Seconds to Milliseconds

The deafening grind of the propellers split our ears like a rusty bike spoke. Death was upon us! Bouncing around in our seats like puppets, out popped little golden emergency mouth pieces dangling from the ceiling of the plane. Presumably, three rolls down, and two seats to the left a woman sat struggling viciously with her life vest. Mass hysteria painted on her face like distorted make-up she held her belly tight. Her round belly refused to be strapped in. A pool of water collected in her eyes an streamed down her cheeks as her husband forced the vest closed. “Is she pregnant?”, a passenger asked. His teeth chattering loudly as he murmured, “She’s due any day”, you could sense the worry in his tone.

Meanwhile, the potent whiff of gas entering from the rear of the plane was suffocating. The wailing sound of the plane jumping off of the diving board headed for the ocean caused panic. Howling screams could be heard down the aisles, as the pregnant passenger let our a roar we’ve never heard. Groaning and grunting like a wild beast she yelled “My water broke!”. No one bothered to even look her way, they were all to busy preparing to die. Reared back in here reclined seat, her face scrunched and hot, she held her breath before letting out an excruciating wind.

While directly in front of her a man was propelled forward in his seat with a hard thud to his chest, he was released. He slid down the aisle kicking and screaming throwing a tantrum like a toddler in the direction of the cockpit. Until suddenly the bathroom door broke his fall. He held onto the handle for dear life as the plane continued to dive downward. As seconds became milliseconds, the passengers could feel the immense cold wind surround their feet. Meanwhile, the husband pat his wife’s brow as he fought back the tears. The front of his shirt soaked, as he hovered over his wife with disbelief. He placed his hand on her thigh, and felt the warm blood oozing from under her dress. The baby was coming! The mothers strained face forced out a breathless sigh as, her husband yelled “push, push”. She sighed with relief as her final breath took away all the pain. Her husband let out a huge yelp as he sobbed in disbelief. Holding his crying baby still attached to his mother’s womb he was visibly shaken. His wife laid there limp.

The thunderous blast of the plane hitting the water rippled through the huge chunk of metal. Our feet drowned deep in the chilly waters, while our ears popped from the cracking waves. We had died, we all died in that moment, but miraculously our minds came back to us. As we all watched the husband struggled with his baby in one hand, and dead wife in the other. The delusional man swam towards to shore howling "Why why..". Laying on his backside, he used her lifeless body as a flotation devices. Once we all reached the mushy sand everyone crawled to their corners exhausted, and winded.

Meanwhile, the shaggy faced man stared down at his new born with a mature gaze. Cuddling the new born in a musty, tattered green navy jacket he could no long hold back his tears. The man shifted his gaze towards the floating body bouncing in between the waves. With a long face he pushed out the words "I love you".