Coming Home

Lost in Translation

7 years ago

The seatbelt sign blinks to life as the pilot announces that we are going to land in a few minutes. I look at dad and seeing that he's still asleep, I turn my attention to the tiny window beside me and stare at the snow capped mountains in amazement. This is my first time to ride a plane, and I must admit, I felt a little nervous during the take off. How about the landing? Will it be scarier? 

My warm breath fogs up the window and I wipe it clean with the blanket the airline provided for us. In any minute now, we will finally set foot on American soil; we will finally begin the chase for a beautiful dream. The plane has started its descent and I get this funny feeling, like my stomach is dropping. Dad is still asleep, but I have to wake him up now. I can't let him miss this wonderful scenery. 

I nudge his arm with my elbow. Nothing. So I nudge him harder, and his eyes snap open. He squints at his surroundings for a while. Then, he yawns loudly and stretches, nearly hitting me in the head. "Dad, where are your manners," I whisper to him. There aren't any other passengers sitting with us but I don't like it when he makes himself feel at home in a public place. 

He laughs and ruffles my hair. "Ah, my little Stefan is growing up," he says in our native language. I smile at him and puff out my chest, making him laugh more. Meet Aleksander Czerwinski. He is my best friend, my father, and my hero. 

We spend the remaining minutes looking over the scenery outside us. The snow capped mountains have been replaced with endless fields of green. We're nearing the city now, I guess. Dad whips out his air sickness bag and starts writing on the available spaces. I stare at him curiously. "What's that for?" I ask him. 

"A memento," he says plainly. We don't have a camera with us, so that must be the reason why dad's doing this. I get my own air sickness bag and wait for him to finish writing. I'm going to do the same. I'm going to write down all the things that I've seen inside and outside the airplane. 

A tiny ding goes off and the captain of the airplane speaks up. Good morning ladies and gentlemen. This is Captain Leyson of JetSkylar. We are about to begin our final descent to the JFK airport. The current weather is 22 degrees celcius. We have certainly enjoyed having you on board today and we hope to see you again soon. Once again this is Captain Leyson accompanied by First Officer Johannesburg. Thank you for flying with us. 

I fasten my seatbelt and shut my eyes tight. The airplane does a slight tilt to the right side, giving me this 'stomach drop' feeling again. I clutch my bag tight, feeling it crumple in my hand. Dad puts up his tray and buckles his seatbelt and I feel him hugging me. This is it. 

After another few minutes of waiting, the airplane slowly and smoothly lands on the asphalt runway. I open my eyes and breathe a sigh of relief. That wasn't bad. And we're finally in America!

The plane finally comes to a full stop and people start unbuckling their seatbelts to collect their handheld luggage. Dad and I wait for the others to finish their business first before we do ours. When half of the passengers have already gotten off the plane, that's when we start to get our things from the overhead compartment. 

Dad hands me my brown backpack, which is full of old books I decided to bring along with me. Then, he carefully gets his old suitcase. We didn't bring much with us, just 2 carry ons and 3 that we've checked-in. 

Two female flight attendants bid us goodbye as we get out of the plane. I wave them goodbye. Now, we only need to get through immigration and security before we finally start our journey. We immediately find an airport trolley to put our baggages. Then, we head straight to the immigration area, only to be greeted with a long line of people like us. Immigrants.