This is my entry to the 24 hour story contest which you can find here 24hour story
The story prompt : An airplane takes off in present day, but lands 100 years in the past.
1918 - A gem through time
I look down and pull the straps of my safety belt together, just like the stewardess in front of me, giving a demonstration of what to do should we all be plummeting to our near certain deaths from thirty thousand feet in the air. Why do we even bother with such alarm? I pull hard and feel my heart beat slower as the belt seems to cut off the flow of oxygen to my brain. I settle back into the deep big business class seat and start poking around the touchscreen of my personal in-flight entertainment unit. I find over 200 movies available to watch and happily start browsing the many categories available.
Finally I decide to watch "Jumanji - Welcome to the jungle". It's a comedy starring my favourite comedian and actor Kevin Hart . His movies always have me cracking up all over the floor. Half an hour into the show and I am guffawing loudly and getting dirty looks from the passenger next to me. His violet eyes piercing my peripheral vision and causing me quite a bit of alarm.I look straight at him and he glares back, obviously annoyed at my laughter. "Sorry!" I say to him " But this movie is hilarious! You need to check it out" I hope he does because nothing short of power failure is going to make me stop laughing.
Suddenly he pulls a strange looking gemstone from his pocket, mutters some foreign words at it and blows a huge puff of purple coloured glitter into my face. Before I can call for help, I see he has tucked the stone away and I am left coughing and breathing heavily from the glitter. Then the weirdest thing happened, I started to drift off to sleep and before you can say "your cat's pyjamas" I was asleep dreaming of unicorns and purple glitter.
When I awoke, the plane was empty save a few stewardess cleaning up the seats.
"Sir, the plane has landed in Paris and you need to disembark now" said a pretty blonde lady in a British Airways uniform
I rubbed my eyes and looked around for the mischievous passenger who had drugged me, I guess! because I had fallen asleep before the movie ended. Quite upset that I missed the ending and rushing to get off the plane, I didn't realise how different the plane looked. There was a distinct smell of cigarettes in the plane and the size of the aircraft seemed a lot smaller. What in the world was this?
When I turned to exit the plane, instead of the usual walkway leading to the airport, I am greeted by a mobile staircase leading to the ground. I shrug and drag my little roller suitcase down the steep steel stairs. It's night where I have landed and the airport seems awfully quiet for an international airport. Somebody shoves a newspaper in my face and I am alarmed as I read the headlines " Great Battle is Halted;Renewal of Attack Near;Fresh Troops Coming Up!" What war? the last I heard it was Afghanistan, but this paper said the war was in Germany. Wait that can't be right. I look up and notice something weird. Yes everything is weird! People are dressed differently, and hearing them speak, even their speech sounds odd.
I look down at the paper again and blink hard as I notice the date, "4th April 1918!" I shouted out loud. This can't be, had I seriously been sucked through a wormhole and why hadn't it taken me to the future? Why had it taken me back in time? What did I know about life 100 years ago? Probably nothing so help me God.
Suddenly from behind a pillar stepped that strange violet eyed passenger. He came up to me and said " Howdy, Nice sleep my friend" he said creepily " Would you like to go back to 2018 now?" I nodded my head wordlessly
" Nothing to say I suppose?" he leered. I shook my head sideways .He took out his strange gemstone again, muttered more foreign words into it and this time blew green glitter into my face. Just like before I passed out cold. When I awoke I found myself in the large bustling environment of the Kuala Lumpur International Airport. The big neon signs flashing welcomed me back to the comfort of 2018. I heaved a sigh of relief, whipped out my handphone and called myself an Uber. I was back to the time of mobiles and internet. Life was good and I would finish Jumanji - Welcome to the Jungle on Movies.com tonight in the safety of my bed.
