To Make You Smile

To Be In The Land Of The Rising Sun

Chapter 16

To Be In The Land Of The Rising Sun

"S-so that's a plane." Alisa clung to me tightly. "So big."

I sighed and proceeded to unwind her arms around mine. Right, she hasn't seen a plane her whole life. "When I look up, those things look like dots in the air... but... to see it up close..." she added, walking slowly to the plane as if she was starstruck. "Cool."

I took the end of her shirt and pulled her away from the airplane's wings like she was a kid attracted to candies. I then looked at the other four who were being assisted by the nurses up the plane. "Alisa, we gotta go in."

She gave the head of the aircraft one last lingering look, then climbed up with me.

I expected her to sit still and sulk over the fact that she's inside the plane, but instead she stood up and planted her face permanently on one of the windows and kept on telling me to do the same. "Louish..." she called, her voice muffled because her whole face was squished from leaning on the glass. "You gotta go shee thish."

Taking the end of her shirt again, I pulled her away. "You can view it without plastering yourself on the window. She sighed and sat impatiently on the chair next to it.

The plane we were sitting in was a private one, so instead of rows of chairs, several tables and cushioned seats were scattered all over it. The rest of the area was left unoccupied. The main color was red; from chairs, to walls and to the undersides of the tables. A hint of gold was shown in the print of the wallpaper and on the lights. Everything else that wasn't mentioned was black.

I let my eyes wander to the other passengers. I recognized them easily because of the daily rounds I always make. Alisa probably noticed me looking at them, so she jumped up from her seat and skipped to each of them while dragging me behind her. First was a middle-aged man who was diagnosed with slight hepatitis after recovering from a fatal pneumonia. She shook his hand happily before asking his name. "I'm Jake Simmons. Pleased to meet you too, Alisa." His eyes moved at me and asked me, "And you, young lad. What's your name?"

Don't answer, don't answer, don't ans- "His name is Louis, sir. The son of the doctor who takes care of you."

Very nice, Alisa. Tch. "Oh. I recognize you now. You're the one who passes by my room all the time."

"U-um... it's because my dad always asks me to look around."

Alisa excused us out of the conversation and moved to an elderly woman next to him. We then discovered that she was Mila Sergei, a Russian patient with mild tuberculosis. Next was Clyde Downing, a teenager one year older than me who had a heart disease that was still curable. Last was Dimitry Flock, a woman who had treatable colon cancer. I'm not good in socializing, so the hyperactive cancer patient here beside me did all the talking. We all ended up having fun because of Alisa, and that was something to be happy about.

When we woke up, we were already in the territory of Japan. Again, Alisa plastered her face on the window to look at the spectacular view of the sunrise. No wonder why they call this place The Land of the Rising Sun. It's in the east, after all.

"Louis! Louis! Look! What's that? Why does it look a bit like the Eiffel Tower?" she asked, pointing at a metal point visible from above. I sighed. "That's the Tokyo Tower for you." Hey, I'm no expert on the sights in Japan but, y'know, a few researching helps.

"So cool!" She then looked at me curiously. "You know, when I was looking through the dictionary stored in your iPod, I learned one Japanese word. Yeah, just one. It's included in the official English vocabulary."