"J.R, you all right love?," Celeste asked as he looked blankly out the window.
"Huh?," He responded as he snapped out his daze then looked at her. "Yeah, I'm fine." He continued to look outside, brushing back his brown hair out of his eyes with his finger. "You know, when people are flying home to get married they're usually happy.,"
Celeste commented as she smiled shyly. The comment got J.R's attention. "I am.," He said reassuringly as he took a sip of his drink."It's just everything going on...,"
Celeste's face softened and she put her hand on his.
"Yeah, I know. Is it your mom?"
J.R. turned his head and looked a few rows back at his mother. She was sitting next to his brother Jason while she read a book. He thought sadly to himself how she actually looked her age, forty-eight in that moment. "That's part of it. Big events like this, she misses him. I can tell."
Truth be told, he missed him too, even if he barely knew him. His father had died of a brain aneurysm when he was five. At that young of an age he didn't fully comprehend what had occurred, just one day dad was there and the next day he wasn't. His mother did her best with three children at the time of his death, then a fourth almost nine months to the day he died.
J.R thought back to painful memories of a twenty-eight year old woman doing the best she could with four children under the age of eight. If that hadn't been enough, she was mute from a birth defect, so on top of having the children all by herself, she had to learn to communicate with them in her own way. All the stress of her life left her with little time to grieve, so instead of getting the majority of it out all at once and then letting the good memories take over, it was continuous hurt little by little. Jr recalled a painful memory from childhood of going into his mother's room after not wanting to sleep alone. He walked into his mother's room and saw her moving. He looked closer and realized that she she was gently heaving, her hand covering her mouth and tears falling down her face as she faced a picture of his father. At the age of six he felt like grabbing the picture and throwing it out the window just to ease her pain if it would help. That was also the moment that he started to realize in his own mind that he was part of the problem. He, that everyone said looked just like his father, the comments of him being "James with dark hair" was a living reminder that James was gone and she was all alone with him and his siblings.
The youngest of the children, Jason was on the plane too, along with their mother. At least as Jason grew older everyone started commenting on how much he looked liked James and eventually the comments about J.R's looks simmered down. Jason had his own problems though, things he had kept from the family. J.R.'s mind moved on to other tangents; A lot of things were on J.R's mind; his father, his mother, what he saw the night before they left Australia with his fiance. Should he say something or let Jason handle it himself J.R pondered to himself.
He didn't get a chance to finish his thought before the turbulence hit. Celeste looked uneasy and he turned to her. "Baby it's fine...stuff like that happens all the ti-" this is the last thought he remembered before the chaos as the oxygen tanks had fallen down, and the fear and panic in all the other passengers voices.
Screams. The first thing he remembered after the plane were the screams. Where was Celeste? He scrambled to his feet, fighted the dizziness to find her. He sceamed her name. No response. He ran through the crowd of people looking for their own loved ones until he saw her. "J.R.!," She screamed, this time he was in earshot and ran to her. "Are you hurt?," He asked. She shook her head no and looked around. "Where's your mom and jason?"
"I dunno.," He said before grabbing her hand and walked briskly trying to find them. "Mom! Jason!" Celeste joined him in calling for them until they heard a voice in the background of the crowd. "Over here!" Jason yelled, he and J.R's mother beside him. J.R and Celeste hurried to them and reunited their family. Everyone was fine, but J.R couldn't help but notice the almost nostalgic look on his mother's face as she looked out into the ocean as if this experience wasn't new for her.
The next day was a day of waiting. Waiting to be rescued, waiting for more friends and family to have possibly survived. J.R found his mother's bag in the luggage. He opened it and looked for the small photo albums she took with her. He opened it and thumbed through the pictures. The first was his father, outside sitting on the hood of his camaro. He had cloudy memories of being put in the back seat and going for a drive to wherever dad wanted to go. The second picture was a picture of his parents together. His mother looked much younger, happier as she smiled looking up at her husband. The third picture made his heart drop a little. His mother on a pair of roller skates smiling the fakest smile he'd ever seen. He remembered it as his sixth birthday, the woman in the picture putting on an act for the sake of her children. J.R sighed and closed the album. Maybe his mom would appreciate it more than he did.