I’m listening to the radio. It’s beautiful. Shutting everyone out. I could do with a glass of water, my throat is still dry but I’ve not seen a steward for a while. They must be taking their break period. I look around the cabin. It’s a weird setting. Some people are intently watching their mini screens, others are fast asleep, huddled in their blankets. Someone on the row opposite has two seats to himself and has his feet are curled up on the extra. He doesn’t look cosy though with his face all squashed up on the seatback. He’ll have a big red mark on his face when he wakes up. I wonder what he’d do if he woke to find me staring at him. I smile. Maybe I’d blow him a kiss.
It doesn’t look or feel like we’re even moving. We could be suspended in the air on strings like the model airplanes you sometimes see dangling from the ceilings of travel agents. I imagine just that. That in reality I’m in one of those model planes. A huge human head ducks to avoid hitting us and peeks at the model right up close. I wave. I see the bemusement on his overgrown face as it pulls away. What is a small young woman doing inside there? He seems concerned and turns to beckon the agent who is sat behind her desk. She comes over to the other side of the model and peers though a miniscule window. I can see a fragment of her eyelined eye right next to the man asleep on his two seats opposite. He’d get a fright if he woke now. The girl steps back. She too seems astonished. She reaches up at full stretch and takes the drawing pin out of the ceiling. All of a sudden we’re in turmoil. The overhead cabins fly open and luggage flies around the cabin. Everyone is awake now, 162
clutching each other in pure panic. The man next to me looks to me as if it is all my fault. The trouble is I know he’s right. I blink and focus on the scene outside. Nothing but sky. We are safe again. It’s a nice song on the radio.