Chapter 4: The Friendly Skies
He couldn't get over the fact that a pretty girl had asked him out. She asked HIM of all people. Things like this don't happen. At least not to him it didn't. He always had the dark rain clouds hovering over his head. Luck never went his way. He felt like he hit the jackpot.
He stuffed his backpack into the overhead bin and took window seat 24A in the rear of the small DC9 airplane. He took out the piece of paper Jewels had written her phone number on and stared at it. The word "Franz Kafka" had been torn in half. He had the "FRA" and "KAF". Beside the tear, was the word "Jewels" in large neat block lettering. Underneath it were the words "SoBiteMe@hotmail.com". Ephram smiled at her clever email address. Beneath the email address, was her cell phone number scribbled neatly.
Ephram held this valuable piece of paper in his hands until the stewardess announced the flight would be taking off momentarily. He folded the paper neatly into a square and tucked it safely into his wallet. The flight attendant did the usual spiel about the carry-ons in the overhead bin, the tray being locked in the up-right position, look at the seat belt sign, and all that crap about what to do if the plane should need to perform an emergency crash landing. I mean, what was the chance of that happening to this plane?
He watched the stewardess demonstrate how to attach the oxygen mask in the event that it should be needed. Ephram found it interesting to watch the stewardess act out the procedures as another one described them in small planes such as this. In the bigger planes, they just showed a video and that would be it. This was like a mini-show and quite entertaining. And Ephram listed to every one of them. He was probably the only one on the entire plane who paid attention. I mean, it was fascinating how the seats could turn into floatation devices.
When the instructions were done, Ephram looked out the window as the plane taxied on the runway. In about two hours and 43 minutes, he would be landing in Denver International Airport. Home was where the heart should be. His bitter feelings on returning to Everwood had lightened. He's spoken to his father and Delia on the phone but he hadn't seen them in a month. There was a reason for going back. He secretly missed them.
The plane was fairly empty with just a scatter of passengers amongst the plane. He got two seats to himself. A female flight attendant came by to check that everyone's seat beat had been fastened. She smiled at Ephram when she saw that he was traveling by himself. Ephram smiled back. She was wearing her spotless navy MidWest Airlines stewardess uniform. Her nametag read "Judy". She was about 40-ish with natural blond hair gelled into a bun behind the nape of her neck. Ephram thought she had a motherly-Evita-look about her. She was very well polished.
Ephram closed his eyes as the plane took off. It was the most thrilling part of the whole ride. He felt the plane gain velocity and a light thump shook the cabin as it took flight. He liked the rush and the pumping of blood in his veins. It was the same feeling he got when he rode roller coasters. As a young boy, he intensely disliked going on roller coasters. You couldn't even bribe him to go on one. He was terrified of them. But ever since the death of his mother, he found a budding interest in fast rides. Before moving to Everwood - that half a year pause - he spent most of his weekends at amusement parks with friends. He relished the fastest and most frightening coasters. It became an obsession. No one understood. Going 90 miles an hour was the only way he could forget about how much he hurt inside. With hair standing on end and having the wits scared out of him, all his troubles seemed to disappear. It was his escape. Not even his father knew. His father just thought all teenagers naturally liked roller coasters.
When the seat belt sign went off, he unbuckled his seat belt. He flipped through the Airline magazine but for some reason, he just couldn't concentrate on reading it. He placed it back into the slot.
"Kid, you by yourself?" Ephram heard a voice say. He turned his head and spotted an amiable heavy-set man sitting across the aisle from him.
"No actually, I came with my imaginary friend." Ephram retorted trying to be a wise-ass. "He's in the john right now."
"I always travel alone. I'm a salesman." The man said. "But I vowed myself to strike up a conversation with at least one person on every flight."
The man was nearly bald except for a few strands of hair combed over in attempt to cover the balding spot. He wore a white dress shirt and black pants held up by suspenders.
"Lucky me." Ephram said.
"George is the name and selling kitchen utensils is my game." The man said. "So, you got a girlfriend?"
"What? Me? No, not really." Ephram said nervously. This guy was getting creepy.
"I saw the way you were looking all starry-eyed at that piece of paper. Thought it might be her phone number." George said.
Ephram didn't know he was being spied on the whole time my Mr. Nosy here. His common sense told him to not speak to this person anymore. He may be a pervert or something.
"When I was your age, I drove all the girls wild. I used to be a hot catch you know. Until life happened and then you get fat and bald. I was captain of the football team back in the day. Say, do you play football?" George reminisced.
"Nope." Ephram said hoping the guy would lose interest.
"Well you should start." George replied. "You know, the best part about this flight is the freshly baked chocolate chip cookies."
