Flying in Real Life

“Linus, look!”

Margaret sat by the window, bouncing with excitement.

Linus let out a groan and opened his eyes to stare at his younger sister. Her face was glued to the double-glass of the airplane window, taking in the view from thousands of feet up in the air.

“You’re blocking the window, Margaret,” Linus said, although he could hardly bring himself to look. He dug himself deeper into his chair, clenching his armrest with all the strength his eight-year-old body could muster.

Unlike his sister, Linus did not take well to the concept of flying.

“How are you still so excited?” he asked. “We’ve been in the air for over seven hours.”

“But we’re flying! Over an ocean!” answered Margaret.

Their mother hissed at both of them to ‘be quiet’, even though only Margaret was yelling.

It wasn’t fair.

“I don’t think you seem to get it, Linus.”

“Get what?”

“After hours and hours of make-believe and pretending to be superheroes, here we are,” she waved her hand around as if she were presenting the window as a work of art. “We are flying in real life.”

“With all the real-life risks too,” Linus grumbled to himself.

“And when we get to LandIce –”

“It’s Iceland, Margaret.”

“Oh, right. But when we get there, we’re going to see colors in the sky!”

“Maybe.”

“And we’re going to see snow!”

“We have snow at home.”

“Yea, but it’s not blue like the glaciers. You told me that, Linus, so it must be true.”

“Yea, yea,” Linus conceded, hands coming up to grip his forehead. He started to agree with his mother; they all could use some quiet time. He hesitated before opening his eyes, worried still that at any moment they might plummet into the ocean.

He chose to make his baby sister a distraction, instead. “You know Iceland is really old?”

“Like Auntie Nell?” Margaret’s nose crinkled at the memory of her great Aunt, who yelled when they threw snowballs in her direction.

Linus snorted. “Way older.”

Margaret looked back out the window. “Imagine all the make-believe stories a place that old has inside it.”

“Some of the best, I imagine” Linus said.

“Tell me!” Margaret demanded. “Then you can forget how scaredy-cat you are on this plane.”

“I’m not scared.” Linus insisted.

Margaret grinned, knowing she was right. “Then, tell me.”

Linus groaned again but this time for another reason. “Well, I don’t actually know any of their stories yet, but I bet they have mountains that are really monsters and fairies that deliver snowstorms or –“

“Or magicians that turn the sky into coloring books!” Margaret added.

As they made up tales of a foreign land far away, Linus let go of his fear until the plane began its descent. After sharp drop in elevation, he reached for the armrest again.

“It’s okay, Linus, look.” Margaret pointed out the window, where the sunrise cast a glow over their newest adventure. “If we fall now, Iceland’s giants will catch us.”

Check out more Adventures with Linus and Margaret!