Dylan went through the scanner first — without setting it off — so he could catch Ethan on the other side, before he had the opportunity to run off for more airport exploration. Ethan was second, again, without setting it off and then it was Kirsty’s turn.
She stood there a moment, waiting for the guard to beckon her through. Her legs were shaking and she could feel that her back was sweaty. She hated that she could get herself so worked up. She often told herself to stop being stupid. Something she found easy to say and yet failed to obey. It was like one part of her head told her to behave and that everything would be okay and the other part of her brain simply said ‘fuck you’. She’d even considered seeing a hypnotist to try and rid herself of these silly worries. Especially as, deep down, she knew everyone was right — compared to a lot of things, flying was relatively safe and you were more likely to die on the way to the airport than go down on a plane.
But someone has to be the unlucky one and die in a plane crash for it to be a statistic. How do you know it won’t be you? The nagging thought in the back of her mind right now.
“Yes please.” The guard beckoned her through.
She put on her best fake smile and walked through.
The alarm didn’t go off.
4
For someone scared of flying, such as Kirsty, it could be argued that sitting by the window — overlooking the runway — in the carrier’s lounge is a silly thing to do. It would only add to the apprehension of being on that plane yourself and going through the take-off procedures. Dylan insisted on it though and for two — good — reasons. The first being that Ethan wanted to sit there and it meant it would stop him from running around, exploring everywhere. The second being that Dylan thought it would be good for Kirsty to see so many planes take off, into the skies, with no issues.
“There goes another one,” he said as a fourth plane climbed into the air.
“This isn’t helping,” Kirsty pointed out.
“Why not? Look! All these planes taking off with no issues. You can see how safe it is.”
“Think about this — for every plane that takes off safely… It cuts down the odds for one failing. If out of, say, a thousand planes — one crashes… Well, none of these are crashing, are they? Which means it could be the next one. And if it’s not the next one, or even the one after that… Then it could be the one we are on.”
Dylan sat back in his chair. He didn’t know what to say to that. In some screwy kind of way, her logic did actually make some sense.
“I’m trying to help you here,” he confessed.
“I know you are. And I appreciate it but,” she sighed, “I just don’t like flying. Not everyone does.”
“Well how about next year we go on a cruise? Or — don’t tell me — that worries you too?”
“I can’t help how I feel.”
“Okay look at it this way then — if the plane does go down, you’re not going to know much about it.”
“Is that supposed to make me feel better?” she asked in disbelief that he’d even said it in the first place.
“No. I’m just saying — there’s little point worrying about it because, if it happens, it will be quick.”
“Be quick? We’d have to fall out of the sky first. I’m sure that won’t be as quick as you’d think it would be. And what if we landed in the mountains? No chance of rescue, no way out — we’d be forced to eat each other.”
“You watched ‘Alive’ again, didn’t you?”
“Not recently, no, but you get my point!”
“That was a film. A very good one too.”
“It was also based on fact. That could happen again.”
“It was?”
Kirsty nodded.
“Fine — okay — well we’re not flying over the French Alps so we’ll be fine.”
Kirsty sighed.
Dylan was starting to get frustrated, “I don’t know what you want me to do! We both wanted to come on this holiday. We both chose to book it. Now you’re being like this. We can’t not go as we won’t get our money back and — besides which — I want to go. I try and help you but you just brush everything I say under the carpet. What’s a man supposed to do?”
“I haven’t asked you to do anything!” Kirsty felt herself getting wound up. It wasn’t his fault, she knew it wasn’t, but she just wished he would shut up about the whole flying thing. She would deal with it in her own way, just as she always did. And if that meant picturing many ways to die painfully than so be it.
The pair fell silent as Ethan cheered at another plane successfully taking off. Dylan was just grateful their son hadn’t picked up on any of Kirsty’s fears. He couldn’t be dealing with two scared fliers.
An announcement came over the lounge’s tannoy system stating that their flight was ready for boarding. Ethan cheered again as Dylan stood up. He reached down and took a hold of one of the carry on cases before noticing Kirsty hadn’t moved.
“Did you not hear them?” he asked. “They called us.”
“It’s only just boarding,” she said, “we don’t have to be one of the first on, do we?”
Dylan sighed again, “Well no but we need to get to the gate at least. We don’t have to go straight on the plane but it might be a good idea if we’re close-by so, when they do make the final call out, we can run on.”
Kirsty stood up, “Fine.” She snatched the second bag from the floor and started walking towards the lounge’s exit. Dylan followed and Ethan charged ahead of the pair of them. Kirsty’s fear was starting to manifest itself into an irritable mood. Dylan knew not to take it to heart as she was just scared but it was something he struggled with from time to time. There he was, looking forward to going away, and there she was — snapping at anything and everything he said.
He kept telling himself, she’d be fine as soon as the plane was in the air. Once the take-off was done, she tended to calm herself a little. It helped that she was distracted by the inflight entertainment system. She’d only then start to work herself up again if there was turbulence or when the Captain announced they were pretty close to their destination. Then she started to stress about the landing.
I I
Dylan had led his family through the smaller security check-point at the gate. Whilst most people were boarding the plane immediately, they had taken a seat with their backs to the window. At least Dylan and Kirsty had. Ethan was running around, desperate to board the plane on which he’d be a passenger for the next eight and bit hours flight time.
“I might have found a silver lining in your cloud,” Dylan said. He turned his attention to Kirsty. She was sitting next to him. Her skin was pale and her eyes were shut tight. “Hey,” he tried again to get her attention.