Outnumbered & Abroad; Upon Landing (Part 2)
I had never been out of North America before and the thought of “backpacking” through the UK for two weeks with my sister and two other sibling friends seemed exciting, daunting, and a whole lot of unknown.
London-Heathrow Airport (Monday, September 25, 2018) - Nicole had a bit of a rough trip. She took “sleep vitamins” as recommended by our friend Lauren and she left me all alone in my row for the majority of the flight. She later claimed she didn’t get much sleep, which I somehow doubt as she is the Queen of Sleeping.
As we went to land, Nicole looked right at me and BOOM! I literally watched as all the color fell off of her face like an egg sliding down a window.
“I don’t feel well,” she said, her voice trembling with fear.
There was a flight attendant taking her cart through for a last walkabout. She was, coincidentally, absolutely blocking Nicole from getting out to make a mad dash to the bathroom. For a moment, I was tempted to make a scene; to tap her on the shoulder and bellow, " “YOU BETTER MOVE. NOW!”
I figured my introverted sister, already sweating like she was sitting in a sauna was already so worried about how her body was going to betray her, would have probably lost it at my making a scene of the situation. But I refrained as Nicole held her barf bag around her mouth. Sympathetically I figured at this point, just the movement of getting up would have probably been the straw to break the camels back.
Dry heaving, she used the passing (finally!) of the flight attendant to make a rush to the bathroom.
I guess standing wouldn’t make her puke, I thought to myself as I watched her hustle off and, with her departure, realized I had been a completely awful creature!
A sympathetic poker myself, as Nicole dry-heaved into her barf bag, I had instinctually leaned away, slamming my pointer fingers furiously into my ears to block as much sound as possible and prayed that not only would Nicole be okay, but that I would be also. God took care of one of us. Nicole may one other trip to the bathroom before we landed.
And, then, in what didn’t feel like even remotely like the twelve-fold hours we were promised of air travel, we were in London for the first time ever.