Day One

My sentence today was: Her shoulders shook violently

The anticipation was almost too much. It had been 2 months since she had seen him. His flight was to land at 6:55, give him 10 minutes to de-board, 15 minutes to get his luggage and make his way to the exit at precisely 7:25 she would have her lips on his.

“I have to go, they are calling for my flight to board. Looks like everything is running on time. You will be there to pick me up?” he asked

“Wouldn’t miss it for the world! Do you want to go out or get take out and stay in when you get here?” she asked

“Delivery. I don’t want to leave the apartment for a week.” you could hear the smile on his face as he spoke.

“I was hoping you would say that. I love you. I will see you soon.” she responded

She hung up the phone and imagined the look he might have on his face, that beautiful face. She put her headphones in, and got to work. In anticipation of the response she had just received from him, she had been executing plans all day. Apartment clean? check. candles bought and then strategically placed? check. Time for a long hot bath to pass the time until she needed to leave for the airport.

She ran the water and got undressed. A few bubbles for good measure, some music playing on the stereo and her phone left in the bedroom, she did not want to be disturbed. She had some relaxing to do. Song after song played melting into one another for what seemed like hours. Through the sound of the gentle melodic beats she heard a foreign sound break through. It was her phone. ‘Let it go to voicemail’ she thought, the only person she wanted to talk to was currently unavailable. A few minutes later she heard the familiar bells of her ringtone. She decided to get out of the bath, she needed to start getting dressed anyway. The plane would be landing in an hour and a half.

She made her way to the bedroom and picked up her phone. 5 missed calls. It must have taken a few calls before the sound of the ringing made its way through the music. All 5 were from her mother, only one voicemail.

“CALL ME, WHERE ARE YOU? CALL ME!” her mother said in a frantic voice. She tapped her mothers name to call her back. It only rang once.

“Where have you been are you ok? Im so sorry.” She said, you could hear the tears in her voice.

“What happened I took a bath. I was only in there for a little…” As she said this she looked at the clock. It was 7:30 “Oh God, I missed the flight. Why didn’t he call?”

“You mean you don’t know?” Her mother asked “Oh Honey, I am so sorry. There was an accident. Turn on your TV”
The world seemed to spin faster than normal and she was having trouble keeping up.

“Just tell me what is going on Mom. What is it?” She turned on the tv and saw flames. The voice on the television could be heard by her mother over the phone.

We are bringing you the latest information on the explosion of flight 144 from New York to Los Angeles. It is not yet known what the cause of the explosion was, but from the footage seen here we cant help but think there were no survivors. No confirmation yet as the firefighters are still trying to put out the blaze.

“I don’t- what- is that? Mommy, is that James?” She could barely get the words out

“I am so sorry Jenny, your father and I are driving up there to be with you right now. Jenny? Jenny are you there?”

She couldn’t speak, she dropped the phone. As she crumpled to the ground her shoulders shook violently while she sobbed. Her world, was over.