"I think we all need to keep an eye on him."
"Who are you talking about?" Lois asked.
"The black haired professor, Steve Foust."
"He"s never done this before?"
"Don"t worry, Mom. The tour company will have a guide with us once we get to England. The rest of us have traveled a lot too, so there"s nothing to worry about."
"There"s nothing to fear, but fear itself!" Drew spouted.
"Thank you, Winston Drew Churchill!"
"Churchill didn"t say that! It was Franklin Roosevelt!" Lois corrected him.
"You"re right, Mom, it was Roosevelt. My mistake." He noted that Drew was starting to perspire, and he knew it wasn"t because of the temperature.
"Are you okay, Drew?"
"Huh? Yeah, I"m fine."
"Are you nervous about flying?"
"A little bit."
"There"s nothing to worry about. People fly every day."
"Yeah, but I don"t."
"You"ll be fine. Look at these college kids, they"re not worried a bit."
"They"ve probably flown before though."
"After the first time, you"ll love it!"
"Maybe so." It was clear that he still needed convincing. A blond haired college girl behind Lois spoke up.
"There"s nothing to flying! I do it all the time. Hi, my name is Audrey." She extended to him a feminine handshake. "And you"re name is Drew?"
"Yes Ma"am."
She laughed. "Ma"am? That"s the first time anyone has ever called me that!"
"I"m sorry!"
"No, it"s cool! It just makes me seem a lot older to be called Ma"am! I"m a freshman at UCA. What about you?"
"Me? Oh, I"m a senior."
"A Senior! Wow, I didn"t know you were that old! Maybe I should call you "sir"? Do you play sports?"
"Football."
Travis cut in, because he saw a misunderstanding in the making. "Actually Drew is a senior at Laurel Grove High School."
"Oh, okay! That means we are about the same age. I graduated High School a year early."
"Can you do that?" Drew asked.
"You couldn"t with your "B"s and "C"s." His Dad answered.
"Listen, maybe we could hang out, since we are both too young to drink, and I think that"s the only reason some of these other college students are going on this trip, to go on a drinking spree."
"I thought the college was taking them to England to teach them about Shakespeare and such." Drew asked.
"Some of these students have never heard of Shakespeare, and still won"t know anything about him when they go home. They just want to be able to say to their friends that they partied in England this summer! Next year they will party in Paris, or Athens, or wherever the University offers a trip that year."
"It doesn"t sound like much of a trip. They could stay home and get drunk."
"Yes, that"s exactly the way I feel! They are going to waste a unique learning experience, because they will be too drunk to know what"s going on, most of the time."
"In that case, you"re more than welcome to hang out with us, Audrey." Travis said. "Is it okay with you, Drew?"
"Oh, yeah, sure!"
They got their boarding pa.s.ses and went on to the departure gate, where they waited only a short time before loading up on the Delta flight to New York. Travis let Drew have his window seat, so he could see the sights as they took off. As they fastened their seatbelts, Travis showed him where the barf bag was, just in case. When the stewardess stood in front of the plane and gave out the instructions for a water landing, Drew"s eyes got big. She explained about the floatation devices under the seat, and the oxygen masks, and he looked at his Dad, who was browsing through the in-flight magazine.
"Don"t worry about all that, Drew. By law, they have to go over it at the start of every flight. Believe me, if the plane goes down, you won"t have to worry about any of it."
"That"s what worries me! So what if we do go down?"
"Drew, flying is the ultimate expression of faith. You must have complete faith that the pilots know what they are doing, because your life is literally in their hands. If we go down, there is absolutely nothing we can do about it."
"We can"t jump out with a parachute? Like you did in Colombia?"
"In that case, I was the pilot, and we were flying at low alt.i.tude, and we actually had a parachute. Do you have a parachute?"
"No."
"Then you must have faith in the pilots, that they will know what to do, in case something happens. You can survive a sinking ship, or a bus or train wreck, but if something happens at 35,000 feet, there is nowhere to go but down."
"Is it too late for me to get off?"
"Yes it is. We"re starting to move. Want some chewing gum? Chewing gum causes your ears to pop as you go up and down in elevation. If they don"t pop, you"ll have an ear ache."
"Right now an ear ache is the least of my worries, Dad! Are we speeding up?"
"Yeah, we"re headed for the runway. Once we get clearance, we will be like a rock being shot out of a slingshot! We will accelerate from zero to 150 mph in about ten seconds, because we have to go that fast to be able to get off the ground. And if you watch out the window, you will be amazed at how fast we leave the Earth behind! Just lay back in the seat and enjoy it!"
"I don"t know if I can."
"Here we go!"
