Our first stop on our Alaskan adventure was Salt Lake City. I board the plane before Loni, get to my seat and notice right away that my seatmate is a pilot. I have the window seat so I climb over him and buckle in. Loni passes me and I give her the thumbs up to indicate that I am okay with my seatmate and she doesn't need to do any wrangling to get me in a seat next to her. After all, I am with a pilot and there is another pilot sitting behind him. How reassuring for someone who hasn't flown in 23 years to be sitting next to a pilot. I feel like it is the universes way of telling me everything is going to be just fine. Have I mentioned before how the universe likes to kick me in the butt?
Here I am buckled in, happy as a clam because I have a pilot sitting next to me, and I am about to begin a grand adventure with my just graduated college son and my junior in college son (yes he is only 18) and three people I love and have adopted into my family. How lucky could a girl be?
Lalala, sitting in my seat, the plane starts to take off and I glance over at my seatmate and he has a death grip on the chair arms and seems to be in a panic. What the heck? Is he hearing something wrong with the engine? What does he know that I don't know? Hmmm, I am not feeling so happy now. Okay we are up in the air and he seems to be relaxing his grip now. I will file this in the back of my head and forget it for now.
The plane ride is going smoothly, except for the fact that the flight attendant keeps coming by and putting her arm around my seatmate and asking him if he his alright. That seems odd. Just as odd as the pilot behind us reaching up and putting his hand on my seatmates shoulder and saying we won't be up here long. What the heck? What does that mean? I decide to hum songs in my head as I am getting anxious again.
Ahh, flight is going smooth, seatmate has fallen asleep, all is well again. Oh look, we are over Salt Lake City how interesting it looks out the window. Flight attendant is once again putting her shoulder around my pilot seatmate and telling him we are arriving. She walks off. Oh dear, why is my seatmate sitting like that. He is seems to be taking a crash position. His back is curved and his arms are on his legs and his fists are clinched. The pilot behind him is telling him it will be alright. What does this guy know that I don't know? I am starting to feel like I can't breathe. Please let us land.
Okay we are on the ground now. Everyone is standing up and getting their carry on bags out of the bins. My seatmate is up and smiling. His pilot buddy behind us then asks my seatmate what time he flies out next. My seatmate responds it is two hours before he takes the controls. I am left standing their with my mouth open.
I get off and tell Loni of my adventure and she said "But you gave me the thumbs up!" Which I did, because after all what could be more reassuring that sitting next to a pilot? It turns out a girl could be a lot luckier when it comes to seatmates on a plane. I tell Loni if we get on any planes and my seatmate is the pilot, I am getting off.
No comments:
Post a Comment