Creative Writing.
It’s part of who I am and where I started. Come read my thoughts.
Bop it
A short story by Miles Gabaeff
It’s a busy day at LaGuardia. The normal hustle and bustle of a weekend airport day is alive and well. The travel tension in the air seems to be higher than normal. People are busy, flights are delayed and the line for the airport coffee stop is around the corner full of irritable and in-a-hurry passengers. Flight 3907 from New York to Seattle departs in 40 minutes. Like clockwork the gate attendant dings over the intercom and calls for the passengers to start lining up in their respective lines. A 1-30 and 31-60. The boarding process goes off without a hitch; Group A is through the doorway onto the jet way. Next comes extra time passengers and a gaggle of giggling grandmas come shuffling into view with their fresh coffees and not a single care in their respective retirements. Only two veterans follow them. Large, stern, and stoic men covered in tattoos come bounding down the ramp like boulders. Last comes one family traveling with three small children. The mother seems stressed about their flight and the nervousness that comes with the fear of having your small children cry the entirety of the 6 hours in the air. The dad is glazed over in the eyes and overloaded with diaper bags the stress of having to break down the family stroller while the entire B group is already lined up and watching them like opening night at Broadway. 40 minutes later the plane is packed to the gills. The intercom dings inside; “We have a completely full flight today folks so find the nearest opening seat and don’t be shy to make friends with the person on either side of you.” There is a slight shuffling as everyone tries to get comfortable in their allotted 1 foot by 1 foot sliver of community personal space in the ever-shrinking plane seats provided. After the plane takes off and people dawn their headphones and tables prematurely while the intercom dings again. “We have reach 10,000 feet which is cruising altitude, you know what that means, you can now use your approved electronic devices, we will begin circling for drinks service and snacks.” While everyone is silently enjoying their media and plane concessions in the confines of their own headphones there is slightly louder than normal shuffling from an unknown passenger in row 44. From the very back of the plane, clear as day, the sounds echo out; “BOP IT……..TWIST IT….. CRANK IT……..SLAP IT.” In rapid succession, the time between commands gets faster, and faster until they are seemingly milliseconds apart. Just like the commands the responses are just as fast. This is a generational run of bop it and the entire plane can hear every word and action. If it weren’t for the proximity and the insane level of volume this bop it run would surely be a record of some kind The kind of record that comes from a seasoned BOP IT vet. The minutes drag on and passengers begin to turn and scowl at the unidentified bopper in the back. Kids cry in symphony of misunderstanding. Finally the crank it command echoes out and the twister knob gets twisted instead. The whole plane sits in silence for 5 seconds then we hear the taunting response of the announcer “AWWWW man, do it again but uhhhh better.” The words hang in the air like boulders on the edge of a cliff. Then it all comes crashing down. From down the aisle we see, and arm raise vertical into the air clutching the BOP IT with the grip strength of a silver back gorilla. In one sweeping motion the arm comes down and shatters the BOP it into the aisle into at least 100 little pieces of plastic. Silence falls over the plane as babies get coo ’ed back into silence by their parents, then a chime comes on over the intercom. “We are going to be experiencing a bit of turbulence during landing so the seat belt sign will be coming back on, we want to thank you again for flying with us today and we hope you have a great rest of your trip wherever you are headed.”