Escaping Reality

Chapter 5: Shaky Landing

I awoke to the captain speaking over the loudspeaker, "Good afternoon passengers of Flight 419, we are making our descent on Miami, Florida. Our expected arrival time is 12:24 P.M. and the current temperature is a cool 83 degrees. Please fasten your seat belts and remain seated for the duration of the flight. Once again thank you for flying with us and enjoy your time in Miami."

"Looks light you had a peaceful nap" Betty observes with a giggle.

"Why's that?" I responded, confused about her sudden laughter.

"Well you've got those little sleep lines on your cheek and there's a little um drool on the collar of your shirt," she said while simultaneously offering me a tissue to wipe it up.

"Oh haha," I responded, embarrassed that I had drooled in front of a stranger. Especially an old woman wasn't she the one who was supposed to be drooling, I resisted the urge to bring up the crude joke figuring she wouldn't be the most receptive audience.

We were in the middle of the plane so I decided to stretch my legs a little while we waited for the front of the plane to disembark. I stood up to discover that my pants and underwear had stuck to my butt. I gotta get some swass proof pants I thought to myself. There's an idea, swass proof pants for long flights, I bet that would sell on Shark Tank. A laugh slipped out, I thought I was way funnier than I actually was.

"YOU REALLY WANT TO DO THIS RIGHT NOW" I heard from the back of the plane. Everybody's attention was turned to the source of the voice, it was a twenties something man who appeared to have had a few too many drinks. Across from stood a dad with his kids and wife behind him.

"Sir please sit down, I just wanted you to watch your language in front of my kids." The father said, trying not to escalate the issue any more than he already had.

I was half tempted to yell "FIGHT" at the top of my lungs and submit the ensuing scuffle to Worldstar but figured the attention probably wouldn't be good for my plan of remaining low key. Another man stepped in to restrain the drunken guy from behind. Caught off guard the drunk began to blindly swing his fists while yelling a barrage of indecipherable cuss words. Surprisingly he landed a punch on the stranger who stepped in, the man crumpled almost instantly as he took the punch straight to the temple.

Almost instantly the drunken man was pinned on the ground by the three nearest passengers. The father had been the first to jump in, followed by a man in his sixties who looked like he had played college football and a middle-aged man in a suit who appeared to be traveling for work. Everybody stood around, unsure what to do. An awkward silence hung in the air that was only periodically interrupted by the drunken man's grunts. After a couple of minutes, three police officers boarded the plane and escorted the drunk man off the plane. The man's exit was followed by a round of applause from the passengers.

Wow-what a way to start my vacation I thought to myself. I grab my bag from the overhead compartment and stroll of the plane nodding to flight attendants as they offer their rehearsed farewell.

"Thanks for flying with us, enjoy your time in Miami!" they exclaim in unison.

"No problem" I offer back dazedly, still thinking about the drunken man and his little outburst.

The first thing I notice as I cross over to the jet bridge is the sudden gust of sticky heat. It doesn't last long as I make my way into the air-conditioned terminal. My eyes blink rapidly as they adjust to new scenery. This airport is unlike anything I've ever seen, it's huge. Not only large structurally but it's packed, people walking in every possible direction. I stand there dumbly for a second taking it in. This was nothing like our little rinky-dink airport back home.