Not the Same

Dad (Part 1)

Ricky’s POV

            “Ricky you go next,” Kian says. “I’ll be right behind you.”

            Against my better judgment, I exited the plane. When I go out, I saw that we were pretty far down in the lake. However, the sun was bright enough to illuminate my surroundings. As I swim to the surface, I turn around to see if Kian was behind me. I waited a few seconds and saw that he still hadn’t got out. Feeling scared, I swim back down. I go into the plane and see he is unconscious with a stewardess cart over his legs. I instantly swim over and push the cart off him. After I remove the cart, Kian’s body just floated there, not moving. I grab him and quickly race to the surface.

            When I reach the surface, I turn around and see Joey and Connor swimming toward us. They grab Kian and get him to land. I follow closely behind. They lay him down on his back. Cat and Doug come running over, the little boy still in her arms. She hands the boy to Doug and kneels down to Kian. She grabs his wrist to check his pulse. “He still has a pulse,” she says.

            Cat begins performing CPR on Kian. After so many chest compressions, she would tilt his head and blow into his mouth two times and then continue with the chest compressions. Watching him lie there made me feel horrible. I should’ve swum down sooner. I could’ve saved him from this. If he dies, it’s my fault. Cat continues with the chest compressions. Looking in her eyes, I could see that she was losing hope. After one final hard chest compression, Kian coughs up a huge amount of water; his eyes wide open. He jerks up, the water from his mouth flying onto Cat and his clothes.

            “Is everyone okay,” Kian says.

            “Everyone’s fine,” Cat says placing her hand on his shoulder. “You need to relax. You almost died.”

            Suddenly, ambulances and several other vehicles come rushing in. Paramedics swarm the area and start assisting all the passengers on the plane. Most of the passengers were fine, just some scratches and bruises, but nothing too serious. However, some like the drunkard and the pilot were bleeding pretty badly even though the drunkard was our doing, but that’s another story. They were bandaging people’s arms and heads. We all leave in the ambulances.

            At the hospital, most of the passengers left in taxis. We would’ve done the same, but the little boy was by himself. “Where’s your parents,” I ask.

            “My dad 's work keeps him stuck pretty far from home,” he says. “My dad lives in California and my other dad lives in North Carolina.”

            “You should call one of them,” Doug says.

            The little boy walks over to the receptionist and asks to call his dad. The boy grabs the phone and talks to someone. He hangs up and walks back over to us. “He said he’ll be shortly,” he says.

            We sit with him until his dad showed up. His dad was tall, with black greasy hair and blue eyes. He was medium built and wore a green T-shirt, blue jeans, and sneakers. He rushes over to his son and hugs him tightly. “Are you alright, Gabe,” he says.

            “I’m fine,” Gabe says. “These people saved me.”

            “Thank you, so much” the man said shaking all of our hands. “If there is anything you need. Anything! Let me know.”

            “It’s fine,” Joey says. “We just need to get to North Carolina for our friend’s parents’ funeral.”

            “Done,” the man says.

            “What,” Connor says.

            “You’re trip to North Carolina will all be paid for,” he says. “Also, all the stuff you lost on the plane, I will buy you brand new stuff.”

            “You can't do that,” Cat says. “That’s way too much money.”

            “It’s nothing,” the man says. “My husband is rich. Buying stuff like this is miniscule. It’s really not any trouble.”

            “There must be something we could do to repay you for that,” I say.

            “Okay, what if you escort my son to my husband’s place,” he says. “My son’s safety is the most important thing to me; doing this would make us even. My name is Aaron by the way.”

            Aaron pulls out his cell phone and calls someone. “Hello, yes I need seven first class plane tickets that’s leaving today,” Aaron says.

            Aaron hands us his phone and says, “Just tell him all the stuff you lost.”

            After a few hours, we were back on a plane. However, getting Doug back on it was a challenge. He wouldn’t budge, so we had to carry him on. We then had to strap him in and hold him down from running out. He was screaming bloody murder when the plane took off. When we got in the air, Cat gestures for a stewardess. “Do you have anything that will relax him,” Cat says. “He has a major fear of flying.”

            “It’s not a fear of flying,” Doug says. “It’s….oh never mind. Do you have anything?”

            “Let me check,” the stewardess says and walks back.

            “You’ll be fine,” Cat says.

            “Yeah, everything will go smoothly,” I say.

            The stewardess comes back and says, “Here, drink this. It’ll relax you.”

            Doug drinks the beverage and at first he was unaffected by the beverage, but shortly after, he passes out. “Yeah, that should keep him out for a few hours,” the stewardess says. “Do you all need anything?”

            “Do you have any tea,” Joey asks.

            “Yes, we do,” the stewardess says.

            Joey looks around at us and we all nod our heads. “Just bring us all some tea.”

            “Alright, I’ll be right back,” she says.

            “Gabe, your dads are awesome,” I say. “What do your dads’ do?”

            “My dad in California is a veterinarian,” Gabe says. “I’m not completely sure what my dad in North Carolina does, but he gets a lot of money from it.”

            “Cool,” I say.

            “I’m sorry about your parents dying,” Gabe says. “What happened?”

            “It’s….It’s complicated,” Kian says.

            The stewardess walks back with our drinks. “Here are your drinks,” the stewardess says.

            “Thank you,” we say.

            “Hey, Kian,” Cat asks. “Where are we staying while at North Carolina?”

            “Well, since I haven’t built up the nerve to step into my house,” Kian says. “We’ll be staying with Shelby and Andrea.”

            “Will they have enough room for all of us,” I ask.

            “They definitely have enough room,” Kian says.

            “Well, until then lets relax and enjoy our flight,” Connor says.