At about 40,000 feet over Maryland, the hopes of the passengers that they would get through the flight without having to worry about turbulence were crushed. The cabin drooped suddenly, but only by a foot or so. The first time it happened, most of the people who were asleep remained asleep. But after that, the dips and bumps and rumblings became more frequent and more aggressive.
Lulu tightened her safety belt and sat up rigid in her seat, again holding tightly to the armrests on both sides.
Drake was one of the last to pull himself out of his fake slumber.
She caught his eye as soon as it opened, as if she’d been waiting for his acknowledgement of their dire situation.
Dire was far from the right word Drake would’ve used to describe the quality of their ride. “Haven’t flown in a while, yeah?”
Lulu nodded. And when she did, almost emphasizing her unsaid point, the seatbelt light dinged back on. Her eyes widened.
“Relax,” Drake said. “You know how many accidents there are a year ‘cause of turbulence?"
She shook her head.
“Not many. Double digits, tops.”
“That still sounds like a lot.”
The cabin shook again, continuing to increase in its aggressiveness.
“Not when you think about how many flights there are each year. We’re fine. The pilots know what they’re doing.”
“If you say so,” she said as the plane approached another pocket of air.
Suddenly, they plummeted. Not far; they leveled out quickly, but enough for Lulu’s face to turn green.
“Oh God, please don’t,” he groaned.
She scrambled for the sick bag in the seatback pocket in front of her.
Lulu hunched over and heaved air into the bag. Her muffled voice escaped its paper walls. “I’m good. I’m okay. I just need a second.”
Drake leaned away from her, resting his head on his fist, arm perched on the aisle-side rest. He checked his phone for the time. Just another hour. And with the storm going on in the city, it’d be another hour of this girl having panic attacks and leaning on him for support. Maybe he should have sat next to the dog.
“You, uh, ever been to New York before?” he asked, hoping he could give her something to think about other than the turbulence.
Eyes shut, she shook her head slowly. The sick bag at least was now inflating and deflating at a controlled speed.
Well, he thought, maybe she doesn’t want to talk. Alright, I did my best. He could probably get a few more minutes of shuteye.
The bag crinkled and was shoved back into the seatback pocket.
“This’ll be my first time,” he heard her say in a shaky voice.
Okay, fine, we’ll do this.
Drake readied himself for conversation. He took another look at her and tried putting the pieces together. She was poorly dressed for the occasion in her crop-topped jean jacket and shorts. Had it even clicked for her that they were flying into New York in November?
“Spur of the moment thing, then?” he asked.
Lulu found her breathing steadying. She was right, she thought, about her earlier assumption of him. The mix-up had thrown him off, but he wasn’t such a grouch as he had at first come off. “Just got my ticket like an hour ago,” she told him with some pride in her voice. “My best friend is helping me out with a job up there. So, goodbye, Florida, hello New York! I feel like one of those girls in the old movies.”
“And your friend didn’t tell you it’s practically winter up there?”
Lulu looked down at herself, and all of the exposed flesh not covered by denim. She wrapped her arms around her naval, suddenly feeling cold.
“You didn’t pack anything warmer?” he tried to laugh out the question, but her previously giddy warmth, even in the face of turbulence, finally met its match.
In Lulu’s mind, now was not the time to dump all of her baggage onto a stranger. “Guess I just got a little too used to the sun.”
Drake readjusted his sweater pillow. “Might wanna try to get something a little warmer at JFK when we land.”
“Yeah,” she, too, forced an awkward laugh, knowing there’d be no chance in hell of that happening. Even if the shops were still open at midnight, which they wouldn’t be, with what money would she pay for it?
The predicament wasn’t one she would dwell on for long.
Once more, the speaker system came on with an announcement from the captain. “This is your uhhhhhhhhhhh captain speaking. We’re getting word from JFK that the storm has upgraded and uhhhhhhhhhhh…”
The entire assembly of passengers, and even some of the crew, sat at the edge of their seats.
“It looks like we’re gonna have to divert to O’Hare.”
The groaning within the cabin could have forced turbulence.
“We uhhhhhhhhhhhpologize for this inconvenience. Looks like most airports in the region are being forced to close down. But JetRide Flights is happy to assist in getting you home in time for your Thanksgiving meals. Just be sure to uhhhhhhhhhh, use your booking services app to speak with customer services about getting a new flight.”
