Future Writer Chapter 3 (6 pages)

Chapter 3

Two week after receiving the tickets for the annual company travel package tour to Caracas and continuing on to Rio de Janeiro, I was boarding a plane that would begin the opening of Pandora's Box. The weather in Corpus Christi was hot and sunny, with a light breeze from the southwest. The air conditioning on the plane made us oblivious to all of that. Soon the aircraft was in the air and heading south across the Gulf of Mexico. From my backpack I pulled out the ledger that was sent to me two week previous. I began reading....

"Sampson McKain, you Ole Sea Dog, I know you've got a woman in every port," says Boatswain Jack as he guzzles down another round of whisky.

"No lad, I'm afraid that you've read me wrong. My Ellie (Sam's Grandmother) is my one and only."

"I can tell you're feedin' me a line of mackerel, McKain."

"Take another swig mate and I'll tell you about her."

The two sailors take a healthy drink then Sampson continues, "She’s as pretty as the sunset after a stormy day. Her walk is as graceful as dolphin in flight, and in her womb is the seed from almighty heaven above. She'll be havin' my boy after this voyage's last port of call, St. Croix."

"Good Job, Salty. You're rootin' for a boy are ya'?"

"Sampson McKain the Second we'll call him."

"What if it's a girl?"

"It's a boy lad. I can feel it in my bones."

"You never can tell. It still may be a girl."

"So what if it is? She'll be the twinkle of the moonlight dancin' off the water. She's got to be if she's comin' from my sweet Ellie."

"It won't be long now and you'll be home with your sweet Ellie. Two more weeks to St. Croy then two more months and we'll be home."

"I hate to say it lad, but after this voyage, this boy's gonna' quite the high life of the sea and settle down to my sweet Ellie and Sampson McKain Jr. ... I'll miss her..."

"Her? ... You'll be with her."

"Not Ellie you bilge wash, the sea, I'll miss the sea."

As I read his writings, I could feel exactly what my grandfather was feeling at the time that he wrote the ledger. I could feel that his life was being torn apart between his lust for adventure, and his love for my grandmother, not to mention his soon to be born son (my father).  As I read on, I found out that my grandfather would pass the time on the ship writing fiction stories about going places that only existed in his imagination. After a while his imagination began to run dry. He found it hard to continue writing about adventures in exotic places that didn't sound like the adventure he had already written about. So he decided to write about a frustrated author who could think of what to write about, then the strangest thing happened. The author inside his story, whom he named Clancy Ferguson, seemed to have an unlimited imagination. As much as he tried, my grandfather could not exhaust the imagination of Clancy.

At my grandfather's quill, Clancy would write far beyond what my grandfather could even understand much less imagine.  In my writings, I myself have experienced the frustration of a lacking imagination. So... I decided to adopt my grandfather's author, Clancy, to begin writings of my own.

I went to the back of the ledger where my grandfather last wrote and began to have Clancy write my story.

I had Clancy write:

Daniel (Clancy's character), while in Caracas, boards a Beechcraft B-300 Air king heading for Rio de Janeiro. The aircraft is lime green with yellow stripes and the emblem of a tropical bird on the tail. Daniel walks slowly up the three steps leading into the tail section of the aircraft.

In the aircraft are only ten lime green seats with bright yellow carpeting, two rows of five, separated by an aisle.

Daniel sits across from the door in the rear of the cabin. Looking forward,he can see movement in the cockpit. The cockpit is separated by a left and a right partition with an opening for passage in the center. The pilots are busily flipping switches and turning knobs to insure that the aircraft's systems are operating properly. Passengers boarding after Daniel are also filtering on to the plane. In the front left seat, sits a Hispanic man in a business suit and briefcase. Next to him, a sandy haired man wearing a tropical shirt and knee length shorts. Behind them is a young man in his early twenties with his fiancé' who is seated in the seat across the aisle from him. Behind them are two men dressed as if to be going on safari. Two men and a woman who look to be at retirement age take the remaining three seats around Daniel.

