Flight Fever: Toronto to London (Part One)

A strange turn of events.

I love traveling. But I loathe airplanes and everything associated with them. That includes being packed in like a can of sardines, forcing your legs to suffocate in the small amount of space underneath the seat in front of you (even worse if you’re taller than six feet), the unpredictable moments of turbulence that make your heart race a mile/minute, and the excruciating sound of a 3-year-old child weeping and kicking the seat behind you. I had a feeling that my flight was going to include all of those things and more.  

Before heading to the airport, I packed a neck pillow in my bag to see if it would help me fall asleep on the flight. I’ve always had a better chance of being struck by lightning than falling asleep on an airplane. I was hoping the neck pillow would help reduce some of the agonies.

* * *

Somehow, I fell asleep for about half an hour on the flight. I woke up to the feeling of someone tapping my shoulder. A flight attendant was standing next to me. I reluctantly forced my eyes to open and look at her.

“Would you like something to eat?” she said. They were going around serving pasta, salad, and some bread and butter to passengers. It must have been 1:00 am at the time and the last thing I was feeling was hungry.

“No thank you,” I spoke. “Could you save some food for me though?” I requested. She said I could come to the back and pick up my food when I was hungry. I thanked her.

I turned on the screen in front of me and looked at the time remaining before we landed.

The screen read:

YYZ to LGW

Time remaining: 6:26 hrs.  

* * *

My chances of going back to sleep were slim to none. On top of that, I needed to use the restroom. When I came back to my seat, I reached into my pocket for my glasses. I wear prescription glasses; without them, I cannot see long distance. Through the packs of gum, old receipts, and folded European bills, my glasses were nowhere to be found. I searched my vest pockets. Nothing. I checked the seat pocket in front of me. Nothing but papers with instructions on what to do in case you had to jump out of a moving airplane. I looked under and behind my seat. No luck. This can’t be happening right now, I thought.

I spotted one of the flight attendees walking by offering water. Out of desperation, I asked her if she could help me look for my glasses. I got out of my seat and searched around it again, like a child opening the fridge for the tenth time hoping some delicious food will miraculously appear. Still nothing. A woman sitting next to me took out her cellphone and shined a flashlight onto my seat. Suddenly, I noticed a pair of glasses dangling on the end of the seatbelt strap on the right side of the seat. I let out a sigh of relief. My heart rate was normal.

“You’re a lifesaver,” I told the young woman sitting next to me. “I’m legit blind without these.”

She looked like she was Filipino, perhaps in her early twenties. I noticed she had her nails done. By the looks of how sharp they were, I wondered how she got through security at the airport. It’s not that they didn’t look attractive, it’s just that they looked like they could do some serious damage if some dunderhead decided it was a good idea to provoke her.

I extended my hand out to her.

“My name is Nick, a pleasure to meet you.”

“Hi, I’m Mercedes,” she replied.

Mercedes, I thought. How exquisite.

I asked her where she was traveling to. She said she was on vacation, going to visit a friend in London and they would be flying to Scotland together.

“You seem like a person who likes to travel a lot,” I said.

She chuckled and said this was her first time traveling to Europe. I asked her where else she had traveled to.

“Well, I’ve been to Banff, Alberta and that place is beautiful. I would love to go again someday.”

I could not disagree with her there. Banff is nothing short of a magical paradise. It has been on my bucket list for quite some time now.

She then proceeded to tap her screen, which apparently was not working.

“I feel like I should be getting a discount on my flight ticket,” she joked as she pointed to her frozen screen.

My screen was working, so I asked her what she wanted to watch.

“Put on anything, honestly,” she said.

I scrolled through the list of shows that were available. They were all names I had heard of but never cared to sit down and spend time watching. I checked out what films they had. I noticed “Spider-Man: No Way Home” was on there. The hype was through the roof for this film and neither Mercedes nor I had seen it yet. So, I put it on.

About half an hour into the film, I noticed Mercedes’ head started to tilt in my direction. She leaned over onto my shoulder, out like a light. Normally, I would have shrugged my shoulder letting her know to get up, but this time I wasn’t irritated by it. I gently placed my neck pillow underneath her head so it wouldn’t irritate her neck as she slept.

As I proceeded to watch one of the greatest films in modern cinema history, while a cute chick slept on my shoulder, I thought to myself, this trip may not turn out to be so bad after all.