As the Plane Took Off
3/31/08
An: I'm going to try something new with this story, its kind of like drabbles but different.
AN2: sorry, earlier I accidently uploaded the wrong story, the internet cut out and I didn't realize it hadn't changed over when I saved it... so here's the real first chapter!
Chapter 1
Serena Whittaker had the unfortunate experience of living near the airport. At the same time, it was a get-away from reality; at least they didn't hear the planes every day all day like some people could. Darien Shields knocked attentively on the front door, drawing Serena to open it and later being drawn into his embrace when he learned her father wasn't around.
She held her keys to her father's car out in front of her on her pointer finger and her boyfriend took them with a smile as she led him to the garage which housed her father's car. She slid into the passenger seat as her boyfriend slid into the driver's.
He drove them to a secluded spot and pulled up next to another car with a couple already waiting on their hood. He parked with the bumper inches away from the fence that stopped people from entering into airport territory. They also had guards walking the perimeter and video cameras everywhere, but Serena, Darien and their friends weren't about to try and hop the stupid thing.
Serena and Darien got out of her father's car and Darien lifted Serena up onto the hood before hopping up himself, and putting an arm around her shoulders and she leaned her head against his and watched as the planes took off.
The four of them had been friends forever before they realized why they hung out all the time together, because they liked each other and became a pair of couples that still hung out with each other.
They had done this since they were little, but before they could drive, they had walked and brought picnic blankets with them and enjoyed a meal as well. Now they brought a bottle of wine, and ate as well, and sometime they'd bring a blanket and cuddle up together as they did what times passed they always did.
They sat and made up lives and stories for those who took off in the plane. Today was no different, and it was Serena's turn to make up a story.
Serena looked at Darien slowly before turning to her friends with a smile. "There once was a girl with radiant blond hair who was in love with a man-"
"Sere, we wanted a story about those in the plane, not a fairy-tale."
"But my dear Mina, all stories are fairy-tales, one way or another." Serena answered back with a smile and transferred her gaze to the third blond in their group; Andrew returned her smile with a wink and dragged Mina to his side once more as she continued telling her tale.
"This blond woman wasn't from here, she had come with the purpose of studying abroad. While here, she met an enchanting man, one as dark as night. However their love was never meant to be."
The scene morphs around these couples as they're drawn into Serena's tale, seeing the events unfold in front of them.
The blond woman, tall and pale, and as thin as a model walked through the doors of the university with her sights set on the numbers as she passed each room, looking for her own.
She bumped into a few people on her way, echoing a slight 'excuse me' every time it happened until a figure stood and wouldn't move and she crashed into him.
He caught her easily, his brown hands steadying her, and he offered her the whitest smile she'd ever seen before in her life.
"May I help you find your way?" He asked with a thick southern drawl. He too was not from this city, but rather passing through in four years to graduate with a university degree before he moved on somewhere else.
"Ah." She started with a clipped accent, unsure completely what he said to her, her English was growing with each passing day but she hadn't taken more than five years in school before now.
"Can I show you to your class?" He tried again.
She caught the world class, and nodded emphatically, she just hoped he was saying something she needed to know. "Yes." She answered vocally when he just stood there looking at him.
"Where are you from?" He asked trying to make small talk.
"Ah, I'm from, Sweden." It came out more like 'Sveden', but he understood.
"So you guys speak Swedish?" He asked, knowing the answer but she just nodded. "I wonder what it sounds like when you speak your language."
She bit her lip, not quite understanding him. "Um, what?"
"Can you speak a little of it?" He asked instead.
She responded in Swedish, wondering if he knew any of it and if that was why he asked it of her. He only smiled, enjoying the strange sounds coming out of her mouth but not understanding a single word. "Yes?" She asked in English when she got no response to the question she just asked.
He shook his head. "Sorry, I speak a little French, but that is all."
"Oh." She seemed to sag in dejection. "I'm sorry." She repeated his earlier statement. "I only speak a little English, I'm not that good at it."
"Perhaps I can help you learn English?"
"For what?" She asked a little skeptically, she was in a strange city in a strange land with a huge language barrier between her and everyone else.
"You can teach me some Swedish."
"Ok." She answered brightly and frowned when he suddenly stopped. "What?"
"This is your class." He pointed to the door that housed several students already. "I recommend just copying all the words down as fast as you can and then I'll help you sort through them?"
"Ok, thank you." She hesitated before going in.
"My name is Markus." He held out his hand and she took it shyly. "I'll give you my number. Do you have one here in the states yet?"
She nodded and dug through her purse for the telephone and address card she had been given when she moved in from her program. She handed it to him and he put it into his phone, he put the address in too, just incase she tried telling him where she lived and it didn't make sense. He also gave her his number. "I'm Sonja."
"Have fun in class, learn lots." He teased, but it went over her head and she only waved as she left.
