The Airplane Mishap // Sophia Paul

The Airplane Mishap

“Wouldn’t it be funny if someone really had to throw up?”

All three of us laugh as the guy on the aisle makes the joke. He puts the barf bag into the seat pocket the conversation dies down, so  I put my earbuds into my ears. Peeking out the window, I see so many planes are departing and arriving that if I blink I will miss a plane. As I look out over the airport, I see the sun setting as the sky is turning a beautiful pink hue t. What a great way to end a trip in  Washington D.C.

Our middle school partnered up with an organization that would host schools from all over the country to teach kids about the city they’re visiting. In previous years they visited New York,  Chicago, and Boston. This year the trip was planned for Washington D.C., and my parents thought that it would be beneficial for me to learn for me about our nation's capital. The 4 day trip was eventful as we headed to the most fascinating places in Washington D.C.; from the World War II Memorial to the Pentagon. It was surely a trip to remember.

“If everyone can please put on their seatbelts as we are ready for departure.” As the flight attendant finished her statement, I heard the unanimous sound of seat-belts clicking together. I scrolled through my Instagram feed as the flight attendants conduct the safety demonstration.

“Hey, my stomach hurts. Do you have anything for that?” The girl next to me taps me on the shoulder as we start to lift off the grounds. I tell her yes as I reach all the way into the bottom of the bag to find her some Aleve. I pop open the cap, give her a few, and she replies with a sheepish thanks.  I nod to her in return thinking nothing of her stomach ache as I close my eyes and try to sleep.

I wake up to the sound of the seat-belt light turning orange again, and the flight attendant announcing that we are descending in 10 minutes. Was I really asleep for the entire flight? I look out the window to see darkness plague my vision. The lights stand out from the abyss and give off a warming vibes. From all of the white, yellow, and orange lights I see from above. It all seems so far.

We start to descend, and the girl next to me taps me on the shoulder again. “Hey. I don’t think the Aleve helped me. Do you think you could grab me your barf back from the seat pocket.” As I reach down to get the pocket, I feel something splat onto my neck. She just threw up on me! Then she vomits once more unto herself as my fellow passengers a look away in disgust. People around me start asking if I am okay, and I give them a half-hearted “yah” and laugh it away. The teachers rushed over to the girl who threw up to see if she needed any medical help, and the flight attendant was shortly over to help her out. She gave the girl some napkins as I sat there with puke in my hair without anyone helping me out.

The plane finally landed, and I couldn’t wait to get out off of it. The smell of the vomit was so strong that it was almost making me sick myself, but I would not be the girl who throws up in someone’s hair. Since we were a class of students, we had to be the last to get off the plane so the vomit was just seeping into my scalp making the smell linger longer. We finally are walking out of the plane as I soon realized that her vomit reached my bookbag and my shoes. Great.

The teachers left us go our separate ways after we got off the plane, and I practically started to run to the plane train as I notice the girl throwing up in a trash can near the boarding area.

As I ran through the airport, tears started running down my face. I thought of all the things that I could have said, that I could have done, but I decided to stay silent; laugh it off as a joke. But this no joking matter; someone threw up in my hair! This ruined the trip, and now I never want to sit by the window; trapped from the aisle; trapped from freedom. Planes will always scare me, but not fear of heights, but from someone else’s motion sickness. This flight makes me nervous for all future flights and it makes me very superstitious. This might sound dumb, but I know that this will leave an impact on my life for better or for worse.