Tangents, vol 1

by Rae Agatha

  “We need to help him! Fast!” Anna shouted.

  “How?!”

  “Hold the ladder, I’ll look around!” Anna said and walked further inside the plane. She had no idea what to look for and where, she only knew the time was running out. If Rick somehow managed to get inside, those insects would fly there after him. They had to close the door as soon as possible. She was walking around the plane, turning some boxes, tossing them aside, opening the lockers, looking for anything that might help Rick, that might help them all.

  With all the insects covering his body and waving their wings all around him, Rick was doing his best not to lose his balance. He was slowly moving upward, but felt the ladder wouldn’t hold much longer. He had no idea what terrified him more, the fact he was swarmed with gigantic insects who were now apparently curious of him, but might start biting or stinging him any second, or the fact he was about to fall down and, for example, break his leg. For a split second, he wondered if it was possible for the insects to fly away taking him with them, as big and as intrusive as they were. He recalled The Eels’ video-clip to “Novocain for the Soul”, with the band members floating in the air and it almost made him laugh. He loved that song.

  Still covering his mouth, hardly able to see anything, he pulled himself with one hand, praying the ladder would not fall apart. He saw Dan reaching out to him, but he was still too far away for Rick to grab his hand.

  “Got it!” Anna said and came back to Dan. She lay on the floor, next to him and pointed a flashlight down, in Rick’s direction. She turned it on.

  “What the hell are you doing?! The insects fly toward light!” Dan shouted. “Turn it off!”

  “Shut up! I know what I’m doing! If you have a better idea, let me know!”

  The surprisingly strong ray of light poured out of the flashlight. Rick looked up not knowing what was happening and felt his body was becoming lighter. The insects were flying away.

  “It’s working!” Anna exclaimed. “Thank God!”

  She kept the shaft on Rick who was now able to walk up, there were hardly any insects on him anymore. Relieved and calmed, he uncovered his mouth and started climbing. Single insects were still flying around him, but were visibly avoiding the light, so whenever any of them would appear too close to Rick, Anna would light it up and chase it away.

  He finally got to the door, but with the three last steps cracked, he had to boost himself into the plane. As he was about to do it, the step he was standing on and the next one cracked. The ladder moved from under his feet and it fell down to the ground. Rick was now swinging from the fuselage, holding on to it with his hands.

  “Oh Jesus, oh no!” He shouted. Dan and Anna grabbed him and got him on board. Just when they wanted to close the door, one of the wasps appeared and flew inside. Anna pointed the flashlight on it, but she couldn’t turn it on.

  “What the hell!” She shouted and started shaking it, checking it out in panic. The wasp stuck on Dan’s back, it was so big he had a third of his back covered with it.

  “Get it off me, Jesus!” Dan was clumsily running around the plane. “It’s going to sting me any second!” The insect was buzzing angrily and Rick saw through the windows that some of the wasps were coming back. It’s calling the others, he thought. He came to Anna, took the flashlight from her, took a swing and hit the wasp on Dan’s back with it as hard as he could. It let Dan go and was lying on its back, fluttering, trying to roll.

  “Get the fuck out of here!” Rick shouted and kicked it through the open door. Dan immediately closed it and everything went silent, the only sound was them breathing heavily.

  “How did you come up with the flashlight idea?” Dan asked.

  “I figured that since the giant insects were nowhere around us during the day, they probably prefer darkness. Also, I was kind of improvising,” Anna replied.

  Suddenly, a bulge appeared next to the door.

  “The bitch stung,” Anna said.

  “And almost pierced heavy, metal wall of a plane,” Rick whispered. He took a few steps ahead and looked through the windows. The insects were gone and the sky was clear again.

  “If you want some more excitement for tonight, take a look at this,” Rick said. Anna and Dan walked toward the windows.

  “Jesus Christ,” Dan said. There were two gigantic moons in the sky.

  Chapter 6

  Pallid light was trickled into the plane through the small circle-shaped windows, giving Rick, Anna and Dan enough of light to look around, so once their eyes got adjusted to the conditions, they started getting familiar with the place.

  It was a medium-sized plane, there were seats for thirty-four passengers. Most of them were in bad condition with chunks of sponge and springs popping out, it was, however, possible to sit on them, even to lie down. The plane seemed to be very old; it was worn out and quite dirty. Apart from a heavy, dusty half-torn curtain, there was no division between the pilots’ cabin and the rest of the seats; apparently the aircraft was in service before terror cast its shadow on flying.

  Rick was looking through the lockers above the seats, Anna was checking out boxes and storage chests tossed on the floor and Dan was at the back of the plane looking through what seemed to be the flight attendants’ facilities.

  “There’s not much here,” Anna said. “Most of the boxes are empty, but in some of them I’ve found blankets and tiny pillows.”

  Rick closed the last locker and looked at her. “There’s pretty much nothing here, neither.”

  “Dan? Any luck?” Anna asked.

  “Depends on how you define luck.” Dan walked down the aisle pushing a flight attendant cart. “Here’s what I found.”

