Wednesday, December 11, 2019

The People's Princess


The plane was not new. It was the oldest plane Lizzie had ever seen. The cabin crew were not new either. They were the oldest cabin crew Lizzie had ever seen. They were two women who were the most overweight people Lizzie had actually ever seen in a plane. She wondered how they were going to move up and down the aisles with ease. They were like two mothers, waddling along and calling everybody 'Hon'. One of them called Lizzie 'Hon' and she started to cry. She was frightened of flying, she felt sick and her head was spinning. She wanted somebody to take her in their arms and tell her that everything would be all right. She knew that the doctor had been right, that she should not fly with concussion. Her head would probably explode at take-off.

It did not explode at take-off but Lizzie felt worse. The one flight attendant who had called her 'Hon' came and offered her some nuts but Lizzie could not speak by this time and the woman asked, 'Are you OK, Hon?'

Lizzie said, 'No,' so the flight attendant said, 'You come to the back with me, just come and sit down, you'll be all right,' so Lizzie went and sat at the back, where they were getting all the nuts and drinks out of the cupboards and the attendant made her sit down on the cabin crew's seat and said, 'Now, I think you need a beer, you'll be all right once you've had a beer,' and poured her one, and Lizzie said, 'I am scared of flying.'

'No need, Hon,' said the flight attendant. 'My name's Maddie. I been flyin with this airline since 1959. I'm still goin.'