“Are you fucked?” Drake whispered to himself.
Lulu put her hand to her chest and centered herself. “Okay, this isn’t terrible,” she said, the warmth returning to her face. “At least it’ll be safer getting into Chicago, right?”
“I’m not trying to go to Chicago. I’m trying to get to New York!”
She put her hand on his shoulder and gently rubbed. He didn’t immediately notice it until she spoke again. “We’ll get there. It’s just a little setback, and hey! Now you’ve got a fun travel story. And…” She sat up with one leg bent under her on the seat and held out her hand in greeting. “You’ve got a travel buddy now. Lulu.”
“Drake.” He did not feel the need to shake. He’d let her roll with this ‘Travel buddy’ thing if it helped her be at ease with all of the issues they were sure to face, but saying it didn’t make it real. Shaking on it, though, felt like sealing his fate.
But Lulu was persistent. “Oh come on, I’m clean.” She took his hand and shook it, then fell back properly into her seat. “So, Drake, travel buddy, think it’ll be cold in Chicago, too?”
Drake looked down at Lulu. “Probably freezing.”
* * *
It was sixteen degrees when Lulu and her travel buddy touched down in Chicago at just past one in the morning. Drake was on his feet the moment the seatbelt sign turned off and, grabbing his bag, attempted to rush as far forward as he could to disembark the plane.
Lulu shouted after him. “It was nice meeting you, Drake!”
No response came.
She moved over to the empty seat he left, and watched him get stuck only five or six rows ahead. Everyone was just as eager as he was to get off and reroute their flights. The only people who had no sense of urgency to get off of the plane were those in first class, and a single woman in the far back of the plane who was still trying to milk the first flight she’d had in a decade.
It took about five minutes for the crowd to decongest enough for her to comfortably step into the aisle with her only carry-on backpack and stroll leisurely up the tunnel to the terminal.
The airport terminal was nearly as busy as the one she left behind in Miami, with one glaring difference: this one wasn’t supposed to be busy. Half of the lights in the place were turned off. The metal gates of storefronts and restaurants were all pulled down and locked. Even the Flight Information Display screens were shut off. Would there be any flights headed for New York in the morning? Who knew? Not the people in the terminal hoping to get there, that was for sure. But everyone would be up all night trying to be the first one to get on that hypothetical flight.
So, while everyone tripped over themselves in an attempt to fix their situation, Lulu kept a level head, connected her phone to the airport's internet, and focused on the present.
Drake, like everyone else in the terminal, was on his phone trying to call the airline customer service. And Drake, like everyone else, was banging his head against the wall while failing to get through to anyone. And when he saw Lulu approaching him again, he casually turned away from her and acted as if he hadn’t seen her. But her tap on his shoulder was impossible to ignore.
“You doing okay?” she asked.
Drake pretended her return was a surprise. “Oh, hey, yeah, no. Can’t get through to anyone.” They both looked out at the crowd of people rushing around with their phones to their ears or noses pressed to the screen, all in the same situation.
“Maybe we weren’t the only plane re-routed,” Lulu speculated.
“Just one of three or five hundred,” he replied. “And all trying to get on the next already booked plane.”
Lulu shrugged casually with a grin.
Conversely, Drake’s shoulders dropped. “Don’t tell me you already got a flight.”
“Noooo, but I did find something better.”
“Unless you found a private jet…” he laughed, trailing off.
Lulu took a step closer and rose on her toes to whisper, “I don’t think anyone’s getting a flight tonight, and whoever doesn’t get wise soon is gonna be sleeping in here on the floor. So, if we’re stuck in Chicago, we might as well get comfortable.”
Drake dropped back. “I don’t follow. But, look, I’m getting on a flight for New York first thing in the morning.”
“Okay!” she said with mock surrender. “If you say so. But by the time you realize the call centers are closed for the night, all the good hotels might be gone.”
He huffed. “I think I’ll be alright. But thanks for the advice. This from years of experience flying?”
Lulu did a slow nod with a bite of her lip, so she didn’t say anything that actually ruined the night. Then, and only when she thought of a political response, did she speak. “Years of experience not having a comfortable place to sleep.”
