My clammy hands grip the seat tightly turning my knuckles white. My heart beats as if something is trying to frantically pound its way from inside my chest. Frenziedly, I search for my seatbelt. It’s across my lap. Thank god! The relief that the seatbelt gives me is short lived as I hear the plane’s engines shudder under the pressure of flying against the ferocious wind. Fire erupts from one of the wings as it is hit by an enormous bolt of lightning and I feel the plane lurch forward, plummeting towards the ocean below. I am going to die. I have never prayed so much in my life! “Please God let me live! PLEASE!!”, I repeat desperately under my breath. I can’t die today!
***
“Um, are you ok?” asks the young woman sitting next to me cautiously. I realise how stupid …show more content…
She continues asking me questions about how I’m feeling and she must have asked for my name a couple of times. It is a physical challenge to try to tame my wild breathing and push my heart rate down to a somewhat ‘normal’ rate but, with each question, I manage to calm down just enough to talk. “M-m-my name i-is H-harry”, I stutter between shallow, staggered breaths. She seems ecstatic that I am beginning to calm down and immediately begins chattering away to me. She talks about how she is going to visit her brother tomorrow in Queensland and she talks about her dog, who thinks she is a cat. Despite her chatter, I still feel anxious, like a mouse in a room full of hungry cats.
***
The unforgiving waves crash and splash fiercely below just a couple of meters away from me now. I am still falling. The front of the plane begins to hit the water, smashing into millions of little pieces. I can practically see the menacing fins of the sharks lurking in the murky water below, waiting for their next feed.
***
I hear laughter. It begins as a small chuckle but soon develops into the kind of laughter that comes from deep down in a person’s belly. Pure happiness. It’s the woman beside
***
“Um, are you ok?” asks the young woman sitting next to me cautiously. I realise how stupid …show more content…
She continues asking me questions about how I’m feeling and she must have asked for my name a couple of times. It is a physical challenge to try to tame my wild breathing and push my heart rate down to a somewhat ‘normal’ rate but, with each question, I manage to calm down just enough to talk. “M-m-my name i-is H-harry”, I stutter between shallow, staggered breaths. She seems ecstatic that I am beginning to calm down and immediately begins chattering away to me. She talks about how she is going to visit her brother tomorrow in Queensland and she talks about her dog, who thinks she is a cat. Despite her chatter, I still feel anxious, like a mouse in a room full of hungry cats.
***
The unforgiving waves crash and splash fiercely below just a couple of meters away from me now. I am still falling. The front of the plane begins to hit the water, smashing into millions of little pieces. I can practically see the menacing fins of the sharks lurking in the murky water below, waiting for their next feed.
***
I hear laughter. It begins as a small chuckle but soon develops into the kind of laughter that comes from deep down in a person’s belly. Pure happiness. It’s the woman beside