“Second Flight”

Once the Bells were on board and the plane had been cleared for takeoff, everyone was instructed to return to their seats. Val had been assigned to sit next to Carson. Carson (who I will tell you all about, along with the rest of the team, in my good time) was the youngest member of the team, at age 14. Val was 16. Since breaking up with her boyfriend the night before, she had continued to cry non-stop.

Carson tried to figure her out, but he was pretty much at a loss. Jen quickly saw to it to change around everyone’s seats, as Val wasn’t the only one having problems at the time. I don’t even remember who I sat next to; all I know is Val sat near Jen and told her her whole story.

I have no idea what time we actually left Detroit, Michigan, but it was quite a while past our scheduled departure time of 5:45 Saturday afternoon. Because of that I have no idea what time we arrived in Amsterdam. All I know is it was an eight hour flight, through the night.

After the stewardesses fed us dinner, they turned down the lights and everyone got comfortable and quiet. I tried watching a few movies, but couldn’t focus. In my journal I wrote that I slept ten minutes. I think I was still delirious when I documented that, because I had to have slept longer than that. Val told me when we landed, that she had slept a couple hours, so that was what really mattered to me at the time.