Flight To Paradise
Flight To Paradise
Sequel to Special Delivery
©1999-2000
By Sarah
Chapter 1

    Sarah walked into her house after a long day at the bowling alley with many parties, carrying the mail to the kitchen.  There was a letter from Brian and a small package from Brian also.  She smiled as she opened the letter from him first.
    "Dear Sarah, I miss you so much, I really do.  So, I have a surprise for you.  Open the package I sent you and call me at my Florida house as soon as you do.  Love, Brian," she read.  Sarah furrowed her eyebrows in confusion and picked up the package.  She slit open the top and pulled out three pieces of paper.
    "For you and whoever you want," read the paper.  Sarah looked at the two other pieces of paper and nearly dropped them.
    "Ohmigod, plane tickets from here to Florida!"  She exclaimed.  She started jumping up and down, shrieking.
    "I'm going to see Brian!  I'm going to see Brian!"  She exclaimed over and over.
    "Who's Brian?"  Her sister asked as she came out of her room.  She'd come home for Christmas and was off from school until the day after New Years.
    "My boyfriend!  I told you about him, he's the one who stayed here that week Mom went to visit you at college.  Ohmigod, Vicki, he is the best, he's so sweet, you'd even like him," Sarah said, finally sitting down.  "Ahh, I have to call him!"  She suddenly exclaimed.  She ran to her room and closed the door behind her.  She picked up the prepaid calling card she'd gotten and dialed in the numbers, then called Brian's house, praying he'd be there.
    "Hello, Littrell answering service, this is Nick, how can I help you?"
    Sarah laughed.  "Nick, give Brian the phone!"  She said.
    "Oh, hey, this must be Sarah.  You know, out of all the times Brian has talked to you on the phone, I've never talked to you myself," Nick said.
    "And there's a good reason for that.  Give Brian the phone, please?"  Sarah begged.  She could hear Brian in the background trying to get to the phone.
    "Nah, its funny watching both him and Tyke jump up and down out of excitement.  In fact, they're jumping at the same time, its like they're excited to talk to you, but that can't be the reason."
    "Nick!  Give the phone to Brian!  This call is costing me a fortune and I don't have much time left on this calling card!"  Sarah said, exasperated.
   "Oh, well, in that case, we'd better hang up, we can't let all your money go down the tubes!  Bye, Sarah!"
    Sarah stared at the phone as a dial tone rang through the ear piece.  "He hung up on me!  The damn bastard hung up on me!"  She said to herself.  She put the phone on the cradle and it immediately rang.
    "Hello?"
    "Sarah, Sarah, Sarah, I'm so sorry, I'm beating up Nick right now for you," Brian's hurried voice came through the phone.
    Sarah's face instantly became a smile.  "I love you," she said simply.
    "You got the tickets," he said.
    "You bet I did!  Thank you so much!  I can't wait to come!"  Sarah said, lying back on her bed.  "And the best part is, it'll be during the New Year, fireworks, candles, parties," she said, naming the long list of things.
    "I don't know, all those things require that I share you."
    Sarah's smile turned slightly devilish.  "Not if we're the only two in the house," she said.
    "Oh, I like the way you think.  You have no idea how much I miss you. Nick, stop it!  Go away!"  Brian exclaimed, pulling the phone away from his face.
    "What is he doing now?"  Sarah asked, sighing.
    "He's being a pest."
    "Hand the phone to him, but be ready to take it away quickly."
    "Ok, here, Nick, Sarah wants to talk to you," Brian said, pulling the phone away from his face again.
    Sarah smiled to herself as she heard Nick take the phone.  "Hey, Sarah, nice to talk to you again!"
    Sarah shook her head and closed her eyes.  "Nick, listen to me very carefully, ok?"
    "Ok, what's up?"
    Sarah took a deep breath.  "Go home!"  She yelled into the phone.
    "Ahh!  Frick, your girl's got one set of lungs!"  Nick said, his voice distant.  Sarah laughed as Brian took back the phone.
    "What did you say to him?"
    "I told him to go home."
    "She didn't say anything, she yelled at me!"  Nick said in the background.
    Brian started to laugh.  "You must've yelled pretty loudly, he's rubbing his ears."
    "I don't know what you're talking about, I just told him to go home, I didn't yell at him," Sarah said innocently.
    Brian chuckled.  "I know, Nick's just a liar."
    "I am not!"
    Sarah and Brian both laughed.  "So you are coming, right?"  Brian asked.
    "Of course, silly, I wouldn't miss it for the world."  Sarah paused as someone knocked on her door.  "Brian, hold on for a sec," she said into the phone.  "Come in," she called.