Over the weeks they grew closer and one day she leaned over and kissed him.
That lead to more, and they started going out officially.
Soon the semester ended, and with tears in her eyes she knew that they would have to break up, a long distance relationship would not work well, even in this day and age, especially because she didn't always have the internet in Sweden and nobody would want to come up and visit her. Her friends came to see her off, they too had tears in their eyes and each in turn hugged her goodbye while they left as the party drew to a close. Only Markus stayed back and watched the events unfolding before him. He wasn't saying his goodbyes tonight, those would remain for the following day as he saw her get on the plane and fly back to his homeland.
That day came and went and with bitter tears they said their goodbyes. Over the next few weeks and months, Markus and Sonja longed for the other's embrace. Each planning for the following semester, each wanting to study abroad in the city they knew the other lived, and when they got to their destinations, they learned the awful truth, there were once again without the other, but where they had grown up instead.
And to make matters worse, they were stuck without the possibility of going back, because it would be too hazardous to their schooling to return without the credits. Each had planned the trip without telling the other in order to surprise them, and it backfired. So that following semester both returned yet again to their proper schools and continued writing each other even though the letters were few and far between.
Then during Markus's break he boarded a plane and flew to Sweden to be with his love. They stayed together for that week, but as he left she told him not to come back, that these short intermissions were hazardous to her emotional health and she would never be able to move on, thinking that around the bend, she'd see him again.
He asked her to move back to America with him, to take up residence here, with him, but she couldn't. Her schooling was almost over and she was promised the best internship a girl her age could dream up anywhere based on her travels abroad.
So, with a large weight of grief, Markus returned to the plane and came home. Here he dated several beautiful girls and finished out his regular schooling and then on to his masters. With that finished, he still couldn't get the girl out of his mind so he said goodbye to all of his friends and family as he took up a job offer in Sweden and boarded that very plane there, and now he is on his way to meet his love.
"I thought you said it was a love that was never meant to be." Andrew complained, as he listened to Serena's tale.
"Boy, we get a lot of complaints from the peanut gallery, don't we?" Serena asked her love.
Darien chuckled. "I wouldn't make too much of a fuss about it, you've poked holes in their stories before. Just last week too, if I remember correctly."
"Stories are allowed holes, and they are allowed a different ending than the one foreshadowed, love." Serena told Darien, looking him in the eyes. "Its all about the choices we make and the drive we have to see through the endings we want and the persuasion we can muster."
"But not all endings are as everyone wants, sometimes things just happen that nobody can control or the other chooses not to be with that person."
Serena shrugged. "Anyways, I imagine Markus now on that plane, and when he gets there, she will unfortunately be married and having a baby."
"You are such a cynic, and I never knew it." Darien brought her close. "I wish I hadn't heard your ending, for people could dream that it would end happily. I thought you just said too, that with enough drive the ending turns out right."
"And you also just said sometimes things don't work out the way we want. However that wasn't my ending, my ending goes that she takes him on as a lover while her husband goes away on business and by him has another two children."
"Just as a lover?" Mina asked with a raised eyebrow. "No divorce and remarriage to the love of her life?"
"No, the husband will find out and have her chose between his stable job and commitment and duty to her traditions or the other man. I mean, its not hard to notice if your kids are suddenly five shades darker than normal, especially in Sweden."
"You are just plain evil." Andrew laughed. "Who does she choose?"
"Markus, of course, every story needs a happy ending, although the husband does end up dead on a sea voyage to Norway, caught a cold that proved to be fatal before she had come to a decision. Markus never pressed her on it, not wanting to know the truth, least he wasn't it."
"Ok." Mina shook her head. "Next week, it's my turn." Andrew had gone the previous time, and then Serena, and now it was Mina's turn. "And I promise you, my story won't have so many blasted twists and turns in it to confuse the listener to whether or not the story ended with a happy note or not."
"I'm surprised that story came from you Serena, it seemed more like something Darien or Rei would tell."
"I guess I've just been reading and watching one too many unhappy stories and its just stuck in my head to form my own."
Serena looked again to her boyfriend and he pulled her close, knowing where her thoughts had taken her even though the others were clueless to it. Each couple held each other hoping that they would never become the couple of the story and they watched the plane take off and disappear north into the clouds and wondered if there was a black man on that plane named Markus and if he truly was heading to see the love of his life and the story unfolded as Serena told, despite how farfetched, they couldn't help but wonder if maybe some of it was true.
Markus moved the shades to the top of his shaved head and looked around in this winter wonderland, it wasn't anything like he imagined. He spotted the blond waiting for him by her car and was warmed by her smile and pushed aside any cold the environment might have brought. He reached her and pulled her into a deep kiss, he'd missed her deeply. He put a hand to the small bump on her stomach and smiled when it kicked and he kissed her again.