Night Flight

Flash Fiction | 3 Minute Read

This story was written in response to this month’s prompt in Fictionistas. If you are interested in the prompt, you can find it here.

This story is a 5 minute read.

Night Flight

One hour into my flight from Newark to LA I’m kicking myself for the coffee I had in the airport.

I am awake.

The sun has set. The lights are all out in the cabin. My only saving grace is that I have the window seat where I can watch the stars, hoping I’ll catch a glimpse of one falling so I can make a wish. I’d wish for the gorgeous guy next to me to wake up and be stuck with me for four more hours.

Wouldn’t that be magic? What an awesome meet-cute: on the plane to the wedding of my last single college friend, I finally meet Mr. Right. It feels kismet. I’m sure I saw at least one Hallmark movie just like this. 

I mean, he even smells gorgeous.

It’s hopeless, I know, so I settle in for my window-gazing when the clouds roll in, blocking the stars and the few lights below. I’m about to close the shade and see if I can figure out how to buy headphones for the movie viewing when I see a flash of lightning followed by a roll of thunder bringing with it our first real rumbles of turbulence.

Gorgeous guy wakes up and grabs my hand instinctively. My heart pounds in response to either his touch or the turbulence, but I’m not sure which because, before I can think about it, a second strike of lightning hits the wing and starts a fire in that cylindrical thing that I’m pretty sure is essential to our survival.

I am screaming, “Where are the parachutes?”

Gorgeous guy has his arms wrapped around me, telling me to breathe, to be calm. He’s acting like nothing’s happening because, maybe nothing is happening.

After a deep breath in, I open my eyes and realize I’m the one who’s been asleep.

Leave a Comment and Don’t Hoard this Story!

Do you feel cheated with the whole “it was all a dream” ending? I often steer clear of this tactic, but there was one aspect of the prompt (you can see it below) that really had me thinking a dream had to be at least part of the story. Apologies if it didn’t satisfy your inner story seeker!

The inspiration

While you can read the whole post describing the prompt here, I wanted to share the images of the cubes that inspired the story with you!

phot of RORY’S STORY CUBES used as inspiration for this story. Prompt goal: use as many of the images in the story as possible.

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