Departures and Arrivals

Noel awoke with a start, looking around blearily in an attempt to remember where exactly she was. Rubbing her eyes, Noel tried to remember why she was strapped down at the waist and so sore. She yawned and looked to her left. Her Aunt Jillian sat in the aisle seat of the plane, glasses askew, completely passed out.

Oh right.

Noel slumped back into her seat, folding her arms grumpily. How long had it been again? Noel glanced at the armrest where her aunt's arm lay. Her wristwatch said 16:08, 4 pm. She had only been asleep for twenty minutes. Noel groaned. This is taking forever!

They had been on this stupid plane for more than four hours! And that was after the layovers of four hours total and two plane rides that were eight hours each. And on top of that, she had to shepherd around a half-delirious Aunt who was hopped up on way too many motion-sickness pills. This was not what she had imagined her first plane ride to be like! It had been great at first to see the world from so high up, but as the hours dragged, she felt her enthusiasm for flying die a slow, painful death.

A loud snore from Jillian turned Noel's attention back to her aunt. Her body was leaning into the aisle. Her mouth was slack. Some of the passengers were giving them weird glances. That was something Noel was used to, but she felt more self-conscious on behalf of Jillian.

"Hey, Aunt Jillian," said Noel, poking her in the arm. There was no response.

Noel rolled her eyes as she started shaking her aunt's shoulder hard enough to make her head loll back and forth.

"Aunt Jillian!"

Her aunt grunted but was otherwise unresponsive.

"Whatever," said Noel, folding her arms again. Man, those pills must've done a number on her.

Jillian's head had settled with her facing Noel. Her mouth was still wide open. A string of drool dripped from her lips, pooling on her lap.

Gross! Noel leaned back in an attempt to keep as much distance as possible. Her elbow hit something to her right. She turned to look and saw her younger brother, Danny, who was also fast asleep in the window seat. His face was stuck to his armrest, too small to reach her arm.

Noel smirked, which softened into a smile. No matter how hard a time she was having, it must be nothing compared to what he was experiencing. No four-year-old should be subjected to this kind of torture, but Danny was a good kid. He had behaved way better than she was during this trip. If her brother, who was almost ten years younger than her, could still be well-behaved, then so could she.

With a sigh, Noel pulled a napkin from the pocket of the seat in front of her and, straightening Jillian's glasses, used it to wipe the drool from her face. She then moved her aunt to a more dignified position and closed her mouth for her.

It wasn't that she hated her aunt, she was nice enough to her and Danny, but Noel would never forgive her for badmouthing her papa behind his back.

Papa…

Noel bit her lip in an attempt to hold back tears. No, she promised herself she wouldn't cry just thinking about him. It had already been six months, and yet even now, it still hurt to know they were gone.

Noel had been happy enough living in small-town Iowa. Most people would say that there was nothing to do in a small, boring town like Davenfield, but Noel found ways to enjoy her life.

They had not been well off. Most people would call them downright poor, but the Miller family was okay with that. It was just Noel, Danny, Mama, and Papa. Even if it wasn't an easy life, it was good enough.

But six months ago, that had all changed with the accident. A sudden tornado had lifted their car away, sending them to their deaths a mile off the road. Noel still remembered the day when the police had come to take her out of school. After that, though, the next few days were only a blur.

Then came Aunt Jillian, her mother's sister and a professor at a Japanese university. She and Mama hadn't spoken in twenty years, but there she was, the only family willing to take them in. Unfortunately, that meant being taken away from Davenfield, from Iowa, and even America. And now, after six months of securing visas and legal work, they were on their way to Tokyo to live their new lives.

The plane shook as it hit turbulence. Noel just about freaked the first time this had happened, but the pilot had warned of a few rough patches, which assured Noel just a bit. The shaking caused Danny to stir. He sat up sleepily, rubbing his face with a tiny hand.

"Are we there yet?" he asked, blue eyes that mirrored her own looking at her drowsily.

"Not yet, Danny," she said, "go back to sleep." Noel stroked his brown hair and let her arm dangle over it so that her brother could use it as a pillow, which he did. He was fast asleep in an instant.

It was strange, really, before her parents—before it happened, she had thought of Danny as a pest. He was beyond the age of his annoyingness outweighing his cuteness—at least to Noel. She had treated him how all teenagers treated their kid brothers. But now, he was all she had left. He was her precious baby brother, someone she had to protect. She had promised Mama and Papa on their last day in Davenfield that she would be the one to take care of them.

Noel's fingers closed around Danny's as she stared out at the circle of never-ending sea that she could see out the open window. Whatever happened in Japan, they would be in it together.

Someone touched her shoulder, making her jump. Her grip on her brother's hand tightened as Noel turned to see her aunt awake and smiling down at her.

"Anything interesting happen while I was out?" she asked with a yawn.

"Not really," Noel answered, turning back to continue staring out the window. "Just ocean, ocean, and more ocean, as far as the eye can see. Y' know, I'm kinda sick of the ocean."

Aunt Jillian didn't answer. Noel glanced back at her to see that her aunt's face had turned a little green. It must've been triggered by the word ‘sick.' Noel felt a little bad for her aunt, but only a little.

"A family of weirdos," that's what Jillian had called Papa's side of the family in a conversation Noel overheard. Those words still stung, and it was not because they weren't true. Noel knew full well how weird their family was. It was their trademark. But nobody dissed her Papa like that. Nobody.

It made her blood boil just thinking about it. She could feel the start of a headache coming on, something that happened whenever Noel was worked up, which was often.

"Well, you're just gonna have to get used to it," her aunt said, "'Cause it's not going anywhere anytime soon. We should be landing in Tokyo in about twenty minutes if we arrive on time." Then she mumbled, "Please be on time. I don't think I can make it any longer. And it's not enough time to take another pill…."

Noel smirked again. She glanced back at her aunt again to see her rummaging in the front pocket, obviously looking for an air sickness bag. She also noticed that her aunt's short, brown hair was sticking up in the back. Noel snorted back a giggle.

Her aunt noticed her laughter. She scowled at Noel, probably thinking she was laughing at her nausea. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing," Noel answered. Let her discover her bad hair day on her own.

"Whatever you say," Jillian said suspiciously.

Noel saw her aunt pull out a compact in the window's reflection, checking to see if anything was off about her appearance. She checked her eyes and mouth and the rest of her face. Huh. Maybe she didn't think Noel was laughing at her motion sickness. She still didn't notice her hair, though.

With a click, Jillian closed her compact. "Well, then, you probably want to wake your brother up. We're gonna be landing soon. He'll probably want to be awake for that."

Noel nodded absent-mindedly, watching the ocean and the sky stretch out forever, wondering where their new life would take them. Somewhere good, she hoped.