AUTHOR’S NOTES: I wrote this in 10th grade creative writing. It was supposed to be an exercise in descriptive language. How do you all think I did? I guess I was a fighter jet enthusiast even back then. Yay for the F14. And I needed more original fiction in my repertoire.

FLIGHT

Chris Brewer gasped as his jet rocketed off the carrier and into the cloudless blue sky. Holy mother, what have I gotten myself into? He thought absently as he maneuvered the sleek airplane through the sky.

Focus, idiot! You need to fly this thing! Chris admonished himself, pulling the craft out of its turn and shifting the wings back. Let’s see what it can do with the afterburners. He pushed a button and the afterburners kicked in, giving the F14 an extra burst of speed.

Yikes! Chris thought, but managed not to verbalize it. OK, afterburners off. Let’s come in for landing. He kicked off the afterburner and the jet eased back to normal speed. Left turn…the world tilted, splicing sky blue with ocean blue. Very nice. The carrier came into view. Good, let’s go down a little bit. Chris put all his energy on the 600-foot dot that was his landing space. Coming in…let’s deploy the landing gear…

There was a soft thump as the Tomcat unfurled its wheels and approached the gray dot that was rapidly becoming more of a blob. Holding steady…come on…the blob became a more tangible polygon shape and the other aircraft and crew became visible. Come on baby…here we go…

The ocean disappeared and the aircraft carrier’s dark gray coloring filled Chris’ vision. Touching down…NOW! The plane jerked as it made contact with the surface, and once again as the arresting cable lashed out and brought the F14 to an abrupt stop.

Phew! Chris sat back in his seat and let out a relieved sigh.

“Hey!” A hand on his shoulder. “Hotshot!”

Chris looked up. His wife Carly stood above him with an amused/annoyed look on her face. “There’s ten other people behind you who want to try this!”

Chris looked behind him. Sure enough, ten people-old, young, men, and women-were waiting in line. “Oh, right.”

Carly giggled and pulled him out of the seat. “Pretty intense simulation, huh?”

Chris looked back at the simulator. “I have got to get me one of those!”