A Short Story…
Chanel plops down in her seat in a messy blur as her green scarf slaps across her neighbor’s bald head.
“Oop! Oh my gosh!”
She says in with a sniffle, as she quickly snatches her scarf from his head.
He glares at her condescendingly and scoffs.
“I’m sorry!”
. Her eyes again, well up with tears as she thinks about what has lead up to this moment.
But before I continue, let me start from the beginning..
First of all, she barely made this flight.
Her 17-year-old daughter, Rosali, had been missing for the past 4 days and just this morning she received a text from her from a new number, saying she was completely fine and was in Puerto Rico with some friends.
The first night there she was going to call, but her phone had gotten water damaged. Plus, knew Rosali knew how her mother would react so she decided to put off contact with her for as long as she could.
“I know you’re mad, mom but I am fine, I am safe and I just needed to get away. My friends are here and I knew you would freak out so I just didn’t want to be bothered for a few days.”
Chanel tried to call the number back over 9 times, each call going to straight to voicemail.
She was in a panic.
Rosali, sends her a text saying she didn’t want to talk, because she knows, she was just going to yell at her.
Chanel is furious. But once the rage calmed down enough for her hands to stop shaking she texts Rosali, back “Tell me where you are, I am coming to Puerto Rico.” Rosali, texts her the information for the hotel And sends her a video.
“Mom, see it’s me I’m perfectly fine- but you aren’t seriously coming to PR are you? Lol I- you can’t be serious…” Chanel doesn’t respond back. She calls the police and tells them she found out the location for her daughter so they could stop searching for her- only for the phone operator to tell her they never even started.
She is through!
She scoffs angrily and she hangs up the phone and she grabs her passport, a handful of clothes and her green scarf. She spilled sauce on her favorite yellow one so she had to wear the green one. “Just my goddamn luck!”
She says angrily as she rushes out the door to meet her Uber driver.
Her Uber driver, Ahmed, friendly greets her and tries to start a conversation with her about where she is travelling to since she is headed to the airport but Chanel gives him the cold shoulder.
“My child is missing and I just found out she is in Puerto Rico so I’m going there now and I REALLY don’t want to talk.” “Damn..” He says, “No problem, is music ok?”
Chanel nods and Ahmed, turns his music up. Sing to Me by Jhene Aiko was playing and Chanel unexpectedly starts uncontrollably sobbing.
This was the song she dedicated to her daughter since she was a baby. They sang it together throughout her daughter’s life. They were more than just mother and daughter; they were best friends too. She just couldn’t understand why she would just suddenly disappear without a trace- she was so panicked, scared and worried this entire time, all the while, her daughter just abandoned her and dipped to PR and is living her best life and having fun.
The nerve!
Having a whole blast with friends, while her mother is in shambles. “How could she not even call me as soon as possible!?!”
“How could she not even tell me about this trip!?!”
“Did she run off with some boy !? Oh my God!!”
She screamed inside her head. “I am failure as a mother… I am a failure…”
Her thoughts took off in a negative spiral, snatching up as many dark thoughts they could attached themselves to as they dived deeper into the dark pits of depression, panic and self-loathing.
Ahmed interrupts her mental self-murder, “Umm, Miss? We are at the airport...” Chanel looks up tears streaming down her face, looking a mess.
Cute.
But a MESS.
Ahmed hands her some napkins. “You will find her and everything is going to be fine, don’t beat yourself up.”
She smiles at his kindness and thanks him as she gets out of his car. “Have a safe flight!” he yells as he drives off to pick up his next passenger.
A complete stranger gave her treasured advice. She sighs deeply.
“He is right, but man! That stupid song deeply triggered me, I just-”
She starts sobbing again.
Chanel has been a single mom to Rosali for the past 17 years. The first 10 years of Rosali’s life her father, Chris, put Chanel through so much hell and heartbreak that emotionally she had shutdown.
She gave everything into raising Rosali but not much into herself.
She sacrificed so much for her daughter but didn’t make any time for herself.
She wanted to travel the world and the first place she wanted to go to was Puerto Rico.
Maybe that is why this hurt so badly. For Rosali’s graduation from High school they would supposed to go to PR together for the first time and instead her daughter ditched her for her friends. It reminded her of how she felt in high school with her “friends” left out in the cold. Not invited to events. Even her past lovers, ghosting her, leaving without a trace. Every past hurt, took advantage of the situation, and flared up, and triggering her so intensely that it crushed Chanel’s spirit. Crying and defeated she gets the ticket for her flight and runs to make it before it leaves.
