Robin in Flight

Robin kicked herself for letting her passport expire. She’d wanted to escape to somewhere more exotic but had to settle for a flight to Miami. From there she could figure out the rest. One step at a time. It had been about an hour since takeoff and the flight attendants were coming down the aisle with pretzels and drinks. Robin very politely asked for some ginger ale to soothe her upset stomach. It wasn’t motion sickness, but something else. Fear? Anxiety? Paranoia?

She wanted to forget about her reason for running, pretend she was just taking a vacation, but her guilty conscience wouldn’t let her. It started with a headache at the temples, but soon spread to most of her body. She developed a tightness in her chest and a heaviness deep in the pit of her stomach. She sipped her beverage then pulled down her tray table to set the can there, trying to take it slow. Looking out the window at the clouds, she retraced her steps.

With a few clicks of the mouse, she had transferred a moderate, but not insignificant sum from one of her boss’ investments to an offshore bank account she’d opened for the express purpose of embezzlement, if that’s what you’d call it. The crime was premeditated, but she wasn’t positive she’d go through with it until one night when the boss insisted she accompany him to a black tie event.

The old man touched the small of her back and whispered something to his friends. She didn’t hear the comment, but she got the gist of it by the looks on their faces. The old man was impotent, she knew that from filling his prescriptions. He’d never actually touched her in private, but the thought of him giving the impression that something untoward was happening between them filled her with disgust. This was just the last in a long list of indignities he put her through.

From the office to the airport, Robin used cash for everything. She resigned weeks before doing the deed, hacking her way back into his bank records once the new assistant had taken over. She even conducted the interviews herself, finding someone naive enough to make the perfect scapegoat. It wasn’t what she wanted to do. It’s what she had to do and it was the only part of her crime that actually made her feel guilty.

After the flight attendant came back for her trash, Robin went to close her tray table, but the latch broke, leaving it flopping into her already limited personal space. She tried not to let it frustrate her. She had decommissioned her phone so she couldn’t be tracked and forgot to bring a book because entertainment was, of course, the last thing on her mind when fleeing the scene of a crime. Then in desperation, she tried turning on the monitor on the back of the seat in front of her as a distraction, but it wouldn’t advance past the loading screen. She tilted her head back and sighed.

“Excuse me, Miss?” It was the guy in the seat across the aisle.

“It looks like you’ve got some problems over there.” He considered a moment. “There’s nobody sitting here,” he said, gesturing to the window seat next to him. “You can take it if you want. I promise I don’t bite.”

The attraction was immediate. His dark skin had the perfect honey glow and bright smile sparkled like a toothpaste commercial. She could also sense his athletic body underneath his t-shirt and gray hoodie. She pictured them wrapped around each other in the airplane bathroom. It took her a moment to respond, but she was powerless to refuse him in spite of her efforts to lay low.

“Oh, yeah. Thanks.”

She gestured to her oblivious seat mate, asking him to allow her to wiggle past him. He just huffed and pulled his massive backpack off the floor onto his lap. The gentlemanly stranger got out of his seat to allow her to move freely past him to the open window seat. His cologne or aftershave, pheromones, whatever it was appealed to her.

“I’m Robin,” she said, extending her hand.

“I’m Marcus.” He looked into her eyes, sandwiching her hand between both of his. They were warm and slightly rough. Electricity surged from the point of contact. Maybe it was the adrenaline, but she wanted him.

The sun was beginning to set and the clouds took on an amber glow, like candlelight for their romantic in flight meal of god knows what. It barely resembled food. Robin dropped her plastic knife on the floor and Marcus valiantly gave her his. He just stabbed his unidentified protein with the fork and ate it like a barbarian, making them both laugh.

She heard some buzzing in his pocket that at first he checked, but the more he talked to her, the more he started ignoring them. Robin wasn’t about to question his forgetting to put his phone in airplane mode if he wasn’t going to question her complete lack of a phone. She quite liked the idea that he was ignoring his messages in favor of her company.

They had an easy way with each other. He was smart and engaging, said he traveled a lot for business and gave her all his best packing and hotel tips. She told him all about her favorite South Korean dramas, which he seemed to enjoy earring about or maybe he just liked hearing her describe something so passionately. Once in the throes of laughter their knees touched. They looked at each other and neither of them decided to move.

In spite of the circumstances, it was the perfect date. It was so good, Robin had to keep reminding herself why she was on this flight in the first place. Just when everything was going so well, the weather shifted. Shadows took over the cabin as the plane entered some rough chop.

The captain came over the intercom to announce the turbulence that was already obvious to everyone on board. “Ladies and gentlemen, this is your Captain. We’ve entered a bit of a warm front and now it seems we are in the path of a tropical storm. We’d like you to return to your seats and keep your seatbelts fastened until further notice.”

Robin looked to Marcus for reassurance. “I’ve been on flights like this before, especially to Miami. It’s going to be fine.” The plane shook a little more violently, knocking them both forward in their seats. He offered his hand with a comforting smile. She gladly took it. “I won’t let anything happen to you,” he said, pulling her hand up to his lips and kissing it softly amid the turbulence which was getting worse.

The plane started to rock back and forth, shifting all the weight inside the plane this way and that. The luggage was banging up against the overhead compartments and all the loose items went rolling across the cabin floor. A multicolored stream of M&Ms went bouncing across the aisle.

The captain starting giving other announcements, mostly to the flight crew, but they became harder to understand as the passengers started screaming and chaos clattered all around them. Robin was sure she heard the words “emergency landing.” It was clear this was more than light turbulence. By the time the oxygen masks popped down in front of them, she was ready to confess all her sins.

“Listen, Marcus.” She looked him straight in the eyes. “I have something to tell you. I’m on this flight because I did something bad. I stole some money. A lot of money.”

The plane kept shifting back and forth. Marcus placed his hand on her shoulder. “I know. I’m the air marshal. I was supposed to arrest you, but as you can see we’ve got bigger problems right now.”

Robin just sat there unable to breathe. She clumsily grabbed the oxygen mask and placed it over her mouth.

****************

The plane made its emergency landing in swamp country somewhere in the Florida panhandle. There were definitely some broken bones among the passengers on board, but somehow no fatalities.

By the time Robin regained consciousness, Marcus had already assisted all of the healthy passengers off the plane. He turned to her, standing knee deep in the murky green water. “There, you are. Looks like you got a little bump on the head.” He carefully brushed the stray hair away from her face.

“Now are you going to arrest me?” She chuckled, hoping their near-death experience had made him less of a stickler about air marshaling. Besides, they were on the ground now. It wasn’t his jurisdiction anymore, right?

They heard the ambulances approaching in the distance.

“How much money was it again?,” he asked.

“Enough.”

“And the guy you stole it from…He was pretty bad, right?”

“Terrible.”

“Well, we never did get an official count of the survivors, and this swamp is full of gators. Think you can walk?”

She took his hand and together they made their escape.