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ONE
MILA
Another day in paradise. Sort of.
Mila Dillon walked up to the boarding gate with a nod to the attendant. She sipped her coffee slowly, knowing she’d need it for the long day ahead of her. She straightened her uniform and prepped for the false smile she needed to put on. It was a good thing she loved her job.
“Well, not on days like today …” she grumbled to herself as she made her way through the covered ramp and onto the plane docked at the gate.
The conversation she had a few days prior with her manager still rang in her ears. It was the third time that month she had tried to vent her frustrations, but they had, once again, seemed to fall on deaf ears.
She had begged Julia, her supervisor, for some time off. Even just a few days. She was overworked and overwrought, and it was long past time for her to have a chance to decompress.
The response had been the same as always. There were too many flights and not enough attendants. Julia was working the schedule the best she could, but there was always a new wrecking ball. That day, it had been the three employees who called in sick and two more who just gave their two weeks’ notice.
Mila had just sighed and nodded. What else could she do? Her commitment to her job was becoming a curse.
“Where are you off to after this one?” a new trainee asked, bright-eyed and excited. Mila remembered when she used to feel like that.
But she had been on back-to-back flights for the majority of the last four months, traveling everywhere from the United States to Europe and to China. She usually only had a single night to prepare for the next adventure.
She loved seeing the world. It was a huge perk of the job. All the different places, unique cultures, and people. She had the opportunity to spend the night in different cities most nights, try new things, and eat new foods.
But she was beginning to feel the pull to make another kind of change.
“After this flight, I’m hoping for a comfortable hotel room,” she mumbled, setting her luggage in the overhead bins in the back.
“Oh, how nice.”
Her family has supported her desire to travel the world over the last several years. She never thought she would want the domestic life, and no one had ever pushed her in that direction. But recently, she’d begun to find her brother’s settled life very appealing.
Tommen had a little piece of land, a beautiful wife, and three spunky children. Much like the three rushing aboard now. A smile pulled at her lips as she watched the tired parents try to corral them before the other passengers boarded.
“Whoa, whoa, whoa,” the dad shouted as they jumped into various seats.
But Mila didn’t mind.Thiswas the kind of excitement she was looking for now. She even found some spare pamphlets and crayons in the back.
“These might help,” she suggested as she passed them to the dad.
“You must be a veteran at this.” He chuckled.
Mila laughed as she went to the front of the plane to prepare for the next group of passengers. She was experienced as a flight attendant, but not at what he implied … being a mother.
She almost lost herself in the thought until a particular passenger caught her eye. She had startling white hair, and Mila could have sworn she saw the woman’s eyes flash gold.
“Did you see that?” she murmured to the trainee.
“See what?”
But when Mila looked back, the woman was gone, and she couldn’t find her anymore.I really must be losing my mind,she thought.
Once the passengers were loaded, securely fastened, and the plane had safely taken off, Mila was ready for the routine duties.
But that was when everything got interesting.
Many people feared a plane crash when on a flight, but Mila feared the passengers from hell that were crowded around her for the next two hours.
She tried to keep her fake smile in place as she made her way around the plane, taking drink orders. She stopped at the middle row, looking at an older man and a lady she thought was his wife. “Hello, sir,” she said with a smile. “Can I get anything for you?”
