A Family Vacation

Chapter 6: Flying There

Bjorn's POV
June 2, 2019

The day has come, I'm up at 3 AM heading to Arlanda Airport with Lena. There, I'm gonna meet up with Agnetha and the rest of my family as we are flying to Dubai for our three week vacation. I couldn't be anymore excited. We get to the airport where we check into our 6 1/2 hour flight at the Emirates check in kiosk. There's no sign of Agnetha, Linda, Christian, or the grandchildren yet. But, at least Emma and Anna are here with their families. Just then, I feel someone sneaking up behind me.

"Bjorn! So nice to see you!" Agnetha exclaimed as she gave me a warm hug.

"You too, Anna!" I said as I kissed her cheek.

"Uh huh!" Lena said angrily while grabbing both our attention with a dirty look on her face.

"Sorry!" I exclaimed, "We were just saying hello!"

"Ok good!" Lena huffed.

Shortly afterwards, Tilda walked over to me and gave me a warm hug as well, along with Linda and Jens, followed by Christian and Isabelle. Esther, Signe, and Christian's little daughter came running towards me shortly afterwards and we gave one big group hug.

"Alright everyone! Who's ready to go?!" I exclaimed.

"ME!" Esther and Signe exclaimed.

"I think we all are, papa," Linda said.

"Well let's head to the gate now that we are all checked in!"

Now that we are all checked in, we then go through security before heading to the gate to board our long awaited flight to Dubai. Once we sat down, I can already see that Agnetha was already starting to feel tense.

"Are you ok, Agnetha?!"

"I'm fine. I'm just nervous that's all!"

Christian and Isabelle then rub her arms and engage Agnetha in deep breathing exercises as a way to calm her down. I hope she's going to be alright all throughout the flight. She's always had really bad flight anxiety, made even worse 40 years ago during that tour of North America that we went on. We were flying through a tornado in a small town in New England flying from New York to Boston. Agnetha was in so much distress that she felt physically sick afterwards and we had no other choice but to cancel our next show in Washington, much to our dismay and to our fans dismay. Just then, it's time for us to board.

We all get on the plane and we quickly find our seats. I am seated next to Lena and Emma with me being in the aisle, Lena in the middle, and Emma in the window seat. In the row parallel to us, Agnetha is seated between Linda, who has the aisle seat and Tilda, who has the window seat. Linda and Tilda have taken over the deep breathing exercises that Agnetha was engaging in back at the gate from Christian and Isabelle, who are now sitting in the row in front of us with their little girl.

"Don't worry, grandma. Everything will be ok. Just think about the nice time we're going to have," I hear Tilda say to Agnetha as the plane starts leaving the gate to prepare for takeoff. The Emirates safety video is playing on our small little screens that are on every seat in front of our little tray tables at the same time.

A few minutes later, the plane takes off and once we are about 25,000 feet up into the air, Agnetha finally calms down.

"Thank you everyone for helping me!" she says.

"No worries, mama!" Linda responds.

After about another half hour, the flight attendants start serving us our dinner. Lena and I order some grilled chicken, which by the way is very delicious. I glance across my seat to where Agnetha, Linda, and Tilda are sitting. I see that all three of them are eating some steamed halibut and they all seem to be enjoying their meal.

"How's the food?" I ask.

"Really delicious, papa!" Linda says.

"Yeah, me too!" says Tilda.

"Agnetha, what about you?"

"I love it!"

"What did you order, grandpa?" Tilda asks.

"Just some grilled chicken"

"Can I try some?"

"Sure" I say as I hand Tilda a piece of my grilled chicken that I was eating. She grabs her fork and takes a bite.

"So what do you think?"

"I really like it! Better than the steamed halibut!"

"Atta girl!" Agnetha and Linda can't help but chuckle after that comment and neither can Tilda and I. Lena then turns to me with a serious look.

"What are you doing?!"

"What do you mean what am I doing?!"

"Answer my question, please!"

"I was just talking to Agnetha, Linda, and Tilda"

"Were you and Agnetha flirting?! Because I heard laughing and you wouldn't stop looking at her!"

"No! Why would you think we were flirting?! All I did was ask Agnetha, Linda, and Tilda what they were eating because I was curious and then Tilda wanted to take a bite of my grilled chicken! Is that a problem for you?!"

Lena just shook her head and gave me the death stare as I rolled my eyes.

"Mama, papa! Just drop it ok! We want to have a good time while we're in Dubai!" Emma said.

"Sorry sweetheart. Your mother and I just had a disagreement, that's all!"

"Ok then," she sighed.

After the flight attendants came with garbage bags after dinner was finished, we all dozed off for a bit until it was time for the plane to land. Emma, Lena, and I looked out the window and we noticed that we were almost there. I then turned to where Agnetha was sitting with Linda and Tilda and Agnetha was tense. Linda and Tilda engaged Agnetha in deep breathing excercises once again until the moment we landed and the plane's wheels touched the ground. We have landed at last.