Short stories

Not your Captain

"Mommy!" My three year old daughter squeals, holding my hand tighter," we gonna fly!" She continues, jumping up and down, letting go of my hand and pretending she's a plane.

I laugh as her curly blonde hair bounces behind her; her blue eyes shining with excitement.

"Come on Sophie," I reach for her, grabbing her hand and pulling her to security. She follows me, skipping next to me and smiling wildly," we gonna see daddy!" She chants over and over again.

I see people sending us side glances, smiling at the young and excited child.

"My my, someone is excited to go see there dad, aren't they?" The security guard bends down to her level, smiling at the suddenly shy child.

She nods," it's a supwise" she laches into the hem of my shirt, smiling shyly.

"Well I'm sure he'll love to see y'all," he chuckles," what's your name sweetie?"

"Sophie!" She declares loudly, "and this is my mommy," she points to me.

"She is? Well she's very lucky to have such a cute little girl like you." He tells her while standing up. A like has started to form behind us; we wouldn't want to miss our flight, or make anyone else miss theirs.

The security guard, who's name tag reads Nick, moves out of the way, we quickly move through the metal detector, bidding Nick goodbye.

Sophie waving and telling Nick to "catch all the bad guys" we hurried off to our flight, and once we got the our plane we settled down, Sophie bouncing in her seat by the window.

Take-off was smooth, thankfully, I was worried how Sophie would react to the air pressure changing, but she handled it well, only telling me her "head felt like it was going to explode" while beaming at me. He, kids.

Five minutes into our flight, after the captain told us we could take our seat-belts off, there was some ruckus near the captains pit. I chose to ignore it, taking out a book to read to Sophie.

Before I could start reading the plane started shaking, I chanced a glance out the window only to see us starting to incline towards the ground.

People started screaming, others crying. I grabbed Sophie and held her shaking form close," Mommy I don't wanna fly anymore" she wailed into my shoulder.

"I know sweetie, me either, it will all be over soon baby. Its ok" I reassured her, trying to keep my voice steady. I knew this will most likely be my last moments with her.

"Passengers, this isn't your captain speaking," a calm, menacing voice came over the intercom.