The G force threw them back in their seats, as the plane sped down the runway, faster and faster, until the sides of the runway became a blur. Then the nose of the plane came up, and they shot skyward. Drew managed to look out the window as they went up, and saw the buildings in Atlanta quickly growing smaller, the interstate highways scurrying with "ants". But the low hanging clouds soon caused all that to fade away, and there was nothing but white, until they got much higher, and popped out above the clouds.
"Well, what do you think now?"
"I"m dizzy. How fast are we going?"
"Probably between 500 and 600 miles per hour."
"It doesn"t seem like we are moving that fast."
"That"s because there is nothing to gauge it against. No mile markers in the clouds. We"ve leveled off, so we should be about 35,000 feet off the ground."
"It"s kind of neat, but we still have to land, huh?"
"Landing is about as routine as taking off. Here comes the drink cart."
"I don"t know if I can keep anything down."
Almost two hours later they landed in New York, to change planes, this time to a British Airways flight. But the plane wasn"t in yet from its previous flight, so they were told that they would be delayed. Professor Foust was alarmed at this.
"But that will throw us late arriving in London! The tour director is supposed to be there to meet us! I need to call London, to let him know that we will be late!"
Professor Cunningham did not seem concerned at all. "Relax, Steve. Tour directors know all about flight delays."
"But I need to call him!"
"No, when he gets to the airport, he"ll see that our flight has been delayed, and he"ll get a cup of tea and wait. No big deal."
"I need to talk to someone in authority here! Excuse me, Miss! How long will this delay be? We are on a very tight schedule!"
In a British accent, she replied, "The flight is still approximately 45 minutes from New York. It will have to be serviced and refueled before it can be sent back up. We are looking at a 90 minute delay."
"90 minutes! That"s an hour and a half!"
"Yes sir, an hour and a half, if you prefer to call it that."
"Six of one, a half dozen of another." Fred said out of boredom. But Steve was in no mood to accept a delay.
"I want to talk to your superior, young lady! There must be another flight we can take that will get us there on time! Call someone higher up!"
"I don"t have to call anyone, sir. I am adequately qualified to tell you that we have no plane! It is simply not here!"
"But we simply must get to London on time!"
Fred Cunningham stepped up to the counter. "Steve, I think you can use a beer! Tell you what, let"s go back up the concourse to that little bar we saw coming in. I"m buying!"
"But our flight . . ."
"When the plane gets here, I am sure they will announce it over the P.A. system, so let"s go have us a pint! Okay?"
"Someone needs to stay here to keep the students together."
"I"m sure Nikki can do that."
Nikki replied, "Sure, I"ll watch things here, Steve. Go ahead. Some of the students might want to go to the bar with you." Four students immediately volunteered, always ready to try a new bar.
"I guess it can"t hurt. But someone come get us, if anything changes!"
As they left, Travis just shook his head. "So this guy is the head of the English Department?"
"Correct." Nikki replied.
"And he is in charge of this trip?"
"We let him think he is, but as you can see, we have to override his decisions sometimes. We let him handle things, until he starts to get out of hand, then we gently take over for him. We are like advisors to a mad emperor. When his insanity surfaces, we have to run things in his name."
"Speaking of insanity, has he ever been checked out?"
"Oh yeah, and yes he is. It"s not required for the job, but it certainly helps to be "reality challenged". I know, because I have worked there for twelve years now. I think that some college professors exist in a vacuum. They see the world in a way that no one else does."
"Is that good, or bad?"
"It depends on the professor."
"And in Professor Foust"s case?"
"He has been with us less than a year, so the jury is still out. But I think this trip is going to be very revealing. It will test his breaking point."
One of the female students interrupted her.
"Nikki, is it true that Dr. Fred and Dr. Steve are gone to a bar?"
"Yes Donna, they just left. If you hurry, you can catch them."
Donna ran to catch up.
"That is one girl right there that will try your patience! She is a professed "party animal"! Her parents send her money, and she blows it on booze and parties. I am so glad she is over 18, so we don"t have to take responsibility for her! A lot of the kids on this trip are just like her, but she is absolutely the worst! This trip is just another one-week party to her! And it"s a shame, because she is a very intelligent girl. She was closely watched and restrained as a child, and now that she is 18, she thinks she can do anything!"
"That seems to be a common ailment among 18 year olds. The sudden surge of, "I know more than those old foggies" syndrome. I think I had it for a brief time, before I was sent off to "Nam."
"Yeah, I think I had it briefly too."
"And my daughter, Jenny is eat up with it too! At eighteen, she joined the Air Force, was booted out for insubordination, married a b.u.m, and is now pregnant, living in a seedy trailer park on the cheap side of Arlington County. And all that happened within six months of her 18th birthday!"