The Basketball Atrocities

Forty Nine - Island In The Sky

A/N: I am accounting for time changes and since they are flying over the Pacific, I am also accounting for the International Date Line. So if the time stamps seem a little wacky, that's why. I will also include their location to give you an idea.

SAT 2/7/2004 10:30am (Tyler)
Honolulu, Hawai'i

"Attention, all passengers on Flight 210 to Hiroshima. Welcome to American Airlines and I am one of your flight attendants, Josephine. So, let's start off, if there is trouble with the flight, can everyone point to where the oxygen masks will come from?" she asked, holding the speaker to her mouth.

Tyler and a couple other people pointed up. "Great, four of you are going to get oxygen. That's just fine. Well, for the rest of you, when you are done screaming and holding onto your neighbor for dear life, grab the mask that will come from the ceiling above you. Next, it says to put on your mask and adults, assist a child with you. You hear that, ONE child. If you have multiple, well, you can't choose both. Pick the favorite. You know you got one, but the kids aren't gonna like it. Kids, if you didn't do your homework last week, I don't think you're getting that mask.

"Next, look under your seats. There should be a life vest. So, look, you can give the other child the life vest. Maybe he will have a chance of surviving. We also ask that you not break anything on this plane. You break it, you buy it. But let's face it, if you could afford anything on this plane, you would not be flying on this plane. You'd be flying first class or on a private jet. Don't break anything.

"We ask that you don't smoke on this plane. Listen, if you wanna smoke, you can step out onto the wing. If you can light it, we'll letcha smoke it. Everyone else, watch very closely as we get a live action of Gone With The Wind. We will be landing in Hiroshima in about eleven hours. I can look at a lot of you and see y'all are tired. You see this button up here? This will call us flight attendants. Don't push that button. You need sleep. It's time to go night-night, termite.

"Okay, but seriously, we are happy to serve you all, please let us know if we can be of any help to you. Live it up until we get to Hiroshima. We'll let you know when we get close to landing. Thank you for flying with American Airlines." the flight attendant announced.

Everyone on the plane began laughing. "Thank you, next performance will be when we land." she smiled.

Tyler put on his headphones and leaned back on the seat. It was going to be a long flight and he hadn't really been able to actually sleep between the drive to Cincinnati and the flights to Los Angeles and Honolulu. So, he decided to take the next eleven hours of this flight to catch up on sleep and maybe even hopefully adjust to the time zone changes in the process. He was aware that Japan was on the other side of the world from Ohio and thus, would have a reversed time of day than Tyler was used to.

Soon enough, he drifted into a light sleep.

SUN 2/8/2004 1:02pm
Somewhere over Midway Atoll, Pacific Ocean

"Tyler!" Josh said into his ear.

Tyler pushed him away. "Shut up, I'm sleeping." he mumbled.

"Tylerrrrrrrrrrr!" Josh whined impatiently.

"Go bother Bren." Tyler said.

Josh sighed. "Well, he's asleep. So, I'm gonna bother you instead." he declared happily.

"No." the boy simply answered.

Josh inhaled deeply. "Tyler, Tyler, Tyler, Tyler, Tyler, Tyler, Tyler, Tyler, Tyler, Tyler, Tyler, Tyler, Tyler-" he started.

"For the love of God, what do you want?" Tyler finally asked.

"I'm bored." he grinned cheerfully.

Tyler sighed and shook his head. He slid his headphones on and clicked the play button on his Walkman. The tape started rolling.  Welcome to the Jungle by Guns N Roses started playing. Tyler had those headphones where you could still hear the music a little bit through them. As a result, Josh just so happened to be listening to the music Tyler was listening to and was also jamming out a little bit to the tape.