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Disclaimer: I do not own any of the HB characters and I'm not making any money
anyway.
Categories: H, Fam, V, tiny bit of Future (as in only a little in the future)
Author: Michelle aka Bryne
Smooth, Suave…Jonny? (I think not.)
*I can do this,* Jonny thought to himself as he walked up to the ticket counter
of the air port. *I can do this.* He shook his blond head. *Ah, who’m I kidding, no
I can’t.*
“May I help you, sir?” asked a friendly young counter clerk, an American
Airlines tag pinned to the front of her shirt. She smiled broadly at him, taking in
the cut of his cream-colored dress slacks and comfortable, matching blazer.
Looking him up and down before nodding approvingly, she turned to her
computer.
“Um, yes. Yes, you may,” he said, more decisively than he felt. “I’d like to book
your next flight to London, England.” Jonny had been behind on his schoolwork,
so his father had left him home while he, Race, and Hadji had jetted off to
England, happy to pick him up at the airport whenever he arrived. Being his senior
year in school, his father felt it was imperative that he not fall behind.
She smiled warmly at him. “Certainly.” She asked for his information and
quickly made up the ticket, giving him the price.
“All right,” he replied calmly, “let me get out my credit card.” Well, not his
credit card, his father’s actually. But for the moment, it was Jonny’s. Reaching to
the carry on bag hanging around his neck, he tugged at the zipper. Nothing
happened.
Giving the clerk an embarrassed smile, he frowned in concentration and tugged
on it again. The zipper refused to give. “Come on,” he muttered to himself,
yanking harder. “Come on!”
“Sir?” the woman asked uncertainly, but Jonny ignored her, lost in his own little
world consisting of himself, the bag, and the reluctant zipper. Harder and harder
he tugged until finally, and lavishly, the zipper gave way. The side of the bag flew
open, projecting the contents; coins of various currencies, a folder with papers all
of which fell out, after shave, a passport, little black book, chewing gum and a
wallet; in every which direction.
He watched, dumbstruck, as a hundred carefully typed pages of his history
report rained down from the place to mix with file records, government requests,
and various pieces of poetry Jessie had sent him. The coins bounced about, rolling
to their heart’s content or until the crashed into some unmoving object. The after
shave disappeared all together and the wallet… “AH!” Jonny cried, slipping on the
wallet as he moved to search for it. THWUNK. He landed flat on his back.
“Sir!” cried the horrified woman running out from behind her desk to help him
up. Jonny groaned.
“At least I found my wallet,” he said weakly, giving her a brave smile as she
supported him.
“Oh,” she said, slightly shocked. Noticing his smile, she returned her own soft
one. “Let me help you up.” The two of them got up, Jonny staggering slightly as
he got to his feet.
“Thank you.” She smiled again. “You’re more than welcome.” He handed her
his charge card. She took it and helped him gather his things before ringing up his
ticket.
“There you go, sir, one ticket to London, England. Have a nice day.” Jonny
sighed.
“I’ll try,” he replied, turning.
“Um, sir?” asked the woman. Jonny turned back to her and lifted an eyebrow in
question. “I’m do to go on my break in a minute, why don’t I escort you to your
terminal? Just to make sure you don’t get into any more accidents.” Jonny smiled
warmly at her.
“I’d appreciate it, but please, call me Jonny.”
******
*Finally,* Jonny thought to himself as he leaned back in his chair. He was now
onboard his flight, as comfortably positioned in a not so comfortable airplane chair
as possible, all thanks to the lovely flight attendant at the gate and the woman
from the ticket counter. He had gotten there with only one small mishap, but as he
had assured the old woman, accidents happened. Casually, he looked out the
window, happy to have the window seat.
The captain’s voice boomed over the intercom. “Hi, folks,” said the cheerful
voice. Jonny could hear the terminal detaching from the plane. “You may have
read about some pilot son a major airline who dozed off while at the controls.”
Jonny squirmed uneasily in his seat. “No need to worry about that on this flight.
I’ve taken something to keep me alert and I feel great! Now, let’s go really fast,
okay?” Jonny looked around him at the other passengers including his seatmate,
only to see them looking all around as well. “Ready, set, go!” shouted the pilot.
