13 hours – second draft

 

 

13 Hours

Tina Higgins

 

 

 

 

Before

 

          Lisa was sitting in the middle of a long row of connected plastic chairs. She was bouncing her legs and looking at everything around her. There was an old couple a few seats down that kept looking over at her, smiling.

      Lisa’s mom put her hand on her legs, “Lisa calm down and stop fidgeting.”

      “But mom, I can’t. I’m just too excited.” Today was a big day. It was as if Lisa were completing a rite of passage into adulthood. They were flying from their home in Seattle to visit Lisa’s grandparents. Mom would stay the weekend then fly home leaving Lisa to visit alone for a week then she would fly home by herself. Her brother had done it last year when he was 13 and in two years, her little sister would do it. But right now was her turn.

      There was a voice over the loud speaker. It was time to start boarding the plane. Lisa and her mom were among the first to get on. Lisa saw the rows and rows of seats 3 on one side 2 on the other with an aisle down the center. She placed her backpack full of coloring books and vampire stories and NintendoDS player and games under her seat like her mom showed her so she could get to them. Her mother helped her with her seatbelt. Lisa hated it when her mother treated her like a baby. Her mother smiled at her and said, “You’ll always be my baby.” Lisa tried to undo the seatbelt, but it wasn’t like the one in the minivan, so mom reached over and undid it. It annoyed Lisa, but she didn’t pass up the opportunity to buckle the belt herself this time.

A few rows back a man was trying to cram his overstuffed bag into the small overhead compartment. The flight attendant tried to convince the man to let her take the bag and check it with the other luggage, because it just wasn’t going to fit. He insisted it would because he had flown with it like this many times before.

      Lisa looked out the window and watched all the commotion. There were people moving all over the place. A golf cart pulled up with a long line of cars behind it like a snake. Out of nowhere, a squad of men showed up and opened a panel under the plane, and moved a long conveyer belt into it. Then they opened the first snake compartment and started taking suitcases out of it and putting them on the conveyer belt. Two men rode the belt with the suitcases into the airplane. Her brother told her that was where they went through the suitcases to steal the cool things people carried. Lisa was pretty sure he was just teasing her. Still, she wished she could see what was going on more clearly.

      She looked up at her mom and smiled from ear to ear. Behind her mom, Lisa saw the man was still fighting with his bag. The flight attendant had moved on to help other passengers but kept an eye on him. Most people were in their seats, reading books, listening to music or, like Lisa, looking around.

      Across the aisle from Lisa was the old couple from the airport. The man was balding, with only a ring of short, grey hair running along the back of his head. The woman had short wavy hair that was more white than grey. She had big glasses that took up most of her face and a chain of gold links and tiny pearls hanging from the earpieces. She looked at Lisa and smiled.

“Where are you going young lady?” she asked.

Lisa sat up straight and proclaimed. “I’m going to Hawaii to visit my grandparents. My mom is going to leave me there and I’m going to fly back by myself. Are you going to Hawaii too?”

“Wow! You must be very mature for your mom to let you do that.” The old lady smiled at Lisa’s mom. “We are going through Hawaii. We are on our way to China to see the Great Wall.”

Finally, the flight attendant had talked the man into giving her his bag. She quickly took it and ran toward the front of the plane. Lisa looked out the window and a few minutes later saw a man carrying the same bag toward the underside of the airplane. He had to reopen the door so he could throw the man’s bag into it. He had to call for help to get the door closed because he was having trouble with it.

Another couple of minutes passed. To Lisa they seemed like years. Finally, the plane moved away from the airport and made its way to the runway. The pilot announced that they were ready for takeoff. Next stop Hawaii, and grandma and grandpa’s house!

The plane took off and Lisa looked out the window watching the airfield get smaller. Then she saw the towns; the houses and cars all looked so tiny like the toys that she played with when she was little or bored. She didn’t like to admit that she still played with toys. Then they passed over the beach. Lisa had been there a lot but she never realized how big it was. It stretched on for as far as she could see. There were all these people on it, walking around, this time they looked like little ants. Finally, they were out above the water. It glistened in the sun light. There were all these shades of green and blue. It was the most amazing thing in the world. It went on for as far as she could see out her tiny window.