  Dan bent, opened the metal doors on the side of the cart and took out a metal drawer with mini wine bottles. He waved them humorously by his ear and asked them if they preferred red or white.

  “Now you’re talking,” Rick laughed while taking his flannel shirt off. “Red for me, please.”

  “I’ll take white,” Anna said. “I really need a drink.”

  “There you go,” Dan gave each of them a bottle.

  “Fly With Us? Never heard of this company,” said Rick looking at the label. Even though it was difficult to see anything with practically no light inside the plane, the labels on the bottles were white and had black letters printed on them. “Have you?”

  Dan and Anna shook their heads admitting they had not. He opened another drawer and there were some packages of peanuts, salted crackers and chips there.

  “Looks like you’ve got dinner for us, too,” Anna said looking at Dan’s acquisition. “Are they edible?”

  “Well, it’s all factory-sealed, seems fine,” he replied.

  “No, okay, but is there an expiration date? I mean, the plane looks really old.”

  “Yeah, but since we have no idea what year we’re in, we can’t trust anything the labels say. We might be here, like a month before or fifty years after the expiration date,” said Rick.

  “True, but maybe if there’s a name of the company that made those snacks? Maybe we could at least find out where the plane’s from?” Anna asked while twisting her bottle cap off…

  Dan took a package of peanuts, turned it in his fingers, and looked at it closely, trying to find some dates or further information.

  “I can’t really see much in this darkness –“

  “Here,” Anna said as she pointed the flashlight on the package.

  “Fly With Us – the same name as on the wine bottles.”

  “It’s probably some airline supply company,” Rick said.

  “Yeah… on the package, everything is written in six languages, English, French, German, Spanish, Portuguese, I think, and, I don’t know, Chinese maybe. Ingredients, information about possible allergy reaction to peanuts, nothing else, really.”

  “Have you found anything else in there?” Anna asked.

  “Some refreshing napkins, each package factory-sealed, too, just like the snacks, so
I guess they can be used, and, um, that’s pretty much it.”

  “Well then, cheers,” Rick said and they all clinked their bottles. They drank some wine and all agreed it wasn’t too bad. Dan distributed the peanuts and chips among them and they all sat on the seats. Anna stretched out her legs and leaned on the window. She looked outside with unease. She wanted to make sure there were no more insects trying to get in and then looked at Rick and Dan. They sat opposite to her.

  “So, what do you think, where are we? Did we teleport to another planet?” Anna asked. “I can’t believe I’ve just said that.”

  Rick drank some more wine. “I have no idea, but I’m really beginning to think it’s not a dream.”

  Dan turned back on his seats and looked at him. “What, you think it’s for real?”

  “You think it’s not?”

  “I know this is real,” Anna said and rolled up one of her pants legs. There was a long, thin, vertical scab on her calf, surrounded by a bruise. “It happened when I fell off the ladder a bit. I know it hurts for real. I’m not sure if a person can sense things so vividly in a dream.”

  “Did you find any first-aid kit in the back?” Rick asked Dan.

  “No, I’ll check again,” he replied and got up from his seat.

  “It’s okay, it already healed itself, it’s fine,” Anna grabbed Dan’s arm.

  “I’ll look for some bandages, maybe peroxide. It’s not like I have anything else to do, or anywhere else to be anyway, you know?” Dan said and walked to the back.

  “What time is it, Anna?” Rick asked.

  “It’s 5:00 a.m.”

  “Okay, so it’s been completely dark for approximately and hour. So

  4:00 a.m. is now our point of reference, we’ll see how long the night will be.”

  They could hear Dan opening and closing some cabinets and drawers at the back.

  “I think I’ve found something,” he said and came back with a small box with a red cross on it. He sat back at his place and opened it. There were two bandages, a few Band-Aids, peroxide and some gauze pads.

  “I can’t believe they’d have something so small for approximately

  forty people on board,” Rick said.

  “It’s a small plane, the flight was supposed to be short, I guess, maybe that is why there’s nothing more…I think it was for the flight attendants’ usage only. But it’s good we at least have that. Here,” Dan said as he gave Anna a Band-Aid and peroxide. “I don’t think something like that expires.”

  She twisted the bottle cap off and poured some of the peroxide on her wound. It started foaming immediately, and she hissed once it began to burn.

  “Is there any more wine?” Rick asked Dan.

  “Yeah, about ten more bottles, help yourself,” he answered while eating peanuts. Rick took out another mini bottle and came back to his seat. He stretched his legs, took his shoes off and started drinking.

  “There are some blankets and pillows in the boxes, remember?” Anna said.

  “Yeah, I think I’ll get some sleep.” Rick got up and brought himself a blanket and a pillow. It reminded him the first night he slept on the sofa after his fight with Mon.

  “I think it’s a good idea to put the blinds down, you know?” Dan said. “I don’t think I’d be able to rest looking through the windows, seeing the ridiculous two-moon horizon and wondering if the insects are coming back or not.”

  Rick nodded and curtained the windows before coming back to his seat. Anna did the same with the windows behind her and took off her sweater. It was getting really warm in the enclosed space of the fuselage.

