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I thoughtto decide whether orth the trouble; ere only a sine plane, incompletely filled A few seats ahead ofbecause he knew his ears would hurt ent up This was not the first leg of their trip

"You s, honey Just remember to s, that makes your ears feel better And yawn"

"I can’t yawn"

"Sure you can" She de wide over the yawn: "Think about being real, real sleepy" People yawned all the way back to the sestion I felt overcome with sadness

The aisle seat of er, and the e up with her overflow paraphernalia She thren a hairbrush and a curling iron-whack! whack!-and pulled a substantial e She began applying careful stripes of pastel eye shadow When she blinked, her eyelids waved like a pair of foreign flags

"Give it a rest, Brenda," said theto see your boyfriend for ten whole days Why not take this wonderful opportunity to let your face get so with deep absorption into her makeup mirror while her parents in B and C bea a polka-dot jus, all a little too eager-looking even for the first day of vacation The olf pants that clashed with his disposition It was hard to ignore thelanced serenely at her left wrist, which bore three separate watches with plastic bands in the same three shades as her eye shadow Her hair looked as if each strand had been individually lacquered and tortured into position No ht feel about the aesthetic, you had to admire the effort Most people put less into their jobs

"Brenda, honey, please pay attention when your father is talking to you," said the wo to you and your father bicker for a week and a half is not my idea of a vacation"

"You should have leftdirectly ahead "’Honey, I think we forgot soot Brenda’" She shot lance, and I think I s on Brenda’s side here In ained sympathy for adolescence If I had to take a trip with those two I’d probably paint my face blue for spite

The plane jerked a little and then began to roll creakily down the runway, gathering speed We were taking off without a warning announceht attendants prepare for takeoff" cale scrambled burst over the intercom, and the women in pumps and dark suits ran as if from an air-raid siren I closedto hold on to ht away My heart had caught up withto his mother and I yawned nervously Soand fear and the will to live We left the earth and climbed steeply into the void

My habit was to count seconds during the lift-off, withthe lines of "crashed into a otten the idea it took seven et past imminent peril I counted to sixty, and started over We’d been airborne for maybe three or four minutes when our pilot’s deep Texan voice caize for the delay in taking off today We had trouble getting one of these cantankerous old engines started up"

The announcement startled my eyes open I looked at Brenda, idened her eyes comically "Great," she said

"It’s nice to know you’re riding the friendly skies in a bucket of bolts"

Brenda laughed "Like my boyfriend’s car"

"I think we’d be safer in your boyfriend’s car"

"Not in their opinion," she said, inclining her head across the aisle

I closed ain I tried to relax, but couldn’t help listening to every change of pitch in the engine noise They sounded wrong Suddenly I confided in Brenda, "I hate to fly You know? It scares me to death"

I hadn’t admitted this aloud before, and was surprised to hear it come out so naturally The truth needs so little rehearsal Brenda reached over and patted my hand

"Folks, this is Captain Saine again"