Shortly after the passengers have been seated, the pilot stands up from the left pilot's seat and walks down the center aisle to the rear of the aircraft to close the door.

He walks back to the front of the cabin and announces, "Welcome Ladies and Gentlemen. This flight should take four hours and twenty five minutes. I would like to ask that when you are in your seat, that you keep your seat belts buckled. The lavatory is at the rear of the aircraft. Food and drinks are across from the lavatory. Help yourself, and have a nice flight."

Before long the plane is in flight. Looking out from the window, Daniel sees the rugged, South American Rain forest below. Vegetation and endless waterways seem to go on forever. Daniel is finding this flight much more interesting than most flights due to low altitude flown by this smaller aircraft.

Turbulence increases as the plane flies over tall hills and waterfalls.

Clouds are quickly developing in the skies overhead. Lightning is seen in the distance to the west. The pilot changes his course heading to the east in order to avoid the unexpected storm. The storm, however, has somehow closed them in and the pilot is seeking a safer altitude. The turbulence is becoming so bad that items on the fold down trays begin bouncing on to the floor.

The woman next to Daniel says, "I feel like we're riding a very bumpy roller coaster."

Suddenly, lightning strikes, just missing the aircraft. The blasting force from the lightning sends the small plane into a spin. Horns, buzzers, and lights begin going off in the cockpit. Some of the passengers scream as the plane rolls into a bank that is forty-five plus degree. The steepness of the banking aircraft causes the plane to go into a stall. The small aircraft plunges to the earth. The pilot pulls back the thrust and applies full counter rudder to stop the spin. Once the spin has stopped, the pilot pulls back hard on the wheel to level out the dive. The plane flies through the lower portion of the clouds exposing the ground five hundred feet below. The pilot begins to yell while pulling as hard as he can on the wheel. Slowly the plane rotates to an almost level position when crash! The plane skims across the tall vegetation of the Amazon rain forest which is on the crest of a tall mountain. Down the slope of the mountain the plane skims while still trying desperately to pull up. The effort, however, is not enough. The small aircraft descends into the vegetation. The wings rip from the fuselage and explode behind the projecting cabin.

The fuselage comes to rest in a valley between two highly vegetated hillsides.

The heavy rain extinguishes fires caused by the exploding wing mounted engines and the fuel tanks.

I had Clancy stop writing while the plane made its descent into Caracas. Once on the ground, I parted company with my colleagues as I made my way to the gate for my adjoining flight. Soon it became time to board the continuing aircraft.

I was concerned about how few passengers were at the gate at boarding time. We were directed down a stairwell that lead onto the tarmac. When the outside doors opened, a sense of Deja vu came over me as I saw in amazement, a lime green Beechcraft B-300 Air King. Just as in Clancy's story, the aircraft has yellow stripes and an emblem of a tropical bird on the tail.

I walked slowly up the three steps leading into the tail section of the aircraft. In the aircraft are only ten lime green seats with bright yellow carpeting, two rows of five seats, separated by an aisle.

"This is bizarre!" I thought to myself.

I sat across from the door in the rear of the cabin. Looking forward I could see movement in the cockpit. The cockpit is separated by a left and a right partition with an opening for passage in the center. The pilots are busily flipping switches and turning knobs to insure that the aircraft's systems are operating properly. Passengers boarding after me are also filtering on to the plane.

In the front, left seat, sits a Hispanic man in a business suit and briefcase.

Next to him, a sandy haired man wearing a tropical shirt and knee length shorts.

Behind them is a young man in his early twenties with his girlfriend who is seated in the seat across the aisle from him. Behind them are two men dressed as if to be going on safari. Two men and a woman, who look to be at retirement age, took the remaining three seats around me.

"It's as if I'm living Clancy's story," I thought to myself.

Shortly after the passengers have been seated, the pilot stands up from the left pilot's seat and walks down the center aisle to the rear of the aircraft to close the door.

He walks back to the front of the cabin and announces, "Welcome Ladies and Gentlemen. This flight should take four hours and twenty five minutes. I would like to ask that when you are in your seat, that you keep your seat belts buckled. The lavatory is at the rear of the aircraft. Food and drinks are across from the lavatory. Help yourself, and have a nice flight."