Ephram was well aware of the signature chocolate chip cookies they served on MidWest Airlines. It was the highlight of the flight. They claim to bake the cookies on-board the plane and distribute them all hot and gooey. Ephram had done his calculations. There are 108 seats on the plane, which means if everyone got two cookies, they would have to bake 216 cookies within 30 minutes after take off. In a small plane like this, there was no oven big enough to bake 216 cookies with a 4" diameter simultaneously. He came to the conclusion that the cookies were pre-made and "nuked" in the microwave so it had that right-out-of-the-oven sensation. There was no way that all 216 cookies could be baked from raw dough in 30 minutes.
"You don't talk much do ya, kid?" George noticed.
"Sorry, I'm just tired. Had a long day. Don't take it personal, but I'd like to get some sleep right now." Ephram answered.
"Sure, right! No problem there. Sleep tight." He smiled and shifted his attention to a woman sitting diagonally to his seat.
'Seesh,' Ephram thought. 'This gave a whole new outlook to the term - traveling salesman. This dude was no Harold Hill,' Ephram noted. He leaned his head back on the seat and looked out the window hole.
The moving cumulus clouds beneath him looked like an endless sea of white soapy foam squishing back and forth. 'Ah, so this is what an inside of a washing machine looks like,' he thought and grinned at his own joke. There was something calming about being in the clouds. He felt free and let his mind wander. He thought about his father. OK, so his father had never been the perfect parent but at least he was trying. After all, he had allowed him to go on this trip to New York for an entire month un-chaperoned. His father trusted him. Lately, he's been there for him and made him feel like he was worth something. Ephram regret all the times he acted like a pain in the ass. He wished he could take it all back. He only did it out of spite - to deliberately piss off his father and make him pop a blood vessel. He made a mental note to call him the minute he landed. After the filling snack of chocolate chip cookies and ginger ale, he slept.
He was abruptly awoken from his nice nap by a rough jolt that shook the entire cabin. The seat belt sign blinked on. He looked out the window and watched the aileron on the plane's left wing as the plane dipped and banked several times. They seem to be loosing altitude. It felt like as if you were in a dropping elevator. Your stomach and your head traded places. The captain's husky voice came over the speaker and advised everyone that everything was fine. They were just experiencing some heavy turbulence - nothing to be worried about. The sudden violent rock of the plane harrowed Ephram's nerves. He couldn't help getting a paranoid feeling that there was something the good captain wasn't telling them. He clutched the hand rests of his seat and closed his eyes tightly.
* end of chapter 4 *
He couldn't get over the fact that a pretty girl had asked him out. She asked HIM of all people. Things like this don't happen. At least not to him it didn't. He always had the dark rain clouds hovering over his head. Luck never went his way. He felt like he hit the jackpot.
He stuffed his backpack into the overhead bin and took window seat 24A in the rear of the small DC9 airplane. He took out the piece of paper Jewels had written her phone number on and stared at it. The word "Franz Kafka" had been torn in half. He had the "FRA" and "KAF". Beside the tear, was the word "Jewels" in large neat block lettering. Underneath it were the words "SoBiteMe@hotmail.com". Ephram smiled at her clever email address. Beneath the email address, was her cell phone number scribbled neatly.
Ephram held this valuable piece of paper in his hands until the stewardess announced the flight would be taking off momentarily. He folded the paper neatly into a square and tucked it safely into his wallet. The flight attendant did the usual spiel about the carry-ons in the overhead bin, the tray being locked in the up-right position, look at the seat belt sign, and all that crap about what to do if the plane should need to perform an emergency crash landing. I mean, what was the chance of that happening to this plane?
He watched the stewardess demonstrate how to attach the oxygen mask in the event that it should be needed. Ephram found it interesting to watch the stewardess act out the procedures as another one described them in small planes such as this. In the bigger planes, they just showed a video and that would be it. This was like a mini-show and quite entertaining. And Ephram listed to every one of them. He was probably the only one on the entire plane who paid attention. I mean, it was fascinating how the seats could turn into floatation devices.
When the instructions were done, Ephram looked out the window as the plane taxied on the runway. In about two hours and 43 minutes, he would be landing in Denver International Airport. Home was where the heart should be. His bitter feelings on returning to Everwood had lightened. He's spoken to his father and Delia on the phone but he hadn't seen them in a month. There was a reason for going back. He secretly missed them.
The plane was fairly empty with just a scatter of passengers amongst the plane. He got two seats to himself. A female flight attendant came by to check that everyone's seat beat had been fastened. She smiled at Ephram when she saw that he was traveling by himself. Ephram smiled back. She was wearing her spotless navy MidWest Airlines stewardess uniform. Her nametag read "Judy". She was about 40-ish with natural blond hair gelled into a bun behind the nape of her neck. Ephram thought she had a motherly-Evita-look about her. She was very well polished.
