Rushing Waters Read Free Page B

they were in the air, he took another glass of champagne when the flight attendant made her rounds again, and then he opened his computer and focused on it, as Ellen pulled up the screen at her seat and checked the movies. She put on her headphones and selected something to watch she hadn’t seen, and spent the next two hours engrossed in the film, then ordered lunch. She noticed that her seatmate had calmed down by then, and he chatted with her for a few minutes as they ate their meal.
    “Do you live in New York?” he asked, and she smiled at him and shook her head.
    “No, in London.” He seemed surprised and had noticed she was American, from her accent, and she looked it.
    “I’m going over on business,” he volunteered, “and I have two daughters who live there.” She nodded and realized that he must be divorced, but she didn’t comment. They talked for a few minutes, and then Ellen decided to take a nap after their food trays were cleared away, and she slept for two hours until an announcement from the cockpit woke her, and she felt that they were going through some turbulence. Her seatmate was wide awake and looking scared.
    “We’re going through a bit of chop,” the captain explained over the PA system. “Sorry about that. The winds off the East Coast are causing some turbulence. We should be out of it in about half an hour.” She noticed that the man next to her was looking extremely nervous. Ellen closed her eyes to sleep some more. The turbulence rocked her to sleep and then jolted her awake half an hour later when it got worse. By then, her seatmate was nearly wild-eyed, and she glanced at him sympathetically.
    “Are you okay?” she finally couldn’t help asking him as she sat up. She had slept long enough, and they were about an hour out of New York. She guessed they were probably over Boston.
    He hesitated for a minute before he answered, then nodded. “Yes. I hate flying, especially when it’s like this. It must be because of the hurricane. I don’t know why they said it wouldn’t affect us.”
    “Turbulence isn’t usually dangerous, it’s just unpleasant.” The plane was shaking and pitching, and there was obviously a powerful wind outside, and it was raining. And a moment later the pilot made another announcement.
    “Things seem to be getting a little stormy in New York. They’ve got some high wind conditions at the airport. We’ve just been given clearance to land in Boston.”
    “Shit,” the man next to Ellen said as beads of sweat appeared on his forehead. And Ellen wasn’t too pleased about it either—she had no desire to spend a night in Boston, instead of landing in New York. The captain informed them then that everything was fine, they just didn’t want to give them a rough ride into JFK, but they were in no danger. “Every time I get on an airplane, I think I’m going to die,” her seatmate explained to her. “It’s been a lot worse since I got divorced a year ago,” he admitted. “Would you like to see a photograph of my daughters?” Ellen nodded, hoping it would distract him. It was a little unnerving sitting next to someone that frightened, as he blotted his forehead with his napkin, and then took out his cell phone and showed her a vast number of images of two adorable little girls, one of whom looked just like him, with the same dark hair and dark eyes, and the other one was a blonde with big blue eyes, who must have looked like his ex-wife. “I’m Charles Williams, by the way. Sorry I’m such a total twit on a plane. I’m actually quite normal on terra firma,” he said with a wry smile, and she laughed.
    “I’m Ellen Wharton,” she said as they shook hands, and the plane started making a slow bumpy descent toward Boston, and five minutes later they seemed to change direction, and the pilot came on the PA system again.
    “Sorry to change plans on you again, folks. They’re sending us on to JFK after all, so you’ll get to your planned