Wednesday, May 22, 2019

My First Helicopter Ride

As I stood gazing at the monstrous contraption, I shivered as though ice had replaced my spine. The cold aviation that blew into my face engulfed my entire body. The multiple layers of clothing could not protect me against the swish of frosty air. The walkway leading up to the helipad was newly paved I could stillness feel the soles of my shoes sink into the cement just a little as I walked up the path. Its ironic how my heart did the exact same thing. It now felt like it was forcibly pressing against my lungs as I struggled to breathe asphyxiated by terror.Weeds, dandelions and wild flowers were being blown helplessly just about by the gargantuan blades. I knew how they felt. I was a small 7 year-old and this meat cleaver made me feel like a bug on a windscreen, hanging on for dear life sentence. My mother must have been squeezing my hand too hard because I yanked it away from her as the pain at last registered in my central nervous system I looked down at my hand just in time to see the blood rush rachis down my veins. Red roses grew wildly in thick batches by the entrance to the show grounds the place where I was going to have one of the nigh memorable experiences of my life.The moonlight cast a ghoulish glow on the surrounding landscape, and the screeching of nearby cars pulling away to the highway made me realise how alone our family was after all, we were the last people to go in the helicopter that day. The big metal structure shone a bright white under the moonlight, and the splotches of rust metal hinted at the machines maturity, which wasnt comforting at all. The spinning of the blades was deafening as we hurried towards the little hobbit door to enter the craft.The first thing I felt when I was hauled up into the craft was the constriction of my pupils, and then my eyelids wired shut. It was very bright in there. As soon as I regained visibility, I looked around and saw all these lights that were sourced by many buttons, switches and levers . The dashboard smelt of black coffee and cigarettes, and the floor of the helicopter was littered with cigarette-buds. I turned my point in time to look at my mother. I could see that somebody had made an attempt to scrub out a vomit stain on her seat.The earthy color were at sharp contrast with the charcoal seats, and a thin layer of bleach had been used to try and remove it like a criminal nerve-racking to remove blood splatter at a crime scene. Was it an omen, perhaps? My mother reached over and tightened my seatbelt, uncomfortably tight. However, with the sounds from the pilots radio headset combined with the busyness and buzzing of all the small machines in the chopper, I was too frightened to care about the seat belt. All that was going through my mind was how my life was now in the hands of rows upon rows of illuminated buttons and do-hickeys.It was probably two minutes after buckling up that the craft began its slow ascent into the cold and seemingly insidious darkness . I could feel all my organs getting pulled down by gravity. In that moment, I became completely oblivious to the sound of the rotation of the massive blades in a higher place me, and only heard the lob-dup of my heart. The light had been so bright as to temporarily blind me. The warmth of my mothers reassuring smile contrasted the coldness of the night outside. As I peered through the window, I could see my father and little brother about to board the second helicopter.Their clothing was fighting violently against their bodies as the wind from the rotors blew over their heads. Slowly they started for the craft, with their mouths covered, as if walking into a big sandstorm. I could see them take very short, reluctant steps towards the door of their helicopter as though they were trying to delay the jaw-dropping experience that was to follow. We started rising and rising until I caught a glimpse of the starry cosmos, and at that very moment, I was garbled in my very first helicopte r ride.

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