handed Amy hers, than piled both his duffle and mine onto his back. I had my backpack on my back and he carried his in his hand.

Inside, we lined up in baggage check, and waited for another twenty minutes until we were finally able to make our way to security. Mark yanked my bag off my back, then showed Amy where to put hers on the machine so that it could be scanned.

"ma'am, please take off your shoes," the guard said, motioning to our bins. Mark gave him a nasty look then let me lean against him as I bent down to take off my one shoe. I placed it in the bin then hobbled into the scanner. It beeped, and the light turned green. I moved forward, and Amy and Mark followed.

After collecting our stuff, we went and bought some drinks. Sitting down in front of Gate 3, I looked at the clock. It was 10:30. Our flight loaded at noon, so we had about an hour and a half to waste. Amy spoke first, "how long is this flight?"

"About 22 hours" Mark replied, looking over his shoulder nervously. She groaned, and pulled a book out of her backpack.

I have been making her go to public school since she was about six. By that time, I had come to my senses and realized that we both needed an education, but because monetary issues, we were never able to go on fieldtrips or buy hot lunch. But we got a decent education, and that's all that mattered. I dropped out after 9th grade.

I was an outsider, was bored in my classes, had no friends, got good grades, but felt I could do better for Amy if I got a job. That led me to work at a little hobby shop in our town. Even though she stayed in school, I never let her tell anyone about our home arrangements, and she obliged.

But ever since she was little Amy had been a bookworm, always getting books from the library, or finding free sets at trade centers. At age seven they tested her, and she was reading at a tenth grade reading level. Amy absolutely loved it.

She moved away from us and spread out on the opposite side of the chair row, enwrapping herself in the book.

"You okay?" I asked Mark, because he kept looking over his shoulder and checking his phone.

"I'm fine. I wish they would hurry up though. I don't want Clery to magically end up on the same plane as us."

"That's understandable, but not likely. Calm down. You're stressing me out just looking at you." he nodded and rubbed his sweaty palms on his shorts.

After an hour or so, he relaxed, and they started loading the plane. As they were just starting, a woman in a crisp navy blue uniform approached us.

"I noticed that you had a group of three, and we need someone to move back to coach. Are you currently in first class?"

"Yes, do you need all three of us to move?" Mark responded, looking up from his phone.

"No, just two, but I assume you want to stick together?"

"Yeah, we'd like to stay together. Where are the new seats?" She gave him the seat numbers, thanked us, and walked back to the loading area.

Ten minutes later we got on the plane and took our seats. Amy was by the window bouncing up and down in her seat, I sat in the middle, and Mark took the isle seat. The captain went through his little speech, and the emergency video began playing. I stiffened.

Up until now I had forgotten about my fear and my dream. I breathed in deeply and convinced myself to stay calm. The video ended, and I wasn't much better, but the plane started taxiing. We then began accelerating and I breathed in a quick breath. Mark noticed and leaned in, "It's okay, nothing's going to happen." I nodded really quickly and shut my eyes tight.

In my black little world I felt Mark reach over and pry my hand off of the chair, holding it. I squeezed it tight.

"Look how small everything is." Amy broke in in awe. I opened my eyes. We had leveled out, and were upright again. Marks hand was still trapped in mine, and wasn't about to be released. He leaned into me, and whispered in my ear, "Alexis, if anyone is going to get hurt on this plane it's me, you're killing my hand. But seriously, if someone were to highjack this plane, they would have to kill all 200 people. It's very unlikely. You've had some bad experiences yes, but that was a one in a million chance. I'm sure your dream meant nothing. Please just calm down." I loosened my grip. He softly rubbed his thumb up and down on the back of my hand again. I relaxed, sitting back in my chair.

By now, the seatbelt light had turned off, and most people were softly chatting in there little rows or were listening to music with their eyes closed.

"Are we going to stop at all, or are we stuck on this plane for 22 hours straight?" Amy asked as she reached down to grab her backpack out from underneath the seat in front of her.

"We stop twice; once in Atlanta, and once in Paris." Amy had just pulled her stuffed dolphin from the backpack, and turned to look at Mark.

"Paris?" she said in awe.

"Mhm."

"Will we have any time to sight see?" she asked, looking at him with hope.

"We leave about 36 hours after we land there."

"So we do!"

"I would hope so," Mark said, turning to me.

"What do you want to see Allie? The Eiffel Tower I assume?"

"That would be nice," I laughed.