She leaned back in her seat. It was all so exciting. She was so excited that she hadn’t slept the night before. But now the excitement was turning into exhaustion. She looked up at her mom and smiled. Her mom kissed her forehead one last time and Lisa drifted off to sleep.

00:00

It wasn’t an explosion. One minute they were in the air, the next in the water. The details were never clear to Lisa. Things just went wrong. An oxygen mask hit Lisa in the head, waking her up. The other people on the plane were yelling and the flight attendants were trying to get everyone to calm down and assume the crash position. She looked up at her mom who was pale but trying to put on a brave face. Lisa realized that on the other side of her mom she could see sky. Was that right? Should see be able to see clouds? What happened to the overhead compartment?

Suddenly everything was wet. Lisa’s dark blond hair was floating up around her face. Lisa felt like one of those diving rings her parents threw into the backyard pool, sinking to the bottom of the pool. The kids would race to be the first to dive in, get it, and bring it back to the surface, while her parents cheered them on. Only, there was nothing exciting or fun about this.

Lisa, weighted down by the seat belt, was pulled down deeper into the water. Then she felt the seatbelt loosen. There were hands pulling her out of her seat and pushing her up. Lisa started swimming. It wasn’t a thought but a response, an automatic reaction to things her brain hadn’t yet begun to understand.

00:15

      Lisa’s head broke the surface of the water. Her hair covered her eyes and ocean water splashed into her mouth. It was warm and salty, just like at the beach. She remembered her dad telling her not to swallow it because it would make her throw up. But this water wasn’t close to the beach and her dad wasn’t there to pick her up and carry her back to the blanket. She yelled for help. She called for her mother. She screamed. She started to swim but realized that she had no idea which way to go. Surrounded by debris from the aircraft Lisa noticed something that looked like a seat from the airplane. She remembered the flight attendant saying something about them being a floatation device. She grabbed it and looked around for something else to hang onto.

      She just floated.

 

 

 

00:45

      Several pieces of the airplane floated to the surface, one of them large enough for Lisa to crawl onto. When she first tried, she felt the worst pain she’d ever had in her left arm. She looked at it and saw that is was black and blue, and twice the size as the other. She tried again and the arm gave out, it was just too painful. She rested a few minutes and tried one more time screaming in pain, but she made it. She laid her head on the seat, as tears ran down her face. Other things made their way to the surface, smaller pieces of the plane, luggage. There were other things, things Lisa didn’t want to look too closely at, so she blocked them out. She thought she saw the bag the man was trying to stuff in the overhead compartment. It was all too much for Lisa so she tried not to think about anything. She cried quietly to herself and prayed that it was all a dream. The waves provided a gentle rocking motion and Lisa started to drift off to sleep. She felt a strange sensation of safety, like a being a baby rocked to sleep in her mother’s arms.

01:45

Lisa looked up at the sky to watch the clouds go by. When she was just a kid, 3 maybe 4, her older brother used to tell her stories of the things he saw in the clouds. There were dragons that he would slay for her, evil wizards to defeat. Sometimes Mickey Mouse would stop by to see her, but mostly there was some kind of trouble that only her big brother could solve. A tree limb could be a sword or a machine gun. He was always there to rescue her. Something in the clouds caught Lisa’s eye. It was a plane. It circled around the area a few times. Maybe it saw her. She sat up straight and waved her right arm wildly. She couldn’t tell if they saw her. They circled the area a couple of times and left.

05:26

      Lisa didn’t know what time it was but was sure it was almost dinnertime. Her stomach was growling. She hadn’t had anything to eat since the cinnamon roll her mom bought her in the airport. The sun was going down fast. Lisa thought it would be funny if the sun sizzled as it sank into the ocean. It would sound like the hamburgers daddy grills in the summer.

