Strange but Thrilling Stories from a Sophomore Writing Class

The Passenger Façade

His name was Bruce Ashton, but he hated saying it. He hated the sound of his own voice because no matter where he went, people would fear or ridicule it. When he spoke, his voice emitted a very raspy tone and not to mention he had a very bad stutter. So, wherever he went he used sign language and pretended he was mute, and no one bothered to laugh or even try to make him speak since then. On the side note, he was a man on a mission, he had to get to Las Vegas as a means of some personal business and he made sure nothing was going to stop him.

Nothing.

He arrived at the airport and dashed to the ticket desk. The ticket mistress, who was in her late 20's and wore those suits like in the airplane ads Bruce saw, offered how she can help him. "One ticket to Las Vegas please." signed Bruce with unnerving urgency. The mistress looked at him dumbfounded and called over another young-looking woman who stared at him with a very big grin, attentive and ready to help.

"Can you repeat... well... do that motion over again please?" Bruce glared at the mistress with an evil look that made her cringe a little, then he repeated, "May I have a ticket to go to Las Vegas please." Making sure he went as slow as possible. The interpreter turned to the mistress and whispered what he wanted, then she pulled out a ticket and gave it to him. Bruce snatched the ticket and speed-walked away from the stand, sitting down on a bench overlooking the window to all the planes in the airport, and he remembered the time his father took him to an airport and had him facing the windows, telling Bruce that these planes can take him anywhere he wanted. Now as an older man, he knew that wasn't the case, because all he wanted was his life back.

He waited a very long time for his flight, and as if God Himself wanted to keep Bruce from blowing a casket, a booming voice came from the intercom. "Hello ladies and gentlemen, there is a slight delay in our flights due to the storm, I repeat, there are delays from the storm. Thank you for your time."

Bruce shook his head and thought of all the things he could shout at the intercom and how bad his luck was, then he ran to the desk again where the ticket mistress was about to end her shift. Bruce slammed the booth with one hand and gestured with the other, hoping the mistress would reschedule him for a flight as close as possible to Las Vegas. Then the mistress sighed and called out, "Mary, Handy Harold's back!" Then Mary came out and gave her partner a look of 'don't scare him' (As if the smiles weren't creepy at all) and observed his vigorous movements.

"Sir, I can't help you with that. All the flights are delayed for hours so you gotta wait until then, OK?" Bruce started to get frustrated and motioned "Of all the places I can go, I ask you for a freaking ticket somewhere at least close to Las Vegas and you can't find any flights for me!" The interpreter began to lose her grin and leaned in close to Bruce, saying "Do you know who you're talking to mister?" Bruce, gritting his teeth, returned with "N-no one g-good enough f-f-for me." The interpreter stared awestruck and then began to nervously chuckle, and then the mistress began to chuckle a little and when they were laughing, Bruce flipped the bird and walked away.

Bruce sat alone and as far away from everyone in the airport as physically possible. He crossed his arms and let out a little pout, then he scorned the mistresses mentally, then he imagined all the horrible ways they could die, then after a few minutes he closed his eyes and fell asleep, listening to all the people complaining about the flight delays and arguing with their ticket keepers.

At this point, he'll never get where he wanted to go in time.

Bruce woke up to the sound of quiet singing and humming. It was as if someone was humming the scale of notes to sing and everytime the voice messed up, it quietly sang "Do,Re,Mi..." until it felt the need to sing again. Bruce tuned in closely to this singing and looked around to see if any else heard the singing, but the strange discovery Bruce made unsettled him quite a bit.