  Rick finished his wine and lay on the seats. He curled up his legs a bit and covered himself with a blanket. He was fast asleep within minutes.

  Dan looked at Anna who beckoned him to sit nearer to her. He got up and sat in the row next to hers.

  “You know I’ve never been on a plane until now?” Anna said.

  “Seriously? Why?”

  “I’ve been scared of flying since I was a little girl. My parents died in a plane crash.”

  “I see,” he said with understanding in his voice.

  “This is a true irony that now a plane is my shelter,” Anna drank the rest of her wine.

  “So, you said you were a college teacher,” Dan said taking his jacket off.

  “Yes, I was,” she confirmed.

  “What happened? Why aren’t you one anymore?”

  “I got into a relationship with a student.”

  “Oooh, raunchy lady,” Dan smiled.

  “I can’t believe you called me a raunchy lady like a minute after I’d told you my parents died in a car crash,” Anna said and looked at him reproachfully.

  “I…, it, it wasn’t, I mean that comment had nothing to do with your parents’ story,” he replied embarrassed, “I’m sorry, it was probably a stupid remark.”

  “It’s okay,” Anna burst with laughter, “I know, I know, it’s all right,” she said waving her hand in a gesture assuring him he had nothing to worry about. “You should have seen your face, though,” she laughed and gave him a pat on the shoulder. Dan laughed, too, but when they heard Rick turning over, they lowered their voices.

  “So, what’s the story?” He asked drinking his wine. “I mean I thought things simply couldn’t be more interesting, but it looks like I was wrong.”

  Anna looked at him, smiled a bit sadly, and sighed. She leaned against the plane’s wall and took a sip of her white Chardonnay.

  Anna

  “Ms. Fielding, do you know why you’re here?” John Bay, the president of the Boston Humanistic Academy asked. He was sitting by a wide, heavy, wooden table. On his right side there was Joan Lester, the dean of the literature department, Anna’s direct superior and on his left side, Michael Walt, the president of the Academy’s Board.

  Anna Fielding was sitting opposite to them on a big, ornamented wooden chair. Yes, she knew exactly why she was there; because people were scum, that’s why. Anna took a sip of water before answering.

  “No, unfortunately, I don’t.”

  “You are here because your colleagues have serious doubts whether you can still work here as a college teacher.”

  “Do they? On what basis?” She said and licked her lips nervously.

  I

  When the academic year of 2012/2013 started at the Boston Humanistic Academy, Anna Fielding had no idea it was going to be her last year as the Academy’s worker. She was a PhD scholar, specializing in contemporary American literature, had been a college teacher for three years and she taught literature, creative and academic writing courses. Anna liked her job, although it was sometimes difficult to find students really, deeply interested in the taught subject, willing to debate, ask questions, seek answers, and to look for inspiration.

  She had always believed that one of literature’s biggest assets was its flexibility, that it was prone to interpretations, in accordance with readers’ experience and expectations, so it always hurt her a bit once she saw students unwilling to share their opinions, too lazy to read a thicker book. To be fair, not everyone was like that and, fortunately, there had always been some individuals, in most of the groups at least, willing to take a stand, discuss certain matters, and express their thoughts and observations. Such people would always be the ones to help Anna spread her academic wings. Her job was the best thing in her life once she was able to start the fire of young, passionate minds exchanging their opinions and ideas during her lecture.

  Anna loved teaching literature, particularly as far as The Beat Generation and Charles Bukowski were concerned. The messages of freedom, both artistically and worldly speaking, that were pouring out of their works, the ideas of cherishing one’s individuality, of appreciating the simple things in life were the things that would always make her heart grow.

  Anna strongly believed that there was no such thing as a canon, that literature with its whole capacity was able to embrace practically anyone who was brave enough to write
something, to leave a piece of one’s soul on paper, in order to allow others to judge it, to express their opinions about it, to praise it, but also to criticize.

  During the summer of 2012, Anna’s colleague, Heather Michaels, decided to quit her job and stay at home in order to take care of her newly born baby girl. The dean made the decision to ask Anna to take over one of Heather’s courses, namely, lectures on the National Book Awards’ authors. Heather told Anna that she would always try to focus on different writers every year, so it was all up to her who she would choose and what or who would be the center of her lectures. Anna made the decision to devote her time to discuss the works of authors awarded with The Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters, namely to such masters as Ray Bradbury, Arthur Miller, Philip Roth on one side and Stephen King on the other as to prove her point that literature has no boundaries and that such popular culture phenomenon as the master of horror had every right to be among the other laureates as his contribution to American literature was beyond any doubt.

  It was September 2012 and Anna was in the teachers’ room waiting for her very first post-summer lecture. She was drinking coffee and checking her social media accounts when Tom came. He spotted Anna by the table and threw a paper bag with take-out food, right next to her notebook. She jumped on her chair, took the earphones out and looked at him angrily.

  “What the hell, Tom?” She asked.

  “And good morning to you, too,” Tom laughed out loud. “I thought you might want something for breakfast.”