Charley
Turbulence. Uh-oh. The cabin chime rang and the seatbelt light flashed on. We hit something that sent my stomach down to my knees. The all-too-familiar “The captain has turned on the fasten seatbelt sign,” announcement quickly followed. And soon after, as we rocked wildly up and down, a calm voice from the cockpit informed everyone that we were encountering some turbulence (no shit) but would be altering our flight path to avoid it.
I was glad the tray tables had already been cleared because this was worse turbulence than any I’d previously experienced. The entire plane was shaking, not only up and down but from side to side as well.
In a somewhat sharper tone—in fact, the sharpest tone I had ever heard from one of those glacially cool professional pilots—the captain ordered the flight attendants to take their seats and strap themselves in.
Strap themselves in? I looked at Harry, who gave me a smile. Had he really conquered his own fear of flying? How? I tried to smile in return, but my heart was thudding. “I don’t like this,” I whispered.
“It’s probably a high altitude thunderstorm cell. They’ll divert around it, don’t worry.”
The nose of the plane shot up and we were pressed back in our seats. The angle was steep, considering we were already at cruising altitude. We weren’t going higher, were we? Even Harry frowned as the engines strained and we continued to be tossed around.
And suddenly the overheard panels popped open and the oxygen masks fell down in front of us. Oh my God. This had never happened to me. This had to be bad, didn’t it?
I struggled to remember what to do. I mean, it was obvious what to do…put it over your face and “breathe normally” right? Like I was going to breathe normally when I was about to die?
I felt Harry’s hands on my hair. I looked at him wildly. He already had his oxygen mask on and he was helping me, just as they told you to do: put your own mask on first and then help anyone around you who is having trouble.
I wasn’t really having trouble—it was on now—but I was terrified. Harry took one of my hands in his own warm one and put the other arm around me. He shoved the armrest between us up and back and then he pulled me against him so my head was leaning on his shoulder. Just then we started to dive.
I clung to him, my mind numb. He said something, but it was hard to understand because of the O2 mask covering his nose and mouth. Not to mention the roar of the wind and the engines and the screams of some of the passengers. He said it again, his weirdly-covered face near my ear:
“It’s okay. We’re diving because we were tossed too high. The air pressure must have been low enough to drop the masks, so we’re going down to an altitude where they aren’t needed. Probaby ten thousand feet. So we’ll descend for a while, but we are not going to crash.”
I had no idea how he could sound so certain about this. I suspected he was putting on a brave face for my sake, but I was grateful.
We leveled off before diving that low, though, thank goodness. The turbulence continued, although it was no longer quite so buffeting. The captain came on and made another announcement, sounding calm once more. “Sorry for the rough ride back there, folks. We should be out of the bad weather area soon and we’ll be able to continue on to our destination.”
The flight attendant moved up the aisle, helping us remove and push aside the oxygen masks.
“You okay?” Harry asked.
I realized I was still clinging to him. And that I was probably going to live, after all. And that, dammit, if I wasn’t going to die soon, I needed the one thing I’d yearned for all those years ago.
My face was already very close to Harry’s. I didn’t even think about it—I smashed my mouth into his and kissed him.