    Vicki opened the door.  "Mom's home, you might want to talk to her about going to see Brian, wherever he might be," she said before she closed the door.
    "Oh, shit," Sarah said, lowering the receiver to her face.
    "What?  What's wrong?"  Brian asked, panic in his voice.
    "My mom.  How am I going to convince her that I can go to Florida and visit you?  I mean, she's dead set on not letting me go see my grandmother in California until I'm eighteen, how is she going to react to this?"
    "Well, go talk to her, that's why I sent two tickets, so you can take someone.  You can take your mom, your sister"
    "A friend for me!"  Nick yelled.
    Sarah barely cracked a smile.  "Brian, I'm going to have to call you back, this is going to be one helluva conversation, and I don't know what she'll say."
    "Ok, just remember to be truthful with her.  Did you tell her about the time that I spent with you at your house?"
    "No, she'd have a coronary on me, she'd forbid me to go anywhere within a ten mile radius of any sort of phone line, she'd be so mad.  Especially since I met you on-line, that is the worst part of it all."
    "I know what you mean, my own mother ratted me out on that part, she gave me this long lecture about how people are sometimes not what they say they are and everything.  She acts like I'm fourteen instead of twenty-four."
    "Well, in my mom's eyes, I'm still six.  And that's another thing she won't like, that you're eight years older than I am.  Oh, God, please help me."
    "He'll help, as long as you believe.  Go talk to her while you still can and call me back when you're done, ok?"
    "Ok, I love you Brian."
    "I love you too, Sarah, talk to you soon."
    "Ok, bye."
    "Bye."
    Sarah hung up the phone and sighed before sitting up.  She changed out of her work shirt and into a different shirt, then walked out into the living room and saw her mother walking towards her room.
    "Hey, Sarah," she said, kissing her cheek and giving her a hug.
    "Hi, Mom, how was work?"  Sarah asked, following her mother into her room, holding the plane tickets behind her back.
    "Pretty good, good bonus this year, don't have to work until the fourth of January, and the bowling alley actually let me have all that time off as well," she said, sitting on her bed.  Sarah's mother and she both worked at the bowling alley, her mother at the desk and Sarah worked as a lane attendant and for the parties.
    "That's good.  Are we going to be doing anything special during this time off?"  Sarah asked casually, sitting on the bed across from her.
    "Nope, just some rest and relaxation.  We're going to be trapped by a snowstorm soon, too, so we have to go shopping soon and get some things.  Your sister is going to go to one of her friends' houses for the New Year, so it'll be just me and you."
    Sarah nodded, so far, everything was working in her favor.  "You know, this year, I don't think I really want to see snow.  I mean, after sixteen years of it, it gets kind of monotonous, don't you think?"
    "Well, what do you suppose we do?  I mean, we can't exactly pack up and go see your cousin Vicki."
    Sarah smiled, her cousin Vicki, whom her mother was quite close with, lived in Florida.  A little town called Melbourne, not too far from Orlando from her recollection.  "As a matter of fact, why don't we?"
    "Sarah, we can't afford that.  I mean, the tickets themselves cost so much and after that, we have to find a place to stay and food to eat and more and more money.  We can't afford anything like that, not this year."
    Sarah pulled out the plane tickets.  "What if I told you that I already planned it?"  She asked.
    "Sarah Howland!  What on earth are you doing with plane tickets from Newark to Florida?!"  Her mother exclaimed.
    "I got them today and I decided that it would be the perfect time to go. I mean, we won't have any snow to battle, no freezing nights, and you would get to see Vicki again.  You haven't seen Vicki in, what, three years?  Come on, Ma, it'll be perfect, the perfect vacation at the best time.  Please?"  Sarah asked.
    Sarah's mother slowly started to shake her head.  "No, we can't, we have to stay here.  This kind of trip costs too much, Sarah.  Forget it, get your money back and forget it."
    Sarah was dumbfounded, she couldn't speak.  She stood up and walked out of her mother's room and into hers.  She picked up the phone and, forgetting about her phone card, called Brian.
    "Hey, this is Brian, I'm not here right now, so leave a message and I'll call you back.  Peace."
    Sarah waited for the beep of the answering machine and rubbed her temples, closing her eyes.  "Brian, its me.  She said no, I can't come.  She thinks its too much money and I can't convince her otherwise without spilling too much.  I'm sorry Brian, I wish I could see you, but this won't work out.  I love you, call me back later, bye."  She hung up the phone and started to cry, the plane tickets falling out of her hands and to the floor.

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