      Daddy would spend all day getting things ready. He would run to the store and get a big bag of charcoal and lighter fluid, hamburger and hotdogs, soda and chips. He would go outside, arrange the charcoals in little pyramids, and soak them with lighter fluid. He would tell Mom how charcoal made food taste better than gas grills. Yes, they were quick but charcoal was much, much better. Mom would turn to the kids and wink. Daddy gave the same speech every time he grilled. Sometimes mom would help him give the speech, sometimes she would argue with him, just to get him wound up. The kids would all giggle as mom aggravated dad.

      Dad put the match to the charcoal and it burst into flames. He threw his arms up and looked at the sky and yelled, “I have created fire! MAWAHAHAHA!” Then he would make caveman noises that would have the kids rolling on the ground laughing.

07:37

There were more stars out here than Lisa had seen in her whole life. Lisa tried to count them but there were just too many. She recognized some of the constellations like Orion and the Big Dipper. She learned about them in school in 6^th grade. She knew that stars twinkle and planets don’t. That she learned from her dad. The stars looked like lightning bugs. Lisa thought she would need to put them in a very big jar. There was a time she and her little sister went out to catch lightning bugs. Lisa showed her sister how to grab them without smashing them in your fist and that the top of the jar had to have holes punched in it so the bugs could breathe. When her sister was little, she wanted to shake the jar to make them glow. Lisa explained that wasn’t nice. How would she like it if Lisa shook her world up like that? After a few minutes, Lisa let the lightning bugs go. Her sister cried, she had wanted to take them up to her room and keep them as pets. She promised Lisa that she would take good care of them. Lisa explained that the lightning bugs weren’t just for them, but for everyone.

 

 

 

10:13

The air temperature had dropped drastically when the sun went down. It became hard to breath. During a soccer game when she was 10, Lisa ran up on the girl who had control of the ball. Just as she got close enough to make a play the girl gave it the hardest kick she could. The ball hit Lisa in the stomach, and knocked the air out of her. All the girls sat down in place as the coaches and the referee ran up to her. She stood up and walked to the side of the field, replaced in the game by a teammate. Her mother walked around the field to sit with her on the blanket the team was using instead of a bench.

      Lisa laid her head in her moms lap. She wanted to go home. She was tired and crabby and her tummy hurt.

      “Lisa, you can’t go home, the game isn’t over. You are part of a team, and even if you don’t go back out and play, your team still needs you. You cannot just leave because you aren’t having fun. Let’s finish out this game and see how you feel.” Her mom kissed forehead and headed back to the parent’s side of the field.

      After a few minutes, Lisa went up to the coach and asked to go back in. She didn’t score a goal but she finished the game. As the family walked to the car Lisa’s mom leaned over and whispered, “I’m proud of you.” Lisa cried again because she missed her mom.

 

13:00

      The moon was at the highest point in the sky. She couldn’t focus her mind on anything. Lisa’s skin was red from the sun and wind. Her hair was stiff with salt. She was so thirsty and hungry, and her stomach hurt. She was getting weaker and weaker. She was having trouble maintaining her balance on her makeshift raft. She almost didn’t notice the pain in her arm anymore. Almost.

After

      Lisa heard the boat before she saw it. Then she saw the searchlights scanning the water. One of the lights landed on her. Above the sound of the engine, she heard voices, “Look over here,” they said. “Is that a body?” someone asked. Lisa raised her head to look at the boat. “She’s alive! Captain we’ve got a survivor!”

      Survivor? Were they talking about her? Lisa tried to raise her right arm to wave at the boat but she was so tired and hungry, and her left was still throbbing.

      There was a splash and a white ring tied to an orange rope floated just out of arms reach. Lisa really wanted to reach out and grab it like the voices from the boat were encouraging her to do. She was tired, hungry, and thirsty. Moving was just too hard.

      There was a second splash and a set of arms picked up the ring and tried to put it on her. She didn’t have the energy to help him so he put her arms around his neck and her legs around his waist, he hollered up for someone to lower the rope ladder.

