Below is a story I once wrote, and is intended to be a Declamation piece for our College's Foundation Day last August 30, 2000. The story just ended up in my filling drawers since it was too long to be presented.
Hence sharing it here at last! It would be a waste if I won't post it here, too.
---oOo---
THE CRASH
"Calling all passengers of 747, please proceed to Gate 5."
The electronic glass doors in the Paris Airways' futuristic terminal slid open as if at a silent command, as I hurried through it, determined to get away from the city and return home.
I was exhausted from the round of interviews that was held during the mad week of the Mid-Summer Midnight at the Grand Luxury Hotel, in which, I represented as one of the research journalists who were lucky enough to capture important facts for the CNN news. I wanted nothing more than to check in at my hotel and collapse, first in a warm bath and then in my comfortable bed.
In the surge of people, mostly wealthy tourists who flocked to the city, I collided with a man dressed all in black with quick, self-conscious glances, cursed with a bulbous, veiny nose, a splotched and warted complexion, and a slack, fleshy mouth, encompassed by pendulous jules. The man truly played beast to the stunning woman with him, who is younger to be his wife and seemed odd to be his daughter.
Then, "Calling all passengers of Flight 747, please proceed to Gate 5".
Readjusting the strap of my Versace shoulder bag, I push a curtain of my blue-black Asian hair, and shake my thoughts away, and rush through the ticket counter and then to my plane. I was seated in Seat 4B on the business class aisle of a luxurious Pan American 747.
As I settled on my seat, I observed the people around me. The man and the beautiful lady seated in front of me. They were talking something like a honeymoon in Paris. "Ah", I thought, "they were honeymooners!" The somebody behind me, with a hoarse, baritone voice said, "Political scientists classify the killings in Mindanao as the usual purge, that occurs after a change in power or of the hunger of power. It happened with your American Revolution, too"
"Oh, my", I thought, "not again. My country had gone crazy again." Then I realized that I already missed my hometown ... the green, green grass of home and all the memories it buried for fifteen years since the tragic death of my entire family. "Someday, I'll be in the Philippines again", I decided.
"Excuse me missu", I looked up and saw a puffy, middle-aged woman standing impatiently before me as she indicated the window seat. "That's my seat, girl!", she said with an English accent.
I twisted aside so she could get past me. "She looked like my mother." I mused. "Great day for a flight huh?" she asked gently. I just nodded, not wanting to start any conversation, bearing in mind what my father told me about not talking with complete strangers.
But she continued in a motherly voice, "You know, I married late, just three years ago and my first-born, my three-years old unico hijo is waiting for me. I haven't seen him for a couple of years because of my job. That's why I am s excited to go home and hug him in my arms again. You'll know it when you become a mother yourself." She smiled and asked, "What's your name child?"
"Leanne", I said with a smile and then she settled dreamily in her seat, perhaps thinking about her baby.
"Flight 747 is about to take off, please fasten your seat belt.", the plane attendant announced while the plane started trudging the runway.
The flight had been smooth since we left the airways. But, suddenly, a thug, a series of bumps and a deafening blast filled the air. Commotion was all around. Everybody panicked. The stewards tried their best to pacify the passengers, but to no avail. I held my breath and prayed, "Oh God, please not today ... not this way". I felt a sudden fear inside me. Then the woman beside me started trembling. She rummaged her bag and found the rosary. But the plane started trembling. Another bump, and a thunderous blast that seemed so endless, shake the plane into turbulence. Then something hard and heavy from above me, dropped. I managed to glance at the woman beside me. She was lying beneath the fallen air vent, her hands stretched as if asking for help. Then I remembered mother during the accident, she was begging for help but to no avail.
"I have to help her!", I decided. But I can't move. My feet are aching, and I wasn't certain, which was worse, the pain in my ankle, or my terror?
The plane somersaulted like a possessed monster, careering down the sky at the speed of light, cutting in and out of the bulk of clouds, and turning up and down against the gust of wind.
I gasped and closed my eyes, so tightly, that it hurts. "Please", I heard the woman's voice again, "Please don't let me die like this." She was already wet and bloody, and so darned scared. The she looked at me, pleading. "Please helppp me... I still ... have to ... live. I have to ... see my ... baby grow. Please ... God ... let me see my baby .. again ... Le...a..n..ne, pleaseee... helppp ... meee."
Then suddenly, I felt like there was a fierce storm. A giant wave had struck the ship and it was sinking. "I'm drowning", thought, "I've got to get out of here!"
I flung out my arms and hit something. It was the side of a lifeboat, rocking and swaying. I tried to stand up, but hit my head on something hard. But in a moment of clarity, I remembered where I was. My face and hair dripped with perspiration. I felt giddy and my body is burning up. How long had I been unconscious? It was only an hour's flight. Was the plane about to land? "No!", I thought, "It's all right, I'm just having a nightmare, I'm in my bed in San Francisco, asleep. I'll call for my doctor."
I stopped. I could not breath, but I tried to glance and struggle upward to reach for the dying woman. But I sank down, my body leaden.
The plane hit a packet of turbulence and I was thrown against the fallen air vent. I lay there, dazed, desperately trying to concentrate. "How much time do I have to save myself ... and the woman?" I wavered between hellish and painful reality. "The woman. Somehow I have to save the woman. But first ... first ... I have to get myself out of here."
I touched my aching head and found that it was a terrible effort to lift it. "Not enough air!", I whispered. "I must have air!". I reached around the edge of my seat and fumbled for the lock of the safety belt, found it and unlocked it. It seemed to take an eternity. The gust of wind became cooler. I was freezing. My whole body begun to shake, and the constant jolting of the plane increased my dizziness. "I've got to hold on.", I thought. So I forced myself to concentrate. "What am I doing here? Something important ... yes ... the woman."
My vision was blurred and everything is moving in and out of focus. I'm not going to make it.
The plane dipped suddenly and I was hurled to the floor, scraping my hands on the sharp metal tracks. I held on while the plane bucked, and when it seemed to settle down, I forced myself to my feet again. The roaring of the jet engines was mixed with the roaring in my head. The woman. I must find and save the woman.
I stood there trying to remember what to do next. It was such an effort to concentrate. If could just lie down and sleep for a few minutes. I'd be fine. All I need is some sleep - but there was no time. We could die at any minute.
The plane began a stepper angle of descent. I know it would crash down at any moment. "I have to make a decision. There's something I should do to save myself and the woman."
But, the roaring in my head made it impossible to think. I remembered something like "If accidents happen, all you've got to do is focus. Don's panic".
It had sounded so easy then, sitting in the cool room of my college, listening to my first-aid instructor. Now it is impossible. I had no more strength left. The plane would crash and we would all be dead -- and I would be dead without doing something to save somebody ... just as I haven't done to save my mother. "I'm sorry, I'm really very, very sorry..."
Then I felt a jolt beneath my feet as the plane touch the ground, and then another, and I was slammed backwards as the plane was thrust into the reverse, and a sound as loud as thunder filled the air, and balls of fire flashed like lighting.
My head was smashed against the floor, and I know it's all over. Silently, I prayed, "Oh God! At this very moment, I commend to You!"
(08.30.2000)
Idea from Eng'r PRC
