Heading Toward a Watery Grave

The flight started out smooth, but then the engines started to rattle as we were traveling over this huge lake and suddenly I heard the captain yell, “mayday, mayday were going down”, and I knew that I would not be able to breathe underwater. Mayday is an emergency code word used internationally as a distress signal in voice procedure radio communications.  It is derived from the French phrase ‘venez m’aider’, which means ‘come and help me’.  I wasn’t up the creek without a paddle yet, but I never learned how to swim and if this plane crashed in the middle of this lake, I knew that I would be in trouble, as I would experience severe difficulty trying to extricate myself from this dilemma.

The pilot actually did a wonderful job, wait change that to miraculous job of landing the plane and it stayed afloat while all of the passengers inside started to gasp and scream.  I felt safe as long as the plane did not sink and I knew that it would be difficult to predict how long an aircraft would be able to hold up on impact and after crashing.  Will it’s shell stay intact allowing the plane to float, or will it break up and quickly sink?  I was just going to have to roll with the punches and take a chill pill, till we got out of this limbo.  Looking out my window, all I could see was water, and I felt like we were in the middle of nowhere.  I had this nervous feeling in the pit of my stomach which felt like butterflies, as inside of my brain conjured up all of these images of the plane sinking, the water rising and me droning, and this was consuming me.

Was some divine being going to rescue all of us, I wondered like an epiphany or perhaps it was just an intuitive perception or some type of insight into the reality of how treacherous this situation actually was.  I thought about something that Mae West said, “Women with pasts interest men because they hope history will repeat itself”, and somehow this seemed to rejuvenate my spirits.  The constant bobbing up and down motion of the plane made me start to feel indifferent, aloof and detached from the peril and I questioned if this was a normal human reaction.  The captain announced that rescue was on its way, but it would be at least 45 minutes before any help arrived and he said that we should keep our seat belts on and make sure that we fold our trays up.  I fiddled with my ring and I wished that I did not have to check my blade in with my luggage, as I thought that it might come in handy.

All of the passengers developed this strange allegiance with each other, knowing how dire this predicament was.  After a while we heard the rescue boats approaching and I was glad that we had all survived and that we would not have to commemorate anyone who died with a moment of silence.  Even though my trip was ruined, it felt so good to be on dry land again, and I saw trees and birds, some deer and even a badger.  It was a happy ending, like walking off into the sunset in an old western movie.

Written for the Sunday Whirl Wordle 357 prompts: limbo, images, rattle, safe, ring, fold, nowhere, gasp, pit, shell, pill and blade, for Mindlovemisery’s Menagerie Sunday Writing Prompt – Things Watery – Up the creek without a paddle, for thehouseofbailey Destination Dreams Scotts Daily Prompt Commemorate, for Daily Addictions by rogershipp prompt Indifferent, for Sheryl’s A New Daily Post Word Prompt: Lake, for FOWC with Fandango – Allegiance, for Ragtag Community Rejuvenate, for Teresa’s Haunted Wordsmith Three Things Challenge, where the three prompt words are “Mae West, western and badger”, for Swimmers the New Community Pool prompt – Human and for Word of the Day Challenge Alternative haven for the Daily Post’s mourners! Prompt Epiphany.