**WATTYS 2022 WINNER** Seventeen-year-old Evelyn Werth is on an endless flight from hell. She's the only person onboard Aloha Airways Flight 1333 who's caught in a 28-minute time loop.
During each cycle, four things happen:
1. The Internet goes out...
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Loop 3
The second the loop restarts, I pull out my earbuds, stick my phone in my back pocket, and jump out of my seat. Within seconds, I'm standing in row 17 next to Evelyn. She shuffles into the middle seat, moving Margaret's purse, and I sit beside her.
"Shit, that's the worst. Like the worst thing I've ever experienced in my entire life." The adrenaline is flowing through me, and my mouth is in overdrive. "And now we have to do it every 28 minutes?"
Not waiting for an answer, I reach under the seat, grabbing the pacifier. Evelyn raises an eyebrow at me, but then I'm handing it to the woman in the row behind us. I crane my neck and look over at the overwhelmed mom, balancing a fussy baby on her knee. "I think you've lost this," I say. She smiles in gratitude.
"You didn't tell me the pacifier is sticky." I grimace, wiping my fingers against my jeans.
Evelyn is startled. She tilts her head in surprise.
"What?" I say with a shrug. "I'm a quick study."
"Wow," she mutters. "I won't tell you how many times it took me to find that pacifier in the first place. You're making me look bad."
"Well, you didn't have help. Without someone to help you figure things out, or bounce ideas off, it seems impossible. But together, I'm telling you, we're going to figure this out."
Evelyn's eyes widen at my optimism. Despite how awful this all is, I'm feeling a tad bit calmer this time around. There's the slightest sense of hopefulness running though me. A tinge of positivity. A feeling that, between her and me, we can put our heads together and figure this out. After all, I scored an almost perfect score on my math SATs. Figuring out complex problems is what I excel at.
That's all this is. A difficult problem. And there has to be a solution.
The pilot starts his announcement. "Sorry folks, we've lost Internet connection..." Meanwhile Evelyn smiles at me, but it doesn't reach her eyes. Then she looks away and fidgets uncomfortably.
"What is it?" I ask.
"Nothing." She stares out the window, watching the bright colors of the sunset begin to fade.
I certainly don't know her well, but I've never seen her this troubled before. In fact, she's been irrationally upbeat. But now she's acting different. Something is clearly bothering her. And I can't help but feel that it's something beyond the obvious loop hell.
"What's going on?" I press.
Evelyn's lips open, like she's about to tell me something. But then they close again. "It's probably nothing," she finally manages.