The plane began its turn and made its way down the runway. “Varooom!” Up went
the plane and up went Jonny’s stomach with his lunch. Quickly, he grabbed for the
airsick bag, conveniently provided by the thoughtful airline services.
“Oh goodness!” cried a stewardess as she slid back and forth through the isles.
“Lisa!” she cried, “Get some napkins!” Another woman ran toward her, sliding back
and forth as she went. Together, the two distributed the large pack of napkins to
their sick passengers.
“Here!” someone shouted at him, shoving a napkin his way.
Jonny moaned and wiped his mouth with the napkin provided by the
stewardess. “Oooh.”
“There, there son, you’re all right,” said the elderly woman next to him. He
smiled weakly at her as she patted his back. “That crazy take off scared all of us.”
“Well that was fun!” cried the intercom. “How about we do some trick now?”
The plane did a one-eighty followed by a complicated set of mid-air stunts.
He nodded before diving back to his bag and getting sick again.
*****
Jonny closed his eyes and concentrated on his breathing. It had been a while
since the last turn had sent one of the stewardesses slipping and sliding up the isle
to the cock pit to inform the pilots that the passengers were threatening to jump.
That had stopped most of the stunts and since then, all had been relatively quiet.
“Excuse me, sir,” asked a polite voice. Jonny pried open his eyes and turned his
head to the side. “Would you like something to drink? It might settle your
stomach.”
“Yes, thank you.” Smiling at the handsome young man, the stewardess waited
for him to take down his tray table and handed him a coke over the woman beside
him who had, sometime during the flight, pulled out a book.
Setting the glass on his tray table, Jonny reached into the back compartment of
the chair in front of him to get out a magazine. He would have been better off
staying put. The soda, obviously possessing a mind of its own, jumped in front of
his hand and knocked itself over, consequently spilling onto the lap of his travel
companion.
“Ah!” cried the woman, jumping up in her seat. Quite a feat considering she still
had her seat belt on. Jonny jumped as well, both startled by the sudden cry and
ready to help her clean up, and smacked his knees soundly against the tray table
which was still down. A stewardess came running. Armed with a roll of paper
towels, she quickly cleaned up the woman and replaced Jonny’s drink.
The last thing might have turned out to be a mistake as Jonny’s arm spasmed
out of control and ruthlessly slammed into the new cup, toppling the contents back
onto his recently dried seatmate.
“Ah!” cried the woman, hopping up from her seat and starting a particularly
explicit oath beginning with ‘oh’ and ending in ‘sake’. Jonny flinched as the stream
of curses and shouting rained down on him. Another stewardess hurried toward
them and calmly escorted the woman to the bathroom where she once again
cleaned and dried her.
A moment later she returned, but instead of being followed by the kind elderly
woman, next to her was a giant of a man who was so tall he had to duck his head
as he walked through the plane.
“I’ve brought you a new seatmate,” she informed him before turning and
heading back to where ever it is annoyed stewardesses go.
“Hi,” Jonny said, smiling timidly and giving a little wave. The man gave him a
look and sat down, promptly turning his back to Jonny. Jonny made a face at his
back, retracted his tray table, and turned to face the window. As he turned, he
noticed his shoelace was untied.
Looking at it for a moment, he decided to tie it. Bending over, he reached for
the unruly piece of string just as the man in front of him threw his seat back into
full recline. Jonny found himself trapped by the chair, helplessly pinned in the
crash position, not to mention that his finger had somehow managed to lodge itself
firmly in his shoe.
He sat there for a while, unable to move, while his finger went numb. Finally, he
was able to pry his finger out from between his laces and the flap on the side of his
shoe. With his other hand he rubbed the sore digit and tried to massage the feeling
back into it. Once he had restored some sense of circulation, he set about devising
a way to get out from underneath the chair. Nothing springing to mind, Jonny
allowed his basic survival instincts to kick in.
Through some miracle, he managed rotate his shoulder enough so that he was
able to reach over and grab the leg of the man next to him. Startled, the man
pulled his leg away, trying to shake off the hand, but Jonny held on. Clawing his
way up the man’s pant leg, he was eventually able to haul himself up a bit and
slide out from underneath the seat in front of him.
Breathing hard, he leaned back in his own chair. Next to him, the man was
crying desperately for a stewardess. The stewardess rushed toward them.
