A Date in the Skies

Hey everyone. This is my first ever story, so please feel free to leave feedback on what you like and what could be done better. Hope you enjoy!

“Cya, I’ll let you know when I am on board,” I shouted to my friend as they dropped me off at the airport. Today I was finally getting the chance to head to Europe for the first time and getting to do so flying a 747, my favorite plane.

Headed upstairs, I got through security with no trouble and made my way to the gate to watch the inbound aircraft arrive, and what a sight it was, easily the most gorgeous plane in the skies.

Looking around the gate seating area, there was a mix of people headed to London. You could tell the people traveling for business vs those going on a vacation just from how they dressed. Looking around, one girl caught my eye as being miles more beautiful than any other woman on this flight. She was Japanese and was no taller than 5 feet tall and very skinny. She had long, purple colored hair that was just getting to the middle of her back. Her skin looked soft to the touch and I just imagined it would be silk to run my hands all over her.

Pulling myself out of the trance I was in before she caught me staring, I proceeded to find a seat in the waiting area for the flight.

“Ladies and gentlemen, we are now in the final boarding for British Airways flight 279 to London Heathrow.” SHIT I thought, I fell asleep and have almost missed my flight. As I rushed up to the counter, I was one of the last to board. At least I made it I thought.

Looking for the girl I saw in the gate area, I was disappointed not to see her. Maybe she had gotten onto another flight at a neighboring gate. Walking down the aisle of the plane, I was doing my best to take in the experience of getting to fly on the ‘Queen of the Skies’, something I was really excited about since these planes wouldn’t be around much longer. Coming to my row, I was surprised to see that I had the whole row to myself on this mostly full flight.

After settling into the window seat, I put on some music and waited for pushback from the gate. A few minutes later, a flight attendant got my attention and said, “Excuse me, do you know if anyone is sitting in this seat?” “No,” I replied. “Would you mind if someone sits here? Another passenger was too large and couldn’t fit into a single seat, so we needed to move the person sitting next to them.” “No problem at all.” I was a little disappointed to lose the whole row, but having the middle seat open was still a great plus for a flight this long, just as long as they weren’t reseating the fat person next to me.

Soon after she asked, the passenger came down the aisle and sat down in the aisle seat, and to my amazement, it was the girl I had seen in the waiting area. Not knowing what to say, I just said a quick hi and she said the same back. I didn’t dare say anything more for my fear of making a fool of myself.

We soon pushed back from the gate, the four Rolls Royce engines rumbled to life, and we were off to the runway. As we started to takeoff, I noticed the girl sitting next to me had her eyes squinted and was holding onto the armrests. Flying has always been a joy for me, but I can understand why some people get scared.

As we climbed out of San Jose, she gradually relaxed as once we get higher into the air, the plane stops making many of the vibrations of movements it does at lower altitudes.

Soon enough, I had a movie playing on my laptop, and she as well had her laptop out working on some art stuff it looked like. We received our dinner service on the flight as we had taken off about an hour before sunset. I finished up my meal and watched the sunset over the horizon.

As I was getting close to finishing up my movie, the ride slowly got more turbulent, starting off as a light chop and slowly got worse as time went on. I looked outside and could see the wing start to bounce in a silhouette as the sky was still a deep blue from the sunset. I had remembered how the girl reacted to the takeoff and looked over to see if she was doing ok. She had moved her laptop to the seat between us and was once again gripping the armrests and look completely freaked out.

I built up some courage and asked, “Hey, are you doing ok?” After taking some deep breaths, she replied “I just really get freaked out by turbulence and flying.” “Totally understandable,” I said. “Just to let you know, this is all normal and the plane is built to fly in conditions like this. Your perfectly safe.” This seems to calm her down a little as I could see her grip on the armrest was a little more relaxed. Noticing this, I asked, “Is there anything I can do to make you feel better?” “Not really, just be there if I need a hand to hold if you’re ok with that.” “I’m right here if you need me,” I said back.

As the turbulence went on, it never got above light to medium in intensity, but with one sudden jolt, the whole plane felt like it was dropping out of the sky. Anything sitting on tray tables went airborne and then came straight back down as the plane was released from the grip of the turbulence. Thankfully my laptop landed back in my lap, causing no damage to it or me. Unfortunately, my seat partner’s laptop was not as lucky. The laptop itself went up and back down onto the seat, but her drink also went up and hit the edge of the tray table, causing it to spill all over the laptop. Noticing this, I immediately set my laptop down and pick hers up to try and save it. She notices this and starts to panic. I do my best to calm her down and say I’m doing what I can to prevent the laptop from dying. I immediately go for the power button to shut the computer down.

Once this is done, I know the immediate threat to the computer is over and turn my attention to her. I put my hand on top of hers. She immediately grabs mine with quite a lot of force. Probably could have broken my hand if she had squeezed any tighter.

Thankfully, that was the only major jolt of turbulence and the rest of the turbulence slowly subsided till it was all but gone.

Looking back over at the girl, I can see she is slowly calming down but is still holding on quite tightly to my hand. “That was quite the experience, but I think it’s all over now,” I said to her. “I sure hope it is, that was the worst turbulence I have ever experience in my life.” “Same here, never had things go flying like that.” Slowly but surely, her grasp on my hand became more of a gentle handhold.

The pilot came on shortly after this and explained that we were passing over the Rocky Mountains and that it is common for the air to get rather turbulent when flying over the mountains, even up this high. He reported that all the systems on the plane are working great and if anyone has any injuries or needs assistance to please let a flight attendant know.

Once she got more relaxed, she looked over at her laptop, which I had put back onto the seat between up. “Is my laptop ok?” she asked. “It has a good chance of surviving, I think. Didn’t get too much liquid on it, but I quickly shut it off to have the best chance of getting the data off it.” I notice she has a tear forming in her eye. “I really hope it didn’t die, I have all my artwork on there and not much of it is backed up”. “I think you will be able to get it back. If the computer itself doesn’t work, you can take the hard drive out and get the files that way,” I said. “You seem to know a lot about computers, do you work with them?” She asked. “Just watch some videos in my free time. It’s amazing what is on the internet these days.” She chuckled a bit at this which put a smile on both of our faces.

“I’m sorry but I don’t think I caught your name,” she said. “My name is Ryan, what’s yours?” I asked back. “My name is Rachel.” “Well nice to meet you, Rachel! Wish it could be under less stressful circumstances, but it’s still a pleasure to meet you.” “Why thank you,” she said back.

As the flight went on, we continued to talk while she was still holding onto my hand, I think it helped her stay relaxed. I was definitely not complaining about holding hands with this beautiful girl. I learned that she had gone to college in Washington State at Western Washington University, had a sister, and was heading to London to meet her parents who were coming the next day for a family vacation.