Stars

Hey everyone, Jake here. I've decided that I'm gonna' put up little short stories here whenever I feel the itch to write them. They might be semi-regular, or who knows, maybe even a weekly thing. Only time will tell, eh? Ahahaha, yep. Please. Enjoy. Or I will be displeased.

*******

It's amazing how bright the sky is tonight. I never knew you could see this many stars in the suburbs. Too bright, usually. But I can see them perfectly right now, from my little spot in the middle of the road. Amazing how okay I am with this. If I lie still and not move, it's almost comfy.

Ow. Yeah, if I try not to move it's an alright place to be. Almost comfy.

Why am I even lying on the road anyway? Isn't that dangerous? What's wrong with me? Oh wait. Yeah. The kid. The stupid little kid. I can hear him crying. He's not hurt, is he?

"Shit, are you okay?"

Who's that? Huh. Middle-aged guy. Brown hair. Brown eyes. Looks like a dad. You know the type. Suburban type, nine-to-five job, always holding a beer while he stands near the grill at the party.

"Just stay with me, kid," he says, his voice kind of urgent. "What's your name?"

I cough. Damn, it hurt to cough. That sucks.

"Sam," I manage. It's barely audible to my own ears. I hope this guy caught it. I don't really want to keep talking. Hurts too much to talk. Takes too much energy.

"Sam?" says the man, sounding almost relieved. "Sam, I've called 911, they should be here any minute now. Just stay with me."

He holds my hand in his, in that gentle way that feels like he's afraid to break something. His hands are warm. Kind of clammy though. In fact, he looks kind of sweaty all over. Pale too. Is he sick?

"Sam, focus on my voice," he says. This guy really has that sense of urgency in his tone. Wonder if he's rushing to be someplace. "Talk to me. How old are you?"

Weird question.

"Ni... Nineteen," I whisper. It's taking a bit too much effort to talk now. Another cough. This one tastes a bit rusty. Ew. I really feel like puking.

"Nineteen," he laughs. Sounded really nervous. I wonder why. Is nineteen a funny number? Maybe it reminds him of a joke. Like the other one. How did it go again? 7-8-9, or something.

"Stars," I sigh. Every word I say is so dry in my mouth but he has got to see these stars.

"Yeah, Sam," he nods, one hand gently touching my face.

Whoa, dude. Boundaries. At least buy me a drink first. Heh. Wait a second. Did he say something about 911? What's up with that? I can hear an ambulance somewhere. Did something happen? That kid's still crying. Why is he crying? I have so many questions but I just can't be bothered to ask them right now.

It's starting to get really cold out here. Autumn and I'm out without a coat. Genius of the Year, right?

"Sam?" he says. "Sam, stay awake."

No. I think I'll go to bed. I'm starting to get used to the cold. It's not bothering me as much. I can't be bothered to get up anyway.

"Sam," he says again, more urgently this time. He slaps my face a bit. "Sam, wake up."

I look to the side, trying to avoid being slapped some more. Hey. Where did that car come from? The front lights look cracked. Is this his car? He should really take care of it a bit more. Maybe it got vandalized.

"I-Is-Is he okay?" the kid sobs. Hey, look who stopped crying. Well, no wonder he was crying. He's skinned his knees. Poor guy. Probably while running home or something.

"Yeah," the man says, not taking his eyes off me. "Yeah, he's going to be fine."

The ambulance is getting louder now. But it's starting to sound muffled. Like I'm underwater or something. I cough again, this time in the guy's face.

"Sor... ree..." Seriously. I wasn't trying to cough in your face, man. Now I've got red stuff all over your nice white shirt. Little cherries in fresh cream. Ah, I'd kill for some of that right now. It'd make everything perfect.

Things are getting really comfy now. I can't hear the ambulance anymore, which is nice. Peaceful. I think the guy is crying but I can't really hear him. He looks blurry. I'm getting really sleepy. Warm even. I don't want to get up. And the stars. Look at those stars. I never knew you could see this many stars in the sub...