I cannot believe this!" I kept thinking.

Before long the plane is in flight. Looking out from the window, I can see the rugged, South American Rain forest below. Vegetation and endless waterways seems to go on forever. I found much more interesting than most flights due to low altitude flown by this smaller aircraft. It occurred to me that I could have Clancy use the details of this flight to add color to the story, so I had Clancy back track in the story and fill in details such as passenger conversations, the slight over chilling of the air conditioner, and the fragrant smell of ladies perfume from one of the passengers.

I had Clancy continue from where the story had left off:

... In a daze, Daniel unbuckles his seatbelt and attempt to open the door of the aircraft. The door seemed jammed. He then reaches for the emergency lever and pulls down hard. The door explodes off its hinges and into the jungle.

The incoming light is blinding as the passenger adjust their eyes.

"Is anybody hurt?" yells the pilot from the cockpit while getting out of his seat.

Incredibly, none of the passengers are hurt. They step off of the plane and into the dense forest, adjacent the aircraft.....

Then in shock, it occurred to me that if this plane is to follow the same fate as Daniel's flight then we will be doomed to crash. I immediately had Clancy write into his story, a person that wasn't on this flight.

Clancy, at first, is undecided as to which kind of personality to create for this person. Then he makes the decision to remove one of the three retired aged passengers and replace him with the perfect woman, perfect for Daniel. In building a personality, Clancy decides to create an independent woman with the makings of a 'James Bond Girl'. She is to be slightly Asian, slightly Arabic, and slightly European. At my hand, Clancy named her Alexia.

I stopped my writing when I notice the turbulence increasing as the plane flies over tall hills and waterfalls. Clouds are quickly developing in the skies overhead. Lightning is seen in the distance to the west. The pilot changes his course heading to the east in order to avoid the unexpected storm. The storm, however, had somehow closed us in and the pilot was seeking a safer altitude. The turbulence became so bad that items on the fold down trays began bouncing on to the floor.

The woman next to me said, "I feel like we're riding a very bumpy roller coaster."

At that point I felt that these events cannot be only coincidences.

Suddenly lightning strikes just missing the aircraft. The blasting force from the lightning sends the small plane into a spin. Horns, buzzers, and lights began going off in the cockpit. Some of the passengers scream as the plane rolls into a forty-five plus degree bank. The steepness of the banking aircraft causes the plane to go into a stall. The small aircraft plunges to the earth.

The pilot pulls back the thrust and applies full counter rudder to stop the spin. Once the spin had stops, the pilot pulls back hard on the wheel to level out the diving aircraft. The plane flies through the lower portion of the clouds exposing the ground five hundred feet below. The pilot begins to yell while pulling as hard as he can on the wheel. Slowly the plane rotates to an almost level position when crash! The plane skimmed across the tall vegetation of a tall mountain. Down the slope of the mountain the plane skims while still trying desperately to pull up. The effort, however, is not enough.

The small aircraft descends into the vegetation.  The wings rip from the fuselage and explode behind the projecting cabin. The fuselage comes to rest in a valley between two highly vegetated hillsides. The heavy rain extinguishes fires caused by the exploding wing mounted engines and the fuel tanks.

In a daze, I unbuckle my seatbelt and attempt to open the door of the aircraft. The door seems jammed. I then reach for the emergency lever and pull down hard. The door explodes off its hinges and into the jungle.

The incoming light was blinding as the passenger adjust their eyes.

"Is anybody hurt?" yelled the pilot from the cockpit while getting out of his seat.

Incredibly, none of the passengers were hurt. They stepped off of the plane and into the dense forest, adjacent the aircraft.

"This can't be happening!" I said as I thought about the story that Clancy had written.

The pilot yelled, "Somebody help me. The navigator is hurt."

The business man runs back into the airplane to assist the pilot in removing the navigator. I almost went into shock as the pilot laid the navigator on the ground and stepped away. It was Alexia.