Aspyn
After grace dozes off I realize that I have no idea what I have just agreed to. She seems nice enough, but I barely know her, actually I know nothing with the exception of her first name, and now I’m going to travel around the world with her? There has got to be something wrong with me. Still, I don’t even think about changing my answer. My mind was made up. The way she asked it was so spontaneous, which was something I had never experienced before, and it gave me a certain thrill. I look over at her petite figure and notice a locket with the word Ferryn written in cursive across the front.
I’ve seen people wear their clocks covered up, but never met one of them. It is a very rare to do something like that, and my parents always warned against doing it. They said it was dangerous not knowing what is going on, and that you have to be able to prepare for your death and protect yourself. I cringe just thinking about how my mother would have reacted to all of this. The truth is though, that anyone I see that has their clock covered up seems more confident and… alive. I decide that when Grace wakes up that I will try to get to know her better, but for now I don’t want to think about anything.
The sweet voice of an old woman disrupts me from my daydreaming. The drink cart arrives at my aisle, with a short and round woman in tow.
“Would you like anything to drink drear?” she asks.
“Water please.” I respond politely, trying to convince myself that I am not annoyed at her, but happy that she came around.
“And anything for your friend?”
“She’ll have a water too I guess.” I reply, not sure what she likes, but water seems like a pretty safe bet.
She hands me both waters, but in trying to maneuver around the tight space and trays, I spill my water, and some of it hits grace in the leg.
“What happened?” she questions groggily, looking around and trying to get her bearings.
“Oh my gosh, I’m so sorry, I was trying to get the water on top of your tray, and it spilled, and- um...sorry.” I try to explain what happened to her and realize in the middle of talking that I have begun babbling.
“No no, that’s fine, it just surprised me is all. How long was I out?” she asks this and I am immediately relieved, though I’m not sure why.
All I did was spill some water, it’s not like she should be mad, but she seemed a bit on edge earlier and I didn’t want her to reconsider taking me with her to travel.
“not too long.” I respond, “only an hour or so.”
“oh good, I want you to have all the time you can get so you are absolutely positive you aren’t going ‘round the world with a crazy axe murderer or anything.”
I laugh a bit at the end. I don’t know her, but I have a pretty good idea of whether or not she wants to kill me by now. I do have a question for her though.
“what exactly are we going to be doing when we...um...travel?”
The look on my face must have given some of my worry away, because now it’s her turn to laugh.
“don’t worry, we won’t be doing anything other than having a bit of fun. No drug deals if that’s what you're worried about. I’m already going to hell on a full scholarship, but you, my friend, can be salvaged, and I will make it my number one priority to keep it that way.” she smirks.
Just then there is a collective gasp throughout the airplane. I look up to see what was going on just as the pilot’s voice takes over the loudspeaker.
“don’t panic, everybody keep calm!”
Of course this makes everyone panic even more. I look over at Grace so that I can ask what in the world is going on, only to find that she is just as confused as I am. She is practically spinning in circles and raking her fingers through her hair as she frantically tries to find some clue as to what's happening.
The rumblings on the plane get louder and louder until they have emerged into a full blast screaming panic. My second instinct after looking towards Grace is to look down at my watch. The time is normal, and so is Graces, but-
“ Aspyn!” comes a yell from right beside me that I can barely hear over the chaos.
“What?”
“Ten minutes!”
“What?”
Grace, who is sitting on the outside seat, points to the watch of a person in the next section over.
“They have ten minutes!”
Now all of the panicking makes sense. All of these people will be dead in ten minutes’ time. The thought is almost unbearable. The baby and her mother up at the front of the plane, the father on his way home to see his family, the old lady that grace just pointed to, and all the rest of them, dead.
The plane starts to jerk and suddenly we begin to spiral down into the ocean. There is a reason that I didn’t want to go away from my family. The world is dangerous, at any time you could be swept away and not have any control over it. That’s why we need the watches, to prepare ourselves. I can’t imagine what I would do if I lost it.
My thoughts are disrupted as grace, who seems unusually calm for the situation, hands me a life jacket, opens the emergency door, and tells me to jump.
“There is no way I am jumping!” she is insane.
The plane is way too far from sea level. Not far enough that you would die, but it would definitely not be painless. Grace rolls her eyes, sighs, and then pushes me off the plane.
I am in too much of a shock to think, but soon I realize that if I don’t fix the belly-flop position that I am flying through the air in, this will hurt a whole lot worse. My mind has gone from completely blank, to working a mile a minute, as though it is trying to make up for lost time by clumping all my thoughts together into a mindless mush. Point your feet. You just jumped out of a plane. You could have died. What happened to the plane? Why didn't you or Grace lose time? All of this passes through my head in a matter of seconds before the wind gave one last swoop before sending me plummeting feet-first into the sea.
Pencil diving into the water definitely softened the blow, but when I crashed into the water, a sharp pain went through my ankle. Just then grace comes barreling at the water and also changes into a pencil-dive position, and I have to swim over to the side to avoid being a crash landing pad. The pain in my ankle has gotten worse. It went from a dull pain to what was now a throbbing pain, and I struggle to move around and get my bearings, seeing as even the smallest movement brings a new wave of pain.
Grace and I both lay down on our life jackets for a moment trying to process what just happened. I can hear several other voices, and then an enormous splash not too far out. Unable to bring myself to think about what that splash meant, I close my teared up eyes and don’t think. I don’t think about the lives that were just lost, I don’t think about the fact that one of those lives very well could have been mine if it wasn’t for Grace, and I definitely don’t think about what I am going to do to get out of this mess, that I am stranded in the ocean. No, I refuse to think about those things. So, as I lie in the Mediterranean, completely lost, I don’t think, I just fall asleep and desperately hope that this was all a dream...TO BE CONTINUED
After grace dozes off I realize that I have no idea what I have just agreed to. She seems nice enough, but I barely know her, actually I know nothing with the exception of her first name, and now I’m going to travel around the world with her? There has got to be something wrong with me. Still, I don’t even think about changing my answer. My mind was made up. The way she asked it was so spontaneous, which was something I had never experienced before, and it gave me a certain thrill. I look over at her petite figure and notice a locket with the word Ferryn written in cursive across the front.