      When it rolled down into the water, she finally understood. They were trying to take her home. She was so tired and hungry she felt like her head was full of the same water surrounding her. She tightened her limbs around him and buried her face in his neck. He climbed the ladder.

      Once on board they wrapped her in a blanket, gave her a small glass of lukewarm water and some crackers. She heard people talking on the radio giving information on locations and type of wreckage they found. Every few minutes someone would walk into the room asking her name. She couldn’t speak. Her mouth wouldn’t work, and even if it did, for some reason she couldn’t remember her own name. The man who dove into the water to get her stayed with her. He shooed people away telling them she would talk when she was ready. It was the safest she had felt since waking up on the airplane.

      When the boat reached the dock, in southern California, there was a group well on its way to being a crowd. There were people with microphones trying to ask her questions. Other people were there, crying, wanting to know if she belonged to them. As the man laid her on the stretcher, she looked at him and said, “My name is Lisa.”

      He smiled at her and replied, “Hi Lisa. I’m Richard.” Then they slid the stretcher into the back of the ambulance and sped her to the hospital.

      The nurses at the hospital cut her clothes off and very gently washed the salt off her skin. They drew blood and x-rayed her from head to toe. They placed an IV in her right arm and a cast on her broken left arm. A psychologist went with her each step of the way. He didn’t ask many questions and let her talk as much or as little as she wanted.

      Finally, they put her in a room with a nice comfortable bed. The smell of the ocean was still in Lisa’s nose but now it was mingling with the smell of clean. A nurse walked in, picked up the phone, and handed it to her. Lisa placed it to her ear and heard her father’s voice. He said he would be there soon. Lisa smiled and fell asleep.

Lisa stayed in the hospital for a week. The airline flew Lisa’s dad to her. The hospital let him use the other bed in her room, even though it was against the rules. People from the airline and from the government, people from all kinds of news organizations asked her questions about the crash. She didn’t have many answers for them and she felt bad about that. The psychologist who had been part of the team that met Lisa at the Emergency Room was a constant presence. Sometimes they talked just the two of them, sometimes just with her and her dad. Sometimes he just sat in the big hospital room chair and listened. He let Lisa talk about whatever she needed to. She told him that she felt guilty that she was the only one alive, she felt bad that the old couple didn’t make it to The Great Wall. She even felt bad that guy didn’t get to have his carryon in the overhead compartment. Mostly Lisa talked about her mom and how much she missed her.

By the end of the week, most of Lisa’s bruises had faded but her arm was still in a cast. The hospital had cleared her to go home. Her father, the psychologist and Lisa talked about all the ways they could get home. A drive would take 4 days, but it would only take 2 hours to fly. There was going to be a memorial service for the other passengers the next day and Lisa wanted to be there to honor her mother and the others so she decided to fly. But when she got to the airport, she changed her mind. She was just too scared. The psychologist said that it was ok to be scared but that fear must not make our decisions for us. Lisa listened to everything and understood but it took a lot of convincing to get Lisa on the plane. The airline was allowing them to fly on a jet they used to get employees to places they needed extra crew, so they were very understanding and held the plane, the other passengers all knew who she was so they didn’t mind the wait. She walked slowly down the gangway and stood at the threshold for 30 minutes, her dad’s big strong hand on her back his voice soft in her ear telling her everything would be ok and to take her time. She didn’t have to go today if she didn’t want to, though the psychologist reminded him that to let her back out now would only set the fear permanently, making it harder in the future.

Lisa sat in her seat on the aisle then she sat in her dad’s by the window. She sat in an empty seat at the front of the plane and one in the back that an older female in a suit said she could try. Finally, she went back to her original seat buckled herself in and told the pilot she was ready. The psychologist shook her hand then her fathers and left the plane. The next two hours blurred by. Lisa remembers only the sound of the engines, her father’s voice in her ear calmly telling her she was all right and they were almost home. When the plane finally landed everyone clapped for her. The old lady in the back came forward and hugged her. Lisa hugged her back and for the first time thought maybe, just maybe it would be ok.