Chapter Six

     The ride was getting rough and bumpy and the pilot came on over the loud speaker requesting we put our belts back on for the time being until we get thru the weather.  Some of the passengers I could tell were getting nervous, I heard behind me someone recite the rosary.  Now is the time for confession.  Near death situations are prime for such honesty, Whatever it is that we are most frightened to share with anyone become imminent.  Why is that I wonder?  Fear I suppose.  But of what?  Family’s admitting to one another their secrets, holding each other and crying accepting and understanding one another’s pain.  The problem weather didn’t last too long and as soon as we came out of it acceptance and understanding quickly became anger and denial, secrets that were meant to be kept became open and family’s that were once embracing one another were taking sides.  I felt like a moment frozen as time continued around me.  One wife and husband were separated by their daughter in the seat between them, the wife through her empty cup at her husband hitting him hard with the corner of the cup against the side of his brow.  Cupping his eye he cursed under his breath at his wife as their daughter sat shocked looking over at her mom.  He stood up and stepped on her toe before sprinting towards the restroom, which was apparently occupied by a someone in a similar situation - suddenly the sounds of the air above everyone's seat became louder, and continued growing louder. As if in one instant all of them were forced on full simultaneously, I was the only one who seemed to notice.  I covered my ears to drowned out the noise.  But louder still it grew.  Until, in an instant, it was quite.  Silent actually.  Not a sound, not one.  I relaxed my muscles opening my eyes and removing my hands from my ears, everyone was still yelling or so the movement of their lips would suggest, there were items being thrown and flying above the seats, people crying and running down the isle but for me not a sound.  It was a moment of intense bliss which I enjoyed for as long as possible before realizing the gravity of such a situation. 

     I couldn’t hear a damn thing.  Something I hadn’t noticed till now too was the speed of everything, as it had slowed dramatically.  A cell phone being thrown from one end of the plane towards the other moved so slowly I could stand and watch it glide past me as the space behind rippled outwards.  Time sped and once again retained normality and I continued watching the phone as it crashed against the ceiling of the plane landing in pieces.  Then just as quickly as it all started it had ended, peacefully with hugs and apologies.  People laying back in their seats as if nothing had ever happened.  Things always occur in multiples.  Once it has taken place a first time the universe seems inclined to repeat itself.  Like that study done where two different groups of people were given a puzzle.  For the first group the puzzle was new, never seen or attempted.  The second group was given the same puzzle after the first has completed it.  The second group managed to finished it much faster with less mistakes then the first.  As if the answers were out there floating around and up for grabs.  Or the phenomenon that on occasion a new idea would have been discovered and simultaneously or just moments after the same idea discovered by a different person thousands of miles away.  It was the same with the families aboard my flight, all of which had simultaneously or moments later accepted each others apologies and returned to life as if nothing had ever happened.  The stewardess’s seemed just as surprised if not more not having any explanation for such a phenomenon.  I closed my eyes settling myself from the past few moments and could see in my mind a fire, the glowing embers of a wood burning stove.  It flickered and snapped while the girl in front of me looked at me as if she could see the flames in the reflection of my glasses.  She smiled faintly and I knew that she could.  It made me feel warm and welcomed, a desired feeling after having left all thats familiar to me.  But the flames eventually grew and with it the heat and I started sweating, the girl in front of me turned away shading her eyes from the heat.  The mind is such an intense place, if your willing to believe that anything is possible.  I took a step back from the flames and warmed my hands.  Outside the air seemed cold and damp.  The weather around us was still threatening though most people by now have pulled the plastic window cover down over the light.  People felt more comfortable with artificial light then with the natural, perhaps because they could control it.  We hold superiority over what we can control.  And That comforts us.  But why shouldn’t it?