Makensie remained silent as they drove their way back out to the main road cutting through a sleepy little town. The farther they went, the faster they drove, and the faster Makensie’s mind turned over the events of this vacation so far.
Her parents had been nervous about letting her travel by herself, much less change planes in a strange airport, so they had compromised and driven her to Chicago. From there she could catch a direct flight to Seattle where her Aunt Tina and Uncle Joe would pick her up. Makensie had argued that she could change planes just fine by herself, but secretly she was glad. She wasn’t a great flyer in the best of times, so she was glad it was just the one flight…especially after what had happened on it.
After take-off she had busied herself trying to read on her Kindle to calm her nerves, picking her head up frequently to watch the rain streak across the window. She sucked in and held her breath with every turbulent bump of the plane. Her heart beat a little faster after the captain had announced everyone should return to their seats because they were about to fly through some turbulence as they tried to get above a storm they were passing through.
She couldn’t concentrate on her book, so she closed up her Kindle and returned to looking out the window. She twisted her fingers in her lap to keep them busy. She looked down the aisle to her left. She was the only one awake. How could people possibly sleep on planes? Especially planes bouncing around in turbulence. She had just turned to look back at the sky outside when she was struck with a whiplash of energy. It coursed through her from her hands and feet toward her chest, making her limbs shiver, tickle, and burn, in that order. It jerked her body so violently that her elbow grazed the sleeping woman’s arm next to her. The woman scowled at her under one drowsy eyelid and repositioned her arm inside her seat cavity.
Makensie slowly gained control of her body and the first thing she did was close her gaping mouth and unwind her knotted hands to look at her palms then the backs of her hands. They looked normal. That was a good sign. They were even starting to feel normal again. What had just happened; was she struck by lightning? Why didn’t the captain come on the loudspeaker to announce they had been hit?
She looked back out to the dreary sky where there was nothing to see but grey and rain. She looked down the row to her fellow passengers again, but none of them had moved except for the lady she had knocked elbows with.
“Folks,” the captain began, and Makensie thought, okay here we go, “we’ve skirted the turbulence. You are welcome to be up and about the cabin, but please do keep your seatbelts fastened while you are seated. We’re about an hour from landing on time in Seattle. We know you have choices when it comes to flying and we thank you for choosing us.” It sounded so…normal. Why didn’t he say anything about the lightning?
She sat there, stumped, her mind trying all kinds of theories from pinning it on her imagination to static shocks. She resolved to ask the captain on the way out of the plane. When she did, he just gave her a broad smile, like he was humoring her like he would some little kid, and said “No, honey, it wasn’t that kind of storm. Just some bumps and rain.”
She told her aunt and uncle about the incident when they had picked her up from the airport. At least they didn’t humor her. They had asked a whole bunch of questions, her uncle in particular. He was an aerospace engineer so she thought he might have a good explanation. In the end they had agreed that it must have just been a shock of static electricity that felt extra strong because of the charged air from the storm. They had agreed. Makensie secretly did not. She was sure it was not anything close to normal.