Page 8 of Puck Me Secretly

“We could land in a lake or go off course and hit the ocean.”

I fumbled with the strings and yanked them hard. A loud hiss deafened me, as the vest billowed with air, imprisoning my head in a rock-hard vise grip. I clawed at the vest, trying to pull it off my head, but it suctioned around my neck like an evil yellow plastic serpent.

“Get it off, get itoff me!”

“Rory.”

“Please, Max, please,” I begged, turning my eyes towards him.

“Hold still,” he instructed. His face loomed in front of mine, so close I could smell his minty breath and a hint of orange. He tugged at the vest until he figured out how to deflate it. We didn’t speak as he pressed on the plastic while air hissed around my face. Finally, it was deflated enough that I could squeeze it off. I threw it on the floor.

“Better?”

Another bang and the plane pitched nose forward. It reminded me of a rollercoaster.

“I wrecked my vest! Now I’ll drown.”

He laughed.No sane person laughs when their plane is crashing!

“It’s not funny.” I tasted salty tears on my lips.

“Sorry, you want mine?” His sympathy appeased me.

I turned to him, my eyes wide. “What will you use?”

“I can swim.”

I swallowed my guilt. “You sure?”

He reached beneath his seat and I watched as he unwrapped the vest. “Don’t inflate it until you get out of the plane.”

My frantic fingers touched the flat crunchy plastic that I wore around my neck like an ugly necklace. “This is so bad. I had a terrible premonition getting on this plane. Why don’t I ever take my gut serious?”

The plane jostled so hard my teeth rattled. People shrieked when the baggage bins flapped open and bags rained down. A male voice behind us chanted the Lord’s prayer.

I pressed back in my chair, my fingers like claws around the armrests.This was it. I would die.

“I should've known this would happen. Since I was a kid. I haven’t been able to get on a plane. It’s like I knew. It was a premonition. And I overrode my fears. Now we will all pay for that!”

“Rory,” Max put his face in front of mine. “Calm down!”

“We are going to die!”

“Shhhh,” he soothed. “We’re not going to die.”

A ding sounded and above our heads, oxygen masks dropped from the ceilings. Gasps of horror and cries sounded around us.

Except mine didn’t drop. A single mask hung in front of Max’s face.

“Where’s my mask?” I frantically twisted in my seat. “Help! Help! My mask didn’t drop!”

No one paid me any attention. Everyone was putting their masks on.

“What do I do?What do I do!?”

“Hang on.” Max leaned over towards me, his arms above my head. “It got coiled around something.”

My mask dropped in front of my face. Too late. I was already hyperventilating.

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