Fear of Flying

One day I flew from Denpasar to Makassar. I went with Kevin and Kathryn. Kevin is the Project Manager for Kang Guru Radio English and Kathryn is the Program Officer for AusAID. The flight was only about an hour. We started to descend and the landing gear made a loud POP sound. I was a little worried. The pilot said something over the intercom in Bahasa Indonesia. I didn’t understand him. I asked someone sitting near me for a clue. He looked anxiously back at me shaking his head. There was no comfort there. The flight attendants looked scared, too.

            Where was Kevin when I needed him? I glanced back at Kathryn. All the color had drained from her face. She was clutching the armrests of her seat and shaking her head with her jaws clenched. Again, the pilot said something in that mysterious language. This time, instead of the POP sound, there was a nice gentle creaking and a slight shudder as the landing gear dropped. I looked out the window and could see the tires on my side of the plane lowering. 

            I felt a little weak in the knees. I realised I had been holding my breath for quite a while. As I drew in a deep breath, we gave each other a shaky smile as the plane bounced along the landing strip. We had made it ..