I Keep on Falling

I remember boarding the small plan. It was a last-minute decision to get to the Highlands. I was supposed to be on one of those big jumbo jets, but things happen. A storm in the middle of the night knocked out the power. So, when 5 AM arrived, Alexa did not wake me up. I woke up at 6 AM instead. This gave me one hour to get ready, not my normal 2.

I quickly washed my face and under my arms while my wife was cooking me breakfast. She is not a morning person. She fell asleep and burned everything. The house filled with smoke and before I knew it the fire department was trying to chop our door down with axes. I explained to them that breakfast burning set the alarm off, but they still wanted to check the house.

The Uber driver arrived late and then his GPS stopped working. He didn’t start driving until he reset the system. Then we got stuck in traffic, delaying us for half an hour.

I arrived at the airport with much less than the 2 recommended hours before takeoff. Getting through security was very slow as the guy in front of me kept setting off the metal detector. He stripped down to his underwear before he remembered that he had a metal plate in his head.

I made it to the gate in what I thought was enough time. But as I approached, I watched them close the gate down. The attendant seemed to look right at me and closed it faster because I was running.

The bottom line is that I missed my flight. I had to wait for a stand-by flight. Of course, as time went on, every single flight was full. I was willing to upgrade to a first-class flight, I had the money. But it was all full.

I was paying close attention to the time. My meeting was at 5 O’clock that night. The flight would be 2 and a half hours. It would take no less than half an hour to get my bags, rent a car, and get out of the airport. Likely, it would take more. The drive to the hotel would be close to an hour. Check-in could take half an hour. So, if I only spend 15 minutes freshening up, that would give me 5 minutes to get to the meeting. I’m happy that the meeting is in the conference room at the hotel.

I told the attendant how important it was that I got to the Highlands. She apologized and told me that the next flight there would not be ready for another 6 hours. She assured me that the flight was not full and that I was guaranteed a seat. That would not do. But there was no point trying to explain that to her. I understood that she was just an attendant. There was nothing that she could do.

To my great joy, a young man had been listening to me every time I spoke. He owned a small private plane, and he was headed to the same city that I was going to. He would be happy to give me a ride. He said that he wouldn’t even charge me anything. Having some company would do him good. I looked at the time and asked how soon he could get me there.

“Since my load is much lighter than the big jumbo planes”, he said, “I can get there much faster. How do 90 minutes sound to you?”

90 minutes! That’s sounded amazing. Without any hesitation, I jumped on the offer. There was no way in the world that I could wait 6 hours. The meeting would be over. I would have missed out on everything. So, I boarded the tiny plane, and we were off.

The ride was very smooth. I don’t remember any turbulence. At some point I must have fallen asleep. If there was any turbulence, it must have been during that time. I don’t know how bad the turbulence got, but it must have been very bad. Bad enough for the pilot to ditch the plane.

The pilot never intended to have a passenger. You could tell this by the fact that he only had 1 parachute. I believe that he tried to hold on to me but couldn’t. When I woke up, I was falling through the sky.

I screamed. But nobody could hear me. It’s not like I really expected anyone to. I tried my best to relax. I knew that I was going to die. So, I figured that I would just enjoy the show. It seemed as if I was going to land in a body of water. Watching it get closer and closer was like watching a movie.

For a moment, I thought that I could see the shadow of the pilot slowly descending to the ground with his single parachute. I wondered what was going through his mind as he watched me quickly fall. How quickly did I become the size of an ant to him? What was the “show” that he was watching doing to his mind. How deep was the guilt digging a hole into his heart and mind. I was at complete peace. “Whatever happens, happens.” That’s all that was going through my mind.

I did think about my family. Would my wife be too hurt by my death? Would my children be scared for life? What about my mother, my father, my brothers and sisters. I tried to shake the worry from my mind and focus back on the beautiful show that was put before me.

“Wow”, I thought. “I wonder if I’d live long enough to see any sea life. I would love to see a shark or a whale or a Bear. Wait. Why would a bear be in the ocean?”

The water was getting closer. My life did not flash before my eyes. It had been playing from the moment my eyes opened. I had a good life. But as it has been said many times before, All Good Things Must Come to An End. This is about where my story comes to an end. Just as I was about to hit the water, a large whale jumped out of the water, took me into his mouth, and carried me to dry land.