Drake breathed deeply, the heat of shame rising in him. “Sorry. This night’s just getting to be a lot.”
She shook her head and looked at the floor. “It’s fine. I know you didn’t mean it like that,” she said, even though they both knew he did. But no one would get to tomorrow in one piece by making enemies of strangers.
They both stood there, silent, for half a minute. Time passed, but they were making just as much progress getting a flight by doing nothing as everyone else in the terminal was by doing everything.
Eventually, Drake was the one who broke the silence. He looked at the notifications on his phone, almost endless unanswered texts and calls from his brother checking in on him, and ignored them all, asking Lulu, “You really think we can find hotels right now?”
The shift in Lulu’s face from down to up was instantaneous. “I already found one.” She opened her phone and showed it to him. “It’s ten miles away, but it’s cheap, and there are plenty of rooms left.”
Drake took her phone and only took three seconds to read what it said and hand it back to her. “Plenty?”
“Yeah!”
He picked up his bag from the floor and slung it over his shoulder. “Okay. Well, finder’s keepers. Let me know if you find anything else.” Drake turned and began walking toward the baggage claim.
Lulu, left stunned, looked at her phone and saw what the issue was. There were not “plenty” of rooms. There were not even rooms, plural. There was a single room left.
She ran after him.
“I’ll share it!” Lulu shouted and noticed the slightest hesitation in his walk. But only slightly, and he kept walking. “Come on!” she said as she caught up next to him. “I don’t mind, really! You don’t seem like a serial killer, and I promise I’m not one. Come on, we’re travel buddies!”
“Look, Lulu,” he stopped abruptly just before the autowalk. “You seem like a very nice person, but we don’t know each other. I appreciate that you think you’re looking out for me, but I’m good.” He started walking again, alongside the autowalk.
Lulu stepped onto it and rode next to him, matching his speed. “And what if you don’t get a flight tomorrow? You’re gonna wish you had a nice bed to sleep in.”
“You are really determined to stick together, huh?”
He met her eye. She looked directly into him, and he felt a spasm in his gut.
Lulu jumped up onto the rail, riding that down the long terminal corridor as he walked beside her. “Okay, fine,” she said. “You want the truth?”
“I love the truth.”
Summoning courage for honesty was never a trouble for Lulu. If she were to call out Tyler on his priorities with her, she would do it, and he wouldn’t deny it. If she needed something from Marsha, she’d get it and just be told she owed Marsha back. There was always a clear expectation in her relationship, and always a set standard of give and take. Everything had an exchange for everything else, honesty included. But what was this stranger’s price for honesty? Was he going to hold her truth in his back pocket to throw back at her later? For some reason, the truth with him seemed way harder than ever to get out. He didn’t ask her why she wanted to stick together; he only asked if she wanted to. Yet she still had a trade to offer.
At least, most of the truth. As much of the truth as one could give to a stranger without time for a whole life backstory.
“Okay, truth is I need your help. It’s just for the night until I can get a hold of my mom to send me some money.” She saw his lips begin to part in a ‘gotcha’ smile. “Look, it’ll be split evenly! If you cover the ride to the hotel and the room, I’ll cover breakfast and the ride back here in the morning! I’ll even pitch in whatever I have left over tomorrow for the hotel.”
She watched the decision being made in the way his grin shifted and his eyes darted around. By the time they got to the end of the autowalk, his decision had been made.
“Let me see the room again.”
Lulu gave him back her phone. Still only one room left for just under a hundred dollars with a queen bed and a pullout couch.
A pullout isn’t really the same as a nice bed, he thought to himself. But any second now, someone else back at the gate would realize they weren’t getting on the next flight to New York and would claim that last room.
Drake tapped the tab that said “Book Now”.
“I really hope you don’t snore,” he warned her.
Lulu responded by throwing her arms around him and screaming her delight.
Anyone else-
Anyone else, he told himself.
would have been pushed off before their arms came within an inch of his neck. But Drake restrained himself from rejecting her hug because just before she was chest to chest with him, he noticed the tears in her eyes that came with the shriek of pure joy at managing to find a comfortable place to sleep for the night. And, letting her hug him, asked, what the hell am I getting myself into?