Instead, I set my alarm clock for 4:30am.
It woke me up at the correct time, and I finally managed to get myself out of bed about 20 minutes later.
I shaved, showered, and put on a suit and tie. Then I hopped in my car and drove to the Tallahassee airport, where I boarded a plane for a one hour flight to Charlotte, North Carolina.
After a brief stop in the Queen City, I got on another flight- this one bound for Denver, Colorado.
My seat was just one away from the emergency exit door. Before takeoff, the flight attendant quickly recited some instructions to my row on how to operate the door, which I did not comprehend at all. But when she asked us if we did understand, I nodded my head along with the frail old woman to my right.
Perhaps it was the lack of sleep, combined with the pressurized air popping in my ears, combined with the knowledge that I was moving at a rapid rate through two times zones, combined with my general fear of flying- but something was making my imagination fire on all cylinders.
When we had been in the air about an hour, the guy sitting to my left, immediately beside the emergency door, got up to use the lavatory. As he returned, he tripped over his carry on bag, and his hand
***
hit one of the levers on the door.
A quiet buzz sounded, and a yellow light on the door turned on. An instant later, the door blew open and the poor guy got sucked out with it. As he flew out, his other hand struck me across my face, breaking the bridge of my nose. I lost consciousness for a few seconds, but not before I began to feel the bolts give way at the base of my chair and hear people begin to scream.
When I came to, so much wind was hitting my face and body. Everything around me was hazy blue. A severe tickling sensation in my stomach got my attention, and I realized I was in free-fall.
Below I could see the large green or brown squares and circles of crop fields, though the wind was so intense it was hard for me to keep my eyes open.
I wanted to get out of the chair. I had to get out of it. So, I unhooked my seat belt, pushed the chair away, stretched out my arms and legs and tried to enjoy the rest of the descent...
Of course, nothing below the asterisks actually happened. The guy did slip, but his hand hit the wall beside the emergency door. My imagination took over after that.
Flying can be both exhilarating and terrifying. Dying in a plane crash is one of my more intense fears (especially a plane crash into the ocean at night). So I had a difficult time controlling some of my thoughts. Enough macabre scenes popped into my head on the plane to fill half a novel.
When we finally touched down in Denver, the day was 77 degrees and beautiful. The land around the city is completely flat- like Kansas or Nebraska and with no trees. In the distance one can see the snowy Rocky Mountains.
My arrival in Denver was not unexpected. A nice young woman, who could in fact be a gatekeeper to my future, picked me up from the airport to take me to lunch as part of a continuous job interview.
We went to "Ted's" restaurant, where I enjoyed a honey baked salmon. The interview was actually my fifth for the position, but the first in-person talk. I had hoped that this interview would only be a formality before they extended an offer to me.
My hopes were deflated, however, when the young woman told me, "Your flight landed a half hour late. We're going to have to make lunch quick, because there is another person to be interviewed coming in at 2:30."
I later learned that there are still several people in the game for this job.
After lunch, we went to a DoubleTree hotel where the young woman and her supervisor, one of the vice presidents of the company, asked me questions for about an hour. I liked both of them and I thought the interview went reasonably well.
Anyway, I did the best I could. I tried for the close and asked for the job that day, but they were noncommittal.
When we concluded, I climbed in a cab and went right back to the Denver airport.
During the cab ride, I received a phone call to set up a job interview with a completely different employer in Orlando. It looks like I'll have to play hooky again one day next week to make the drive down to that warm city...
On March 3rd of this year, I wrote a blog called "Three Directions." These experiences in Denver and then next week in Orlando are that blog entry at a crescendo...
The flights back to Charlotte and then Tallahassee were even more intense on my imagination than the flights going west. When we touched down in Charlotte, the pilot immediately hit the brakes harder than in any flight I've ever been on. I actually slid forward in my seat, with the belt keeping me from falling out. Instantly, I began to think something was in the runway. I will spare you the description of the other images that popped into my mind about what happened next...
It was well after nightfall when my plane took off from Charlotte to Tallahassee. The aircraft was smaller than the others I had flown in that day.
Immediately after takeoff, we rolled to one side and then pitched back to the other side. My stomach leaped violently, and I honestly thought for a few seconds that we were going down. I remembered the story from a few years ago of a small US Airways plane that crashed in Charlotte immediately after takeoff because they had not balanced the luggage correctly. The airline declined to release the cockpit voice recordings of the pilots' screams before they crashed. It was such a sad story, and the pilot was a beautiful young woman with her whole life ahead of her.
I was sitting in the very back of the plane. Only the flight attendant was behind me. When we straightened out, I looked back at her in time to see her tuck her head between her legs and knock on the wall beside her before she corrected her posture.
"Is that normal for us to roll like that right after take off?" I asked.
Of course she answered, "Yes."
But I wonder. I watched her out of the corner of my eye as we landed smoothly in Tallahassee, and she did not "knock on wood."
I am not sure that what they say about your life flashing in front of your eyes right before you die is correct. For two seconds on that takeoff, I really thought I was going to die. And all I felt was the severe jump in my stomach and a terrible, depressing and sinking sensation that existence was at an end. There were no flashes of memory...
But enough of this dark stuff. Can you tell that I am avoiding studying for the bar exam this morning?
My trip on Thursday was a great adventure, and I enjoyed seeing the Rockies and the rush that the flights gave me.
We'll see what happens. Now I have to get my mind ready for the job interview in Orlando. And for answering practice bar questions on Florida Evidence in the ever-present red, yellow, green game. The roller coaster ride continues...
Until Next Time,
Nathan Marshburn
No comments:
Post a Comment