Once on the plane, She knew when she had to squeeze pass the bald headed man in the seat next to her, that he seemed grumpy.
But when her scarf, she had been crying in, hit him in the head that grumpiness turned into something worse-
Racism.
“I’m sorry!“ She gasped! As she realized his irritation.
“Stupid black nigger.”
He mumbles in response under his breath, but loud enough for her and a few other passengers to hear.
Chanel hears him and freezes.
Someone in the background gasps.
Before her blood began to boil, it iced over, sending an icy wave of frost over her entire body.
“Be smart Chanel…” she heard a gentle whisper within say.
She needed to think clearly.
She needs to get to Puerto Rico RIGHT NOW. This flight is 10 hours long. The next flight isn’t until tomorrow and there is a storm coming in tomorrow which may delay flights to PR even more. If she “turns up“ on him and causes a scene, she may be kicked off the flight-
But this bald pig just called her a racial slur-
and her daughter just gave her the scare of a lifetime-
“Breathe..”
As the icy chill within gets taken over by hot rage, her hands begin to tremble.
She slowly turns her head to face her neighbor directly.
Her ruthless gaze looks him directly into the eyes.
“Excuse me?”
She says in a tone full of poison- making the entire plane go silent.
Nervous now, he tries to pretend he didn’t hear her and rolls his eyes and goes back to pretending to read his magazine.
Chanel chuckles to herself.
“Oh, so you think I won’t get your bald headed ass, kicked off this fuckin’ plane huh?”
The man’s face gets red hot.
“Look be a good girl and relax, you hit me first remember? Besides who are YOU to get ME kicked off of the flight I paid for?”
He arrogantly chuckles.
As Chanel opened her mouth to release the poisonous venom on the tip of her tongue, A stranger who was walking past the man seated next to her, poured out a hot cup on black coffee over the bald headed man’s head.
The planes silence was interrupted by his screams as a yells out in pain.
“Oops! I’m sorry sir! It was an accident!” The stranger says in a thick Spanish accent.
Him and Chanel make eye contact and he winks at her.
She saw the man intentionally pour his coffee out on the bald man. As did everyone else on the plane witnessing the altercation.
“Why would he stick up for me? I don’t know him!”
She thinks to herself.
The bald man was furious and yelled out racial slurs to him and her.
“All you niggers and immigrants need to- ”
“SIR!”
A male flight attendant with a strong country accent interrupted him. “I am so sorry for your injuries, bless your heart, but clearly it was an accident, but what we won’t have, is a blatant racist throwing out slurs on my plane, so I’m going to have to ask you to come with me, so we can treat your burns. You can take the next flight. Please, don’t make me have security make you.”
Furious, the man gets his things and shoves himself past the stranger who dumped his coffee on him,
“Fuck you!”
he says to the man as he gets escorted off the plane.
“En tus sueños.”
The man says with his hands raised up, and a sly smirk on his face.
The rest of the plane begins to clap. “Good job man!” someone shouts.
The rest of the flight crew and passengers chuckle and give him a light round of applause .
“Stop you guys, stop it! Seriously I was an accident!”
He says, as he chuckles and blushes, as his eye met with Chanel’s again.
“Alright crew, we have a flight to go on with so, vamonos!”
Taking in his uniform, she realized He was a pilot.
And with that he walks away, and disappears behind the curtain to first class.
Chanel was stunned.
“WOW. I was really just caught up in some drama just now.”
She thought to herself.
“I’m glad that man took up for me before I got myself kicked off the plane.” She mumbled to herself as she began to take her seat.
A flight attendant approaches her seat.
“Miss? Can you come with me please?”
It was another flight attendant, but this time a woman.
“Um, sure.”
“ Dammit! I am getting my black ass kicked off the flight anyway!” She thinks, as she walks with her to the front of the plane to first class, to a seat with a rose and a business card there, next to a small cart with a glass and a bottle of Banfi Rosa Regale, Brachetto d'Acqui.
“Mr. Cruz, the man who accidentally spilled his coffee on the bald guy, is actually the owner of this airline, and he had your seat upgraded to first class if that is ok.”
Chanel, in disbelief, bearly was able to breathe out “Okay“ before the flight attendant took her luggage and put it away, and then made her take a seat, and started to open her wine.
***********TO BE CONTINUED***********