Elliott

 

I’d like to continue teasing Jenna, but I can’t. It wouldn’t be right knowing what awaits her in Palma. I pick up my magazine, trying to block further conversation. I hope she’ll get the hint and leave me in peace. It’s a crying shame it has to end here, but it’s better to stop the conversation now than for this to become a big hassle later. I should tell her about Ben, but she’ll find out soon enough, and I don’t want the rest of the flight to be awkward.

Despite my best intentions to ignore her while we are stuck here, when the captain announces there are ten minutes until we land, I feel her freeze beside me, and I can’t let her suffer that alone without saying something.

“Feel free to bruise my arm as much as you like. I can take it. But don’t worry, we’ll be fine.”

She doesn’t look convinced.

“These pilots know what they’re doing, and besides, we’re in an odd-numbered row,” I say. Anything to keep her mind off the imminent landing.

“What do you mean?”

“They wanted to put me in row two. I swapped it for this seat. So we’ll be okay.”

“What was wrong with row two?”

“Even numbers are unlucky.”

“You’re kidding me.”

“No. I really hate even numbers.”

She laughs, despite her fear.

“Everything good always happened in my odd-numbered years so it became a thing.”

“You’re crazy,” she says.

I’m oversharing, but my arm will probably be grateful. “When I was thirteen, I played my first part in a play at school. Resounding success. Nineteen, first part in a movie. Twenty-three, first starring role.”

“But what happened in your even-numbered years?”

“At four, I fell out of a tree and broke my arm. And worse, I was too young to miss school. At six, the dog chewed my all-time favorite teddy bear, and he couldn’t be saved. Disaster. At ten my hamster died. It’s a clear pattern. Need I go on?”

“I’m sorry for your loss,” she chirps. “About the teddy bear and the hamster.”

I grin at her. “I was devastated at the time, but I think I’m over it.”

“How old are you now? Sorry, maybe I shouldn’t ask. But do you cut out flying every second year?”

“No, I just throw caution to the wind and chance it. But we’re safe this year. I’m thirty-seven. And you?”

“Twenty-three.”

“Good, we’re totally safe.”

“I don’t think that’s going to save us, or the odd-numbered seat thing. I happen to notice there are a lot of people sitting in even-numbered seats. I expect they are all kinds of ages, too.”

“It won’t matter. Even and odd numbers are not their thing. It’s me sitting here in an odd-numbered seat that will save us.”

“All the same, I’ll still grab the armrest. Not your arm this time,” she says, and I see her knuckles turn white as she holds on, as if that armrest might be the only thing remaining in a crash.

I hope for her sake it will be a smooth landing, but the crosswinds are fierce today, and the plane is getting buffeted this way and that.

Every time the plane lurches, she gasps and grips harder. I hate to see her so distressed.

“It’s okay. I’ve been on a lot of flights, and this one is nothing to worry about. It’s only when you see the cabin crew getting worried that you know it’s going to be a rough landing, and they are happily chatting away behind us in their seats.”

She nods, but her eyes are closed. She can’t speak.

When the plane bumps down, she gives a little shriek as if she wasn’t expecting that or the roar of engines as the plane slows. But she opens her eyes.

“I was better that time.”

“You were? If that was better, what did you used to be like?”

“I pretended I was sick once to avoid going on a school trip to France so I didn’t have to fly at all.”

“But you have flown before?”

“Yes, this is my second flight. I get boats and trains when I can. But my friend Katie plied me with drink when we went to Greece last year. I slept the whole way through and woke up alive in Crete. I only had one glass of wine this time.”

“Right then.” The seat belt signs are switched off and the passengers leap out of their seats and open the overhead bins like it’s a race, or they are afraid another passenger will make off with their carry-ons and duty-free shopping. “Do you have bags in the hold?”

“Yes.”

“You look a bit shaky after that landing. Let’s make sure you get safely to the baggage carousel.”