Still Valley At 20,000 Feet by Mike Burns (feel good books to read .TXT) 📕

JULIA
Sure you‘re okay?

BOB
Yeah, I‘m good.

JULIA
Wake me up if you need me. Okay?

BOB
I will. Promise. Scout’s honor.

Bob holds up two fingers in a mock scout-salute.

Julia settles back into a contented sleep. Bob takes a deep breath and closes his own eyes. But they don’t stay shut. The vision of the man on the wing is still bothering him. He reaches for the curtain, then pauses, afraid. For a long moment, he hesitates. Making a decision, he reaches over and whips the curtain aside. The flaming cross is centered directly in front of the window, right-side-up, and the hand holding it is reaching down from above the window. Petrified, Bob can only stare. Suddenly, the hooded face, with eyes of flame, thrusts down into his field of view as well, next to the hand and the cross. Smoke from the cross drifts lazily upward, as oblivious of the air currents around the plane as the hooded man with the laughing eyes of flame. Bob freaks, shutting his eyes and covering his mouth with his hand to keep from screaming. A muffled sound escapes anyway, attracting the notice of one or two other passengers.

////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

Julia slumbers on. He opens his eyes, glances at her fearfully, then fixedly forward, refusing to look out the window again. He looks back at Julia, hesitant about what to do. Then he catches sight of their stewardess again.

BOB (gestures to stewardess)
Quickly!

While Bob looks frantically at her, the hand, the cross, and the hooded face disappear upward, out of the window’s field of view. The stewardess comes even with Bob and Julia’s seats just as Bob turns back toward the window.

STEWARDESS
May I help you, Mr. Wilson?

Bob stares out the window at the swirling dust, wordless.

STEWARDESS
Mr. Wilson?

He tries to regain composure.

BOB
Are we heading into a rough stretch?

STEWARDESS
Just a little turbulence, Mr. Wilson. Nothing to worry about.

Stewardess walks off. Bob shuts his eyes and tries to get a grip.

BOB (to Julia)
Honey? Can you wake up for a second?

While Bob is bending over Julia and gently shaking her arm, we see the Klansman From Hell leaping lightly down from top of plane and landing on wing, behind the outboard engine once again. Turning and looking out the window again, Bob’s eyes lock with the flaming ones of the Klansman From Hell. Tossing his hooded head in childish glee, the Klansman looks down at the engine on which he is seated. He holds the flaming cross down near it, and the metal of the cowling plate under it begins to glow. With his free hand, he tentatively pulls on the red-hot part of the cowling and it begins to peel back. More glowing metal can be seen under the peeled-back part, the metal of the engine itself.

The Klansman looks up at Bob again.

BOB (silently mouthing words)
No!

The Klansman lets go of the cowling plate, and reaches in a pocket of the white robe. He pulls it back out again. It looks like coins in his hand, spare...change? The pun is not lost on Bob.

BOB
“Change!” (he is speaking aloud now) I always want change in life. “Change!” He’s giving it to me! Only a devil would think that was funny!


////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

He stares, slack-jawed with horror. The Klansman, without warning, playfully flings the handful of coins at the window. One sticks to the window, right at Bob’s eye level. Redirecting his horrified gaze from the Klansman to the coin on the window, Bob squints at it. It is about the size of a quarter. Its reverse side is showing. It shows a man on horseback, a man with riding gloves and saber and plumed hat. Above and behind him waves the Stars-and-Bars battle flag of the Confederacy.

(FLASHBACK)

SUPERIMPOSITION OVER BOB’S FACE
THE IMAGE OF THE FLAG OUTSIDE HOTEL, EARLIER THAT DAY

(CUT TO)

(FADE OUT OF BOB’S FACE)

(FADE IN SUPERIMPOSITION OVER BOB’S MENTAL IMAGE OF FLAG--COIN STUCK ON WINDOW)

(FADE OUT OF FLAG IMAGE)

PAN BACK
COIN ON WINDOW, WITH BOB STARING OUT AT IT, AGAINST BACKGROUND OF THE LEERING, FLAME-EYED KLANSMAN STARING AT HIM FROM HIS SEAT ASTRIDE THE ENGINE, WHICH COMES INTO FOCUS NOW

(CUT TO)
BOB, AS SEEN FROM SIDE ANGLE; COIN AND SCENE ON WING NOT VISIBLE NOW

With a shock, Bob realizes something.

BOB(aloud)
That was the flag we saw this morning outside the hotel! That wasn’t the only thing that was changed, either! The paint on the wall...

Julia wakes up now, hearing part of this last spoken comment.

JULIA
What did you say, Bob? What are you looking at out there?

Bob jumps, startled by the sound of her voice. He glances over at her, then quickly glances back out the window, in time to see the Klansman From Hell leap off the wing, flaming cross in hand, and disappear back onto the top part of the plane.

BOB
You remember when I told you I thought I saw a man on the wing?

JULIA
Yes.

BOB
I wasn’t mistaken. There IS somebody out there on top of the plane. When I tried to show the stewardess, he jumped from the wing to the top, where she wouldn’t see him.
(CONTINUED)
////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
Julia gives Bob a blank, uncomprehending look.

BOB
I mean, not a man...not what you’d think of...look, it was covered in a robe and hood, like a Ku Klux Klansman, with a burning gold cross in his hand. I think he must be a terrorist or something...

Julia gives Bob a blank look.

BOB
Julia, don’t look at me like that. I know what you’re thinking, and no, I haven’t been sneaking more drinks while you were asleep.

JULIA