Free Across the Lagoon by Roumelia Lane

immaculate pastel blue shirt, the curling dark hair around his ear and his jutting clean-shaven jaw.
    Of the taxi's movements, she knew vaguely that they were shunting along traffic-congested streets and speeding around corners. Finally they left the blare of the city behind and took to the fast-moving motorway.
    To Carol it seemed an interminable ride. She felt jaded already and they had only just started the journey. Her interest picked up when views of the airfield started to appear. She saw planes in the distance spread- eagled on the ground. Her heart took a dive when one rose up with a roar and streaked off straight as an arrow into the sky. She felt quite limp when they alighted from the taxi outside the airport building.
    Gray Barrett watched the unloading of the luggage and saw that it was wheeled inside, after which he shepherded the girls in ahead of him.
    All was bustle and activity. The hollow ring of people's voices, trundling trolleys and loudspeakers sounded across the vast spaces. Carol had to watch that she didn't get left behind as she swung her wide-eyed glance around.
    They went to have the luggage weighed. Then the tickets had to be checked. There seemed so much to do, so many things to be taken care of, she wondered if they were ever going to be finished trailing from one point to another.
    When at last it appeared that all the formalities had been taken care of, Gray Barrett went to buy a paper. Stephanie bought one of the teenage magazines which she seemed fond of. Carol couldn't get her mind to grasp at anything. Above the hum of voices in the airport lounge, which they had transferred to, she could hear the engines of the planes outside; the occasional thunder of one taking off. She wished that the noise didn't terrify her so.
    She began to have distinct longings for home, for the comforting atmosphere of the family scene, where nothing went any faster than the toy handcart that her sisters tugged up and down the Common.
    She sat while the others read feeling her heart pounding in a frightening way. When all at once, to the sound of a voice over the loudspeaker, everyone rose, Gray Barrett and his niece included, she had an awful feeling that her legs weren't going to hold her.
    She struggled to her feet and tried to look as indifferent as everyone else in the surge towards the doors out to the plane. She stuck close to Stephanie and together with her was scooped along in the shepherding arm of Gray Barrett. Seeing that dark suit sleeve under her nose, Carol would have given anything, just then, to cling to it.
    There was a terrible whining noise and the feel of rushing air as they came out to crowd down a narrow corridor which led up to the plane doors. Stewardesses with happy smiles on their faces, which soothed Carol's shredded nerves a little, were there to greet everyone who came on board.
    She felt soft carpet under her feet, cool air-conditioning on her face and amidst the heads of the people in front gazed down the incredible length of the plane.
    The seats were in rows of threes. She had no idea where to go. Apparently one just strolled down the aisle and pleased oneself. Eventually Gray Barrett nodded towards a row. Because she was in the lead, Carol was compelled to slide in first She had no desire to sit near the window, but she didn't see what else she could do. If she demurred and let Stephanie go in first, it meant sitting next to Gray Barrett, and she would never survive that.
    While she was fighting off a slight claustrophobic feeling with the small window at the side of her and the tall seats in front, the other two settled themselves in beside her. She marvelled at the way they calmly returned to their reading. The engine of the plane was throbbing. The stewardesses were checking everything. Soon they would be leaving the ground which she gazed on lovingly now from her window. How could they read at a time like this?
    She was shaken momentarily out of her terror by the looming