Plane

With a roar, it leapt into the sky. His ears popped. His mother gripped his hand and squeezed. More for her than for him. He could hear her murmuring prayers from beside him. His father shifted a little on the other side of his mother. His closed eyes frowning. He had fallen asleep a few minutes into sitting down. Altaf could not imagine how someone would fall asleep in a thing like this. It was so new, so novel. The smells, what did it smell of? Warmth and cold air being pushed in. And stale air. He could smell something baking somewhere. The sound of that selfsame air. And the roar of the engine. The whistling of the wind it barreled through. The feel of the cheap plastic handlebars. And the itch inducing seats in front of him. The people all around him. They were all his own. Most of them were reacting like his mother and him. Praying. Or looking around with unbound curiosity.

But the view. The view from the window down below. He could stare at it for hours. He thought he saw his house. There was the beach. That was the amusement park by it? The things seemed to become smaller and smaller. And he was amazed wondering how high up they were. The plane tilted a little. The shock was visible and the worry loud. He looked back out the window. The sea was glistening below them. No matter how high they were, it still looked pretty big. He remembered that one time it was raining and so beautiful. He could also smell the salt in the air, could feed the water falling on his fingers. They tingled. He shivered with delight. It was cold in the cabin.

An air hostess came by and offered him something to eat. His father grabbed the plates and passed them on. Chicken biryani and sweets. He looked at his mother. And decided to eat the biryani first. She wouldn’t like it if he ate the sweets. And his father didn’t like it when he made his mother upset. The food was very good, it felt.

At some point, despite his best attempts, he fell asleep. It was a pretty good nap. When he woke up, his food tray was gone, his tray table was folded and the captain was making an announcement.

Altaf looked out the window. The very tiny things were getting bigger. Now they were the size of his toy cars. Now they were bigger. Growing faster than you could say enormous. The air hissed. The engine roared. The plane dove. His heart jumped. Others muttered loudly, angrily, scared. His mother’s hand was on his own again. She was squeezing hard. It hurt. But he didn’t want her to not have the comfort this offered. So he kept his mouth shut. With a big thud, the plane landed. The wings clapped dangerously, carelessly. The passengers clapped. The captain made an announcement. People started to get up. They were in Dubai.