I’ve seen people wear their clocks covered up, but never met one of them. It is a very rare to do something like that, and my parents always warned against doing it. They said it was dangerous not knowing what is going on, and that you have to be able to prepare for your death and protect yourself. I cringe just thinking about how my mother would have reacted to all of this. The truth is though, that anyone I see that has their clock covered up seems more confident and… alive. I decide that when Grace wakes up that I will try to get to know her better, but for now I don’t want to think about anything.
The sweet voice of an old woman disrupts me from my daydreaming. The drink cart arrives at my aisle, with a short and round woman in tow.
“Would you like anything to drink drear?” she asks.
“Water please.” I respond politely, trying to convince myself that I am not annoyed at her, but happy that she came around.
“And anything for your friend?”
“She’ll have a water too I guess.” I reply, not sure what she likes, but water seems like a pretty safe bet.
She hands me both waters, but in trying to maneuver around the tight space and trays, I spill my water, and some of it hits grace in the leg.
“What happened?” she questions groggily, looking around and trying to get her bearings.
“Oh my gosh, I’m so sorry, I was trying to get the water on top of your tray, and it spilled, and- um...sorry.” I try to explain what happened to her and realize in the middle of talking that I have begun babbling.
“No no, that’s fine, it just surprised me is all. How long was I out?” she asks this and I am immediately relieved, though I’m not sure why.
All I did was spill some water, it’s not like she should be mad, but she seemed a bit on edge earlier and I didn’t want her to reconsider taking me with her to travel.
“not too long.” I respond, “only an hour or so.”
“oh good, I want you to have all the time you can get so you are absolutely positive you aren’t going ‘round the world with a crazy axe murderer or anything.”
I laugh a bit at the end. I don’t know her, but I have a pretty good idea of whether or not she wants to kill me by now. I do have a question for her though.
“what exactly are we going to be doing when we...um...travel?”
The look on my face must have given some of my worry away, because now it’s her turn to laugh.
“don’t worry, we won’t be doing anything other than having a bit of fun. No drug deals if that’s what you're worried about. I’m already going to hell on a full scholarship, but you, my friend, can be salvaged, and I will make it my number one priority to keep it that way.” she smirks.
Just then there is a collective gasp throughout the airplane. I look up to see what was going on just as the pilot’s voice takes over the loudspeaker.
“don’t panic, everybody keep calm!”
Of course this makes everyone panic even more. I look over at Grace so that I can ask what in the world is going on, only to find that she is just as confused as I am. She is practically spinning in circles and raking her fingers through her hair as she frantically tries to find some clue as to what's happening.
The rumblings on the plane get louder and louder until they have emerged into a full blast screaming panic. My second instinct after looking towards Grace is to look down at my watch. The time is normal, and so is Graces, but-
“ Aspyn!” comes a yell from right beside me that I can barely hear over the chaos.
“What?”
“Ten minutes!”
“What?”
Grace, who is sitting on the outside seat, points to the watch of a person in the next section over.
“They have ten minutes!”
Now all of the panicking makes sense. All of these people will be dead in ten minutes’ time. The thought is almost unbearable. The baby and her mother up at the front of the plane, the father on his way home to see his family, the old lady that grace just pointed to, and all the rest of them, dead.
The plane starts to jerk and suddenly we begin to spiral down into the ocean. There is a reason that I didn’t want to go away from my family. The world is dangerous, at any time you could be swept away and not have any control over it. That’s why we need the watches, to prepare ourselves. I can’t imagine what I would do if I lost it.
My thoughts are disrupted as grace, who seems unusually calm for the situation, hands me a life jacket, opens the emergency door, and tells me to jump.
“There is no way I am jumping!” she is insane.
The plane is way too far from sea level. Not far enough that you would die, but it would definitely not be painless. Grace rolls her eyes, sighs, and then pushes me off the plane.
I am in too much of a shock to think, but soon I realize that if I don’t fix the belly-flop position that I am flying through the air in, this will hurt a whole lot worse. My mind has gone from completely blank, to working a mile a minute, as though it is trying to make up for lost time by clumping all my thoughts together into a mindless mush. Point your feet. You just jumped out of a plane. You could have died. What happened to the plane? Why didn't you or Grace lose time? All of this passes through my head in a matter of seconds before the wind gave one last swoop before sending me plummeting feet-first into the sea.
Pencil diving into the water definitely softened the blow, but when I crashed into the water, a sharp pain went through my ankle. Just then grace comes barreling at the water and also changes into a pencil-dive position, and I have to swim over to the side to avoid being a crash landing pad. The pain in my ankle has gotten worse. It went from a dull pain to what was now a throbbing pain, and I struggle to move around and get my bearings, seeing as even the smallest movement brings a new wave of pain.
Grace and I both lay down on our life jackets for a moment trying to process what just happened. I can hear several other voices, and then an enormous splash not too far out. Unable to bring myself to think about what that splash meant, I close my teared up eyes and don’t think. I don’t think about the lives that were just lost, I don’t think about the fact that one of those lives very well could have been mine if it wasn’t for Grace, and I definitely don’t think about what I am going to do to get out of this mess, that I am stranded in the ocean. No, I refuse to think about those things. So, as I lie in the Mediterranean, completely lost, I don’t think, I just fall asleep and desperately hope that this was all a dream...TO BE CONTINUED