Ephram closed his eyes as the plane took off. It was the most thrilling part of the whole ride. He felt the plane gain velocity and a light thump shook the cabin as it took flight. He liked the rush and the pumping of blood in his veins. It was the same feeling he got when he rode roller coasters. As a young boy, he intensely disliked going on roller coasters. You couldn't even bribe him to go on one. He was terrified of them. But ever since the death of his mother, he found a budding interest in fast rides. Before moving to Everwood - that half a year pause - he spent most of his weekends at amusement parks with friends. He relished the fastest and most frightening coasters. It became an obsession. No one understood. Going 90 miles an hour was the only way he could forget about how much he hurt inside. With hair standing on end and having the wits scared out of him, all his troubles seemed to disappear. It was his escape. Not even his father knew. His father just thought all teenagers naturally liked roller coasters.
When the seat belt sign went off, he unbuckled his seat belt. He flipped through the Airline magazine but for some reason, he just couldn't concentrate on reading it. He placed it back into the slot.
"Kid, you by yourself?" Ephram heard a voice say. He turned his head and spotted an amiable heavy-set man sitting across the aisle from him.
"No actually, I came with my imaginary friend." Ephram retorted trying to be a wise-ass. "He's in the john right now."
"I always travel alone. I'm a salesman." The man said. "But I vowed myself to strike up a conversation with at least one person on every flight."
The man was nearly bald except for a few strands of hair combed over in attempt to cover the balding spot. He wore a white dress shirt and black pants held up by suspenders.
"Lucky me." Ephram said.
"George is the name and selling kitchen utensils is my game." The man said. "So, you got a girlfriend?"
"What? Me? No, not really." Ephram said nervously. This guy was getting creepy.
"I saw the way you were looking all starry-eyed at that piece of paper. Thought it might be her phone number." George said.
Ephram didn't know he was being spied on the whole time my Mr. Nosy here. His common sense told him to not speak to this person anymore. He may be a pervert or something.
"When I was your age, I drove all the girls wild. I used to be a hot catch you know. Until life happened and then you get fat and bald. I was captain of the football team back in the day. Say, do you play football?" George reminisced.
"Nope." Ephram said hoping the guy would lose interest.
"Well you should start." George replied. "You know, the best part about this flight is the freshly baked chocolate chip cookies."
Ephram was well aware of the signature chocolate chip cookies they served on MidWest Airlines. It was the highlight of the flight. They claim to bake the cookies on-board the plane and distribute them all hot and gooey. Ephram had done his calculations. There are 108 seats on the plane, which means if everyone got two cookies, they would have to bake 216 cookies within 30 minutes after take off. In a small plane like this, there was no oven big enough to bake 216 cookies with a 4" diameter simultaneously. He came to the conclusion that the cookies were pre-made and "nuked" in the microwave so it had that right-out-of-the-oven sensation. There was no way that all 216 cookies could be baked from raw dough in 30 minutes.
"You don't talk much do ya, kid?" George noticed.
"Sorry, I'm just tired. Had a long day. Don't take it personal, but I'd like to get some sleep right now." Ephram answered.
"Sure, right! No problem there. Sleep tight." He smiled and shifted his attention to a woman sitting diagonally to his seat.
'Seesh,' Ephram thought. 'This gave a whole new outlook to the term - traveling salesman. This dude was no Harold Hill,' Ephram noted. He leaned his head back on the seat and looked out the window hole.
The moving cumulus clouds beneath him looked like an endless sea of white soapy foam squishing back and forth. 'Ah, so this is what an inside of a washing machine looks like,' he thought and grinned at his own joke. There was something calming about being in the clouds. He felt free and let his mind wander. He thought about his father. OK, so his father had never been the perfect parent but at least he was trying. After all, he had allowed him to go on this trip to New York for an entire month un-chaperoned. His father trusted him. Lately, he's been there for him and made him feel like he was worth something. Ephram regret all the times he acted like a pain in the ass. He wished he could take it all back. He only did it out of spite - to deliberately piss off his father and make him pop a blood vessel. He made a mental note to call him the minute he landed. After the filling snack of chocolate chip cookies and ginger ale, he slept.
He was abruptly awoken from his nice nap by a rough jolt that shook the entire cabin. The seat belt sign blinked on. He looked out the window and watched the aileron on the plane's left wing as the plane dipped and banked several times. They seem to be loosing altitude. It felt like as if you were in a dropping elevator. Your stomach and your head traded places. The captain's husky voice came over the speaker and advised everyone that everything was fine. They were just experiencing some heavy turbulence - nothing to be worried about. The sudden violent rock of the plane harrowed Ephram's nerves. He couldn't help getting a paranoid feeling that there was something the good captain wasn't telling them. He clutched the hand rests of his seat and closed his eyes tightly.
* end of chapter 4 *
