Stories to Tell by Richard Marx

Author:Richard Marx [Marx, Richard]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2021-07-06T00:00:00+00:00

* * *

We exited the plane in Tokyo and descended the stairs to the tarmac. I stopped at the bottom and immediately kissed the ground. Our connection was mercifully short, and before I knew it, I was headed home.

I had deliberately not told Cynthia what was happening. When I spoke to her the night before, I said everything was going great and that I was really looking forward to being home. She was six months pregnant, and I feared that if she knew the danger I was in she could freak out and something might happen to the baby. As I curled up in my seat, I thought about how I would tell her this fantastical story.

Hours passed as we flew through the night sky. Though everyone in the plane looked to be asleep, I was wide awake. My thoughts recalling the past two days would not let me rest. I stared out the window into the night sky, forty thousand feet above the earth, and replayed the insane events in my head as if watching a suspense movie.

Then, in the silence and tranquility, I saw a light. Not so much a light as a spark. A shooting star? A reflection in my seat’s window? Then, there was another. About seven seconds passed before I realized that a flame had been ignited in one of the engines hanging just below the right wing. Yes, ladies and gentlemen: the plane was on fire.

As my muscles clenched and I turned to bolt from my seat, I saw several flight attendants literally running past me to the cockpit. Other passengers were awakened by the commotion as the sound of ding echoed through the cabin and the “Fasten Seat Belt” sign illuminated. I turned back to check the wing, and now the engine was engulfed with flames. But as my heart began beating through my chest, in a single second, the fire disappeared. I felt the plane descend slightly before the captain’s voice appeared on the PA system.

“Ladies and gentlemen, this is your captain speaking. It appears we had a small fire break out in the engine which sits under the nearest section of the right wing. I have shut that engine down and the fire seems to be out. Now, I want you all to stay calm. This aircraft has four engines and, if necessary, I could land with only one. But we want to be as safe as possible so I’ve radioed ahead and we will be making an emergency landing in Honolulu in approximately two hours.”

I know. This is the part of my story where you finally call “bullshit.” There’s no way this actually happened, right?

Wrong.

Everyone on board remained relatively calm and, sure enough, two hours later we safely and uneventfully touched down in Honolulu. A few hours after that, I boarded yet another plane for LA and managed to make it home for dinner. My parents came over, and as I sat at our dining room table and regaled them

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