"Hey" an old pilot said loudly to a person that was by his side, in the other seat of the aeroplane. It's body was completely covered by a big military-patterned duvet. He looked at her and placed one of his hands in her shoulder, shaking her a little bit. "Pts... her girl, wake up!!"
Despite his shout, she didn't wake up. "Are you allright?" The man asked once again. He started to worry, and without thinking, he took his hands off the plane's wheel and put them in his companion's body, shaking it stronger. "Answer me, come on girl wake up!" he shouted again.
The plane started to lose control, losing high fastly, falling vertically towards the deep and dark ocean; the man seemed to not notice that, because he was still trying to wake his niece up.
The vertiginous falling woke up the young woman.
"Thanks Gaia you are OK!" the old man said with his dizzy accent, relieved of seeing her awaken.
"WATCH OUT!!" She shouted grabbing her seat strongly to avoid falling from it, as the plane was completely vertical. The old man just shrugged, sighing, and returned to his position, taking the wheel to lift the plane before they crashed into the ocean.
The girl felt her heart in her throat, breathing in difficultly.
"A-Are you insane?! How the hell could you do that!!" she said upset and trying to calm down.
"Bah, it happens from time to time, dear, don't worry" he said amused of her reaction.
"You think it's funny? I can't believe that you are like this when you are SOBER, I can't imagine the way you are in a hangover" She replied upset, straightening up in her seat.
"Relax, girl, I had it under control the whole time. By the way, I'm glad you are OK" he replied with a sarcastic smile.
"Don't get mad with me, you are the daring one!"
He sighed. "I'm not going to say anything to you because you've been mentally-restless the whole trip".
"What do you mean?"
"You've been crying the whole journey, my dear, and I was worried because you didn't wake up" he said.
"That's not true… I've been sleeping, nothing else"
"I heard you, even with all the noise that this fucking aeroplane does"
She cleared her throat to avoid any kind of answer, ashamed of being heard crying.
Her uncle, an old marine expelled of the army with the status of "incompetent and alcoholic", was the only person who really heard her when she was in Russia, looking for someone to pick her up to somewhere strange and dangerous for many people.
She wanted to cross the ocean and reach the most isolated place in the whole world: Point Nemo. She knew that flying with an alcoholic was a daring challenge, and even more when you are in the middle of nowhere, but she was ready to confront every disaster that may happen in her journey.
Her old uncle was crazy and used to get pretty mad when he was drunk, but he was the only one who accepted her plan. They had been flying for four days, only stopping to recharge gas and provisions.
Both, the pilot and the lady, remained silent for some time, until she sighed, now completely relaxed.
"Sorry for worrying you, uncle… and thanks for everything… I didn't mean to be so cold a moment ago, it was unfair" she apologized, feeling bad of the way she shouted at him.
The man smiled, and placed his hand on her shoulder. She gasped when he took off the wheel, but she said nothing, and just smiled.
"No problem, little seagull" he said happily, taking the wheel with both hands again. "Tell me again, why a beautiful young woman like you wants to travel to this point of the sea? I don't see any kind of island in the map, and I don't even know why I'm doing this. Fuck, maybe I'm still drunk" she said this last to himself, what made her laugh.
"Maybe I'm drunk too, uncle" She agreed. "… I have to do something here".
"You must be crazy if you want to swim here. You could choose Fiji, or Hawaii… but Point Nemo? This place is absolutely polluted, toxins may end with you! Ha, then I'm the insane here!"
"I don't want to swim anywhere, uncle" she denied. "I've heard that here is a HUGE beach made of plastic, a terrible art piece, and I must see if it's true".
"A plastic beach? Hahaha, that's new!" He laughed.
"B-But then, why did you pick me here?"
"Because you are my family, little girl. I don't really know you, so I can't define if you are crazy or not" he answered.
She was worried again. What if his uncle was true, and there was no kind of "magic island" there? What if it was a joke?
'God dammit, you must be REALLY, REALLY INSANE' she told off herself.
But then…
"H-Hey!! Whatha---??!" his uncle shouted when, suddenly, the whole aeroplane went mad.
"DO SOMETHING!!" She shouted, pressing the whole switches in the panel to calm down the plane. "Whatever you are doing, stop!"
"I'm not doing anything!!"
The lights were twinkling, the radio started to suffer intermission, and then, all the mechanical indicators exploded. The young woman and his uncle covered their faces with one arm, while the plane started to shake violently. There were many moments of confussion, but then, everything got calmed. A soft tropical/arabian music mysteriously started in the loudspeakers, like it has tuned with some kind of radio station. Uncle and niece finally opened their eyes; he was not taking the wheel, but the aeroplane was flying. It was on it's own. The man looked at it completely amazed, and rubbed his bald head with one finger.
"It has an Automatic Pilot? Douh!! I knew it!!" he exclaimed upset. "I could've rest a little bit all this SHITTY journey! How-to manuals are RUBBISH, real men don't need them, I always said that!"
"It hasn't got a automatic pilot, uncle" she stated with deep voice, examining the panel. "It seems that something is acting like a magnet, this panel is completely cracked out".
"LOOK!" he opened his eyes widely, pointing at something in the ocean. She looked in his finger's direction, and opened her eyes widely as him, absolutely in disbelief.
An irregular reddish mountain was starting to appear in the ocean as the aeroplane got closer to it. They could say nothing, but then, the plane lost control again, losing high twice; the man, who had his mouth completely opened because of the surprise, took the wheel automatically and, slowly, flew the plane to that mysterious point, until they could distinguish what the hell was that. It was a huge and modern building made of plastic in the middle of the ocean, white and with new age architecture. They surrounded the island, looking at every detail of the place; the lighthouse, the dark sea, the palm trees that moved softly in the mansion... they could not believe what they were watching. Well, only the man was completely amazed.
The girl was surprised, but not at all. She had seen those kinds of things before, but something on that strange island made her feel good.
She missed that daring feeling that used to appear when she was with the Gorillaz. Something that made her feel safe and exposed to danger constantly, insane but sane at the same time. When she left the Gorillaz because of her depressive and paranoid state, that feeling got lost somewhere in her atrophied mind.
She was home now.
The aeroplane finally finished surrounding the island, and the man softly "landed" in the sea, next to a wooden dock. Man and niece sighed at the same time, astonished, while the Arabian music continued sounding through the radio.
"… A beach made of plastic" he said at last. "A Plastic Beach!" He shouted taking his forehead with one hand, laughing loudly in disbelief. "It's real, Angel, it's real!!"
The half-blind young woman remained in her seat, while an old seagull stopped in the pier, looking at her with a tired and sad expression. She messed her blond short hair up with one hand, without smiling.
"…Welcome to the world of Plastic Beach" she said calmly, trying to stand up without stop looking at the seagull, that shook it's head with resignation, and flew away.