By Sara Kraft <skfolc@gmail.com>
Rated G
Submitted April 2007
Summary: Alt-Lois starts her flight home from the Congo with anxiety and a wistful yearning to know what it might be like to fly on her own.
Author's Note: I have dozens of little seedlings of ideas, that I'd always thought would grow into longer stories. What never really occurred to me before was that I could just post something short. So what if it was only half a page?
This one's probably the only little idea that I have fleshed out that can stand on its own. It was sitting and waiting for a story to go with for so long, but after Away From the Sun, I think it'll be a while before I try another alt-universe fic. Besides, it's not like I can't steal it from myself later if I do. ;)
Thanks to LabRat for being a quick and attentive GE!
***
The fear sat leaden at the bottom of her stomach, not doing much, other than letting her know it was there. She wasn't *really* scared of flying, it was just the take-off. It was unnatural. How could something so large, so heavy, just lift off into the sky?
The ball of nerves in her stomach tightened as the immense hunk of metal she was encased in accelerated. Within a matter of seconds, it was airborne. She waited for the moment the plane would realize that it was defying the laws of nature and fall back to the ground. But it didn't.
She relaxed hesitantly and watched the land shrink away below her. Once the uncertainty of taking off was past, Lois actually enjoyed the next part of the flight. She loved watching the city from far above, seeing it getting smaller as the seconds passed. Lois watched as Brazzaville diminished, wishing that everything that had happened there could fade away as well. Maybe someday she'd be able to leave the Congo behind her for good — body *and* mind.
The plane rose higher and the whole of Western Africa disappeared beneath a blanket of clouds. The sensation was almost magical. Or she imagined it would be if she could feel the moisture from the white mass kissing her skin as she flew through it. But she was being fanciful. No one could survive at such a height even if flying under one's own power were possible.
Even still, Lois always felt the urge — a craving almost — to break through the wall of the plane and soar through the sky.
She'd give anything to fly like that.
THE END