Chapter 3 - planes

They were boarding flight AA7363 of American airlines. The whole waiting period had been difficult because Alex kept getting startled stares from people passing by. He would just give them that same smirk and nod as they backed away, still staring.

None of this changed as they made their way to the check in desk. The woman taking tickets made it a key point to gasp when she saw him and stare for nearly a minute. He was forced to sit the ticket on the counter before she would take it.

Stupid Whacker. He thought as he walked through the tunnel toward the plane. Angela nearly ran to catch up to him while carrying her small overnight bag that had previously been locked in the trunk.

"Well she was rude." she said.

"Well get used to it." he replied. "People tend to be rude when your eyes glow."

Silence filled the air as they found their seats and sat down. Luckily they were on the same row. Alex settled in to the seat near the window and rested his head against the wall. Angela sat down and proceeded to call home, to Naima, on her razor phone.

"Hey. Yea. We're just boarding the plane. We should be home tomorrow. I'll call you when we make the first stop at LAX…." she said to Naima.

Alex tuned her out, closed his eyes, began to relax, and think over the day; to think about anything other than the drone of electricity running throughout the plane begging him to soak it up. When he finally snapped out of it Angela was talking to him.

"You need to buckle up. The flight attendant is fixing to come by." she told him.

He did as she said and snapped the buckles together. He looked around the plane. It was packed. There was a small boy across the aisle from them who had chocolate all over his mouth and proceeded to wipe it on the chair in front of him. There were at least five babies from what he could tell and over half the flight was filled with tourists returning from their getaway. Great… he thought. Should be fun.

The boy across the aisle was looking at him now. Alex stared back; He then crossed his eyes and stuck his tongue out. The kid gasped turned around and was tugging on his mothers blouse and talking extremely fast as he pointed across the aisle towards Alex.

Angela looked over at Alex and saw the face he was making and hit him in the stomach.

"Ouch." he said "What was that for."

"What are you doing? Can we avoid taunting little children through this flight?" she asked.

He laughed. "No worries. Does that mean I can taunt you?"

"Just sit back, look out the window, and enjoy the flight; ok?"

He just looked at her and sat back into his seat. The mother of the little boy was now cleaning his face and cursing quietly to herself. Alex couldn't help but laugh.

"Hey I didn't ask are they going to have and tucker on this flight?" he asked Angela.

"Any wha?"

"…Tucker?"

"What is that?"

"Food you Dill."

"Ok… you going to have to try, to not use all of that slang around me. Remember I'm from America." She replied laughingly. "As a matter of fact you probably don't want to use it at all, considering that's where were going."

"Just answer the question." he said angrily.

"Ok, um yea there will be an in flight meal. Chicken or fish?"

"Chicken. If you've seen the same movies I have you'll know why."

"Ha. Ok yea ill get chicken too."

"The pilot better get chicken." he said laughingly.

Silence came between them but not throughout the cabin. Babies screamed and people yelled at one another. It was mind numbing.

Finally, however the plane began to taxi onto the runway.

The flight attendant came over the intercom, "Please turn off all electrical devices. We will tell you when it is safe to turn them back on." she announced.

Alex laughed. Well if you want to get technical I'm one big electric device.

He soon dosed off and woke to Angela handing him his meal. The flight attendant looked at him, clearly confused, and then handed him his drink.

"Thanks heaps." he said taking the drink smiling at her. She gave him the same look as before and moved on to the next aisle.

"I have a question." Said Angela.

"shoot." replied Alex.

"Well you don't have to answer it if you feel like I'm prying but… How do you not let that get to you?"

"Let what get to me?" he said, not looking up, as he stuffed an oversized piece of chicken into his mouth.

"The fact that people stare at you so much." she said. "That would get to me."

"Well here's how I see it. I always try to be nice to people even if they're a complete whacker and a dill. Like that flight attendant. Then you know…. You know that they aren't being rude because they don't like you, as a person, their being rude because their ignorant about mutants."

Wow she thought as she looked at him. She wasn't sure how to respond to that. That's really wise of him. She herself was looking at mutants in a different way. She had only spent a couple of hours with him.

When Alex finished with his plate and the flight attendant took it away he began to dose off again. The kid across the aisle was crying now because his mother took his chocolate away. Alex tuned everything out. Sometimes he thought that was his power. He was always able to relax in any situation. The plane could be on fire he thought. and I would still be able to sleep. He nodded off as the kid screamed.

Angela dosed off as well. She woke up a couple of times throughout the day to see Alex still fast asleep. Then the pilot came on the intercom.

"We will be landing at LAX in little less than an hour. Connecting flights…" He went on.

"Alex." Angela said. "Alex." she repeated. She shook him and a spark of static electricity went from him to her. "Damn it." she cursed to herself.

"Sorry mate." said Alex as he woke wearily. Static electricity made his shirt suction to his chest. He pulled his shirt away from his body to get rid off the cling. It was so strong Angela could hear the sparks as the shirt came away from his body.

"Its ok I guess." she said still looking at his shirt. "We'll be landing in a little less than an hour I thought I should wake you."

"Thanks." he said. "What time is it?"

"Its 10:08 pm." she replied. "We have a connecting flight to Houston, Texas and then we have another flight to Birmingham, Alabama. Then we have an hour drive to Jasper." she replied.

"Well Damn I slept all through the avro."

"Yea… well we can't stop at a hotel until we land in Birmingham since our flight times are so close together. Is that alright?"

"You think you could have drummed me in about that earlier?" he said annoyed. "Yea its fine but how much longer is it?"

"Only about 4 more hours to fly and 2 hours wait at the airports. So all in all we have six more hours we're looking at."

"Ripper… well I'm sleeping till we get to Birmingham."

"That's ok. Ill probably sleep most of the way as well." she said as she yawned.

The flight attendant came past. "Do you need anything? Were landing in 30 minutes." she said to Angela. Occasionally glancing at Alex.

"No were, fine." she replied.

"Can I ask you something." said the attendant.

Angela looked at her. "Sure anything." she said. Alex tuned in and looked at the girl, anticipating the question.

"He's a mutant. Isn't he?"

"Yes. Why do you ask?"

She ignored her question and replaced it with her own. "Why are you traveling with him? Did you know that a mutant killed 3 people during a bank robbery last week in North Carolina?"

"I'm aware of that and I would appreciate it if you would leave us alone." she replied hatefully.

"I'm just warning you ma'am, their all killers. You deserve to know." she said. Alex was looking at her somberly. He had dealt with people like her before but he knew Angela hadn't. The flight attendant wasn't going to leave unless Alex said something or Angela agreed to leave him.

"Listen mate, we're fine. Got it? Good. Now leave her alone before I make you." said Alex as he looked at her with his electric stare.

She looked at Angela, looked at Alex, and kept moving through the aisle.

"I'm …"

"I told you how people are. Ok? It's fine. Drop it." he said to Angela as he looked out the window.

Angela looked at him and then she looked throughout the rest of the plane.

Just because its how people are doesn't mean I'm ok with it. He thought. Why can't they just look past my eyes? He was to the point of tears but he held them back nicely. He was thinking about his old family. How life used to be.