“I can’t stay here any longer!” he declared, jumping out of his seat. “This man is
crazy! He kept grabbing my pants!” Jonny looked over at him angrily. *Some
people have no concern for others,* he thought darkly.
“If I may interject,” Jonny began.
“No you may not!” cried the other passenger. “Get me another seat!” The
stewardess nodded.
“Follow me.” She gave Jonny a strange look. “You stay right there.”
“Will someone else be coming to sit with me?” he asked.
“No, no, no,” she answered quickly, giving him a nervous, fleeting smile. “I
think you’ve met enough new people for today. Why don’t you just sit back and
relax.” Jonny nodded and buried his face in his hands as she quickly left with her
peeved charge.
******
Jonny spent the rest of the flight alone, doing nothing save sitting quietly with
his hands in his lap. Sometime along the way, he pulled out a pen and paper from
the naughty carry on bag that had cause him so much trouble at the ticket terminal
hours before. For a while he wrote, occasionally nibbling on his pen for inspiration,
until a cooing voice from his side caught his attention.
“First flight?” asked the seductive voice. Jonny looked up from what he was
writing to see who had enough nerve to talk to his accident-prone self. It was a
woman, nothing like the elderly woman who had been his first victim, who was, of
all things, trying to flirt with him. This one was gorgeous and young, twenty-five at
most. Her skin was the color of coffee with milk and her eyes were like dark
chocolate squares set on a pool of white chocolate. Her lips were twin strawberries
resting side by side and her hair was long and straight, the color of licorice under
the lamps at a candy store. It was at that moment that Jonny realized he was very
hungry.
“Um, no, actually. I usually avoid public flights for…obvious reasons.” He sent
her a lopsided grin, secretly concentrating on whether or not he could wait till he
landed to eat or not.
She smiled back at him, oblivious to his lack of attention. “So, what brings you
to the world of commercialized airlines?” Jonny sighed inwardly, but launched into
a description of why he was stuck there, leaving out the more unbelievable details.
“This is your captain speaking,” came the captain’s voice over the intercom,
much more subdued than it had been at the beginning of the flight. “We will be
landing in five minutes. Please put on your seatbelts and place your tray tables in
the full and upright position. We hope you have enjoyed your flight, somewhat,
and won’t complain to the company too much. We apologize for any trauma we
may have caused. Thank you for riding American Airlines. We hope you’ll ride
again soon.” There was some low grumbling and the then the intercom switched
off.
Jonny put away his things and leaned back to brace himself for landing. His
stomach was already flipping from the mention. Thankfully, this part went
smoothly enough that Jonny could almost dispel the take off. Almost, but not
quite. Once on the ground, Jonny felt much better.
Unbuckling his seatbelt, Jonny managed to rise, collect his carry on and bid
adieu to his lovely companion without mishap. Getting off the plane, he walked
swiftly through the terminal to the baggage claim and went to pick up his things.
“Jonny!” yelled a familiar voice. Jonny turned, casually grabbing his suitcase as
he did so. As it lifted from the rotating wheel, the snaps holding it closed came
undone and the contents fell out. Jonny scowled at the suitcase and the loose
articles of clothing covering the floor.
“I’m over here,” he called to no one in particular as he stooped to pick up the
things.
“Jonny, son!”
“Hi dad,” Jonny replied dejectedly as he put his things away.
“What happened?” his father asked in concern.
“Nothing important,” he assured him, finishing up and snapping the case
shut. “So, what’s happening?” He looked up at his father.
“Well, the English government has asked us-”
“Jonny!” cried another voice.
“Hey Hadj!” he called back, waving as his brother came through the crowd.
From his side, Jonny hear his father gasp.
“Jonny, what happened to your teeth?” he demanded.
“What are you talking about?” he asked, perplexed.
“Well, they’re, they’re blue!” Jonny looked confused, then horrified.
“Nooo!” he cried, smacking his hand against his head. “It must have happened
on the plane. I was writing something and I stopped to think and chewed on my
pen. And, ah! No!”
“What?” Hadji asked as he arrived at his father’s side, totally confused.
“When I stopped writing, a woman started talking to me. I must have had pen
on my teeth the whole time!” He shook his head sadly as his family exchanged
looks over his head.
*****
Comments, questions, raven haired men? Send all to curtin@fcc.net