That One Time I Almost Got Stuck in a Foreign Communist Country

Gather round, everyone, cause I'm going to tell a little story about that one time I very nearly missed my flight because that was just the sort of thing I was prone to do. Hopefully those days are behind me, but they're probably not.

Anyway, this happened a few years back. I'd just finished a lovely trip to Shanghai, visited family, went sightseeing, and did a whole bunch of tourist stuff. Like go to the aquarium without knowing how much it was (my cousin was paying) and then freaking out over the ridiculous summer prices. I love aquariums but I still wouldn't have paid that much to see fish swimming.

Where I learnt to haggle from my aunt. She haggles like an assassin.

So it was the last day of my stay in China, and I'd taken a shuttle bus all the way from Shanghai to Hangzhou cause back then, Hangzhou International Airport was the closest airport to Shanghai that had AirAsia flights. That meant I was all alone while waiting for my flight back to Malaysia. In hindsight, this might have been a mistake cause I was me. In my teen years. Not always the brightest.

Artist's rendition. Which makes it look not so much like in my memory.

So when the bus dropped us off at the airport around 9AM, the first thing I did was check my ticket. My flight was at 10:30AM, which meant I had an hour to spare. Sweet. So I chilled, going into the only shop they had and bought a magazine to flip through while I waited (total waste of money cause my Chinese sucks). Every ten minutes, I'd glance at the monitor they had that told us when the flights were boarding.

And let me just point out that the status for my flight was frozen at 'Checking In'. That didn't mean it was boarding, which in my head meant I had more time. That 'Checking In' status had been there since I'd stepped into the airport, so obviously I'd already done that part and my luggage with their mysterious cargo people. So I was wondering why the hell they weren't boarding my flight yet. Then at 10:31AM, I noticed the large group of Chinese tourists sitting in a corner waiting area had already disappeared.

Heart hammering. Palms sweating. I went up to the information counter and asked if they were boarding my flight yet since their dang monitors weren't saying anything.

"Oh, that flight has left already, sir," the lady replied. Shit.
"What?" I said. In my head, I quickly went through all the options I had.

1. Contact my family and ask them to bring me back to Shanghai then get another ticket for the next day. Not ideal. They'd probably be frustrated with me.
2. Cry like a baby and beg them to just give me a seat on the next flight.
3. Act outraged that their monitor was so broken and still displaying the flight status as 'Checking In'.

I started to go with Number 3. Not always the best thing to do, but the two other choices were probably worse. So I started with a frown and mentioned the monitor status. So the lady called some people and mentioned that I'd missed the boarding to them over the phone.

"You're in luck, sir," she said. "The flight hasn't left yet."

"Oh, thank you for your help," I said, as calmly as I could. Thank God. I was so relieved I nearly passed out.

Within five minutes, a pretty flight attendant appeared out of nowhere, hair flying, and walking as fast as she could on her little stilettos.

"Thank goodness you're here," she exclaimed. "We were all panicking over you."

"Oh, really?" I asked, feeling sheepish. "Sorry. The monitors were acting iffy."

"Next time, better to just follow the time on your ticket."

She had me breezing through security, skipping over lines and everything. It was so convenient a part of me was actually thinking, "I feel like a frickin' VIP. We should be late more often." Before I knew it, I was in my window seat next to a lovely couple of elderly Chinese ladies who were going to Malaysia on vacation.

"So you were the one we were waiting for," one of them chuckled in the way old people do.

Then I spent the next 5 hours giving them tips on Malaysian culture and telling them not to go out too late in Kuala Lumpur because there was a crazed acid-splasher on the loose. I am so good for our country's tourism.

So that's the story of how I single-handedly delayed a flight, managed to get on it in the end, apologized sheepishly to everyone I stepped past on the plane, and then told two sweet old ladies about the possible dangers of this tropical paradise.

The End

P.S. - Thank you, helpful flight attendant who was still pleasant even after I delayed the flight and probably got you in trouble. Wherever you are now, bless your heart

P.P.S .- I don't think I marred our country's image that badly, since the two ladies were actually super excited about gambling at Genting Highlands and I told them about how delightful the place was.