What was that? Mark glanced at the girl seated closest to him. If he wasn’t mistaken, and he rarely was, she had just told him to ‘shut up.’ Then he watched as she seemed to have a panic attack as the plane started moving. It was almost comical; she looked like she was holding onto the seat by her cat claws, her shoulders raised high as if it would afford her more protection in an accident. He squinted his eyes at her, trying to figure out what kind of person would be flying first class so afraid.<br/><br/>The plane jolted forward, and then the metal tube seemed to groan as the plane sped; faster and faster, until the front wheels lifted off the ground and they were airborne. The plane’s nose canted up at about a ten-degree angle. It seemed to bounce on the pillow of air it was on, eliciting a general low “Whoa!” from a lot of the passengers. And as the plane continued to climb, it was jostled about in the winds, fighting against both gravity and the weather to climb towards its cruising altitude.<br/><br/>“Hey. You,” he leaned over as far as he could with the seat belt still on, as the plane sped and bumped its way along the concourse. He waved his hand across the isle to see if he could get her attention, and the jet engines began to whine as they readied themselves to accelerate. “Did you just tell me to shut up?” He gave her a look that was void of compassion for her terror. “Or are you talking to one of those voices in your head?”<br/><br/>Somewhere in the business class section a baby started to cry. Then the cabin went dark. It normally did after it had climbed to altitude; Mark assumed the pilot just wanted to help calm the passengers down, like you did when you had a noisy parrot. There was a loud thumping sound as the landing gear folded into the belly of the plane, followed by a grinding noise, and then a final thump as the bay shut on itself. After that the plane seemed to fly more smoothly, though it was still at an angle trying to break through the thick cloud cover around them.