Page 25 of The Old Gals’ Bucket List

‘I’ll try.’ Patti clasped and unclasped her hands. ‘I really want to do this, but I’m petrified.’

‘It will all be okay, I promise,’ Sandra told her. ‘Did you load your iPad with a couple of favourite films you can watch, as I suggested? That will keep you occupied. I’ve bought a couple of puzzle books with me too. The trick is to keep your mind busy then the time will pass quicker.’

‘I think the trick might be to have a few gins and knock myself out!’ Patti said. She smiled wanly. ‘No, seriously, I’ll be fine. I really want to do this. Feel the fear and do it anyway, eh?’ She gazed around. ‘Besides, look at all the little kids here. If they can do it, so can I!’

‘That’s the spirit. Did you bring some Rescue Remedy?’

‘I already put a few drops on my tongue before I left home. I don’t know how much I can use.’

‘That was a couple of hours ago. You could take a few more drops now. Or would you prefer to wait until you get on the plane?’

Patti considered it, she was incredibly nervous, but would she be even more so when the plane was about to take off. She’d heard that was a trigger point for people. There again she felt like her legs were so wobbly, they wouldn’t actually let her get on the plane.

‘I’ll take a few drops now,’ she said. She took the small bottle out of the plastic bag where she’d put all her liquids, opened it, and squeezed four drops onto her tongue.

She placed it back in her bag and took out the black travel bands Sandra had given her this morning, in case she felt nauseous on the plane.

She didn’t usually suffer from travel sickness, but then she had never flown before, had she?

She leaned back in the plastic chair and closed her eyes, taking deep breaths.

‘The gate should be open now. The plane must be late.’

Patti snapped her eyes open. ‘Why’s the plane late?’

‘It’s nothing to worry about, it could be a number of things, traffic congestion, crew shortages. It happens sometimes.’

‘I’d better let Keith know,’ Patti said, taking her phone out of her bag. She looked up at Sandra. ‘How late exactly are we?’

‘Fifteen minutes, but we might make up the time on the journey. Ah, the gate’s open, time to go.’

Sandra stood up. ‘Ready?’

Patti could see several people were now queuing up by the checkout desk.

‘Ready.’ She slowly got to her feet.

Sandra led the way. Shoulders back determinedly, Patti walked over to the waiting cabin crew, showing them her passport and boarding pass, then they made their way together to the aeroplane.

Patti paused at the bottom of the steps, looking up at the plane.

‘I can’t believe that I’m actually doing this. ’

‘I’m proud of you. Now up the steps, find our seats and we’ll be off in no time,’ Sandra told her. ‘Do you want to go first?’

‘No, you lead the way.’ Patti picked up her suitcase and purposely followed Sandra up the steps.

They’d booked a middle and aisle seat so Patti wouldn’t feel penned in, and as Sandra had pointed out, looking out of the window during the flight could be triggering for Patti, seeing how high up they were.

Plus it was easier to get out of their seats and walk up and down – another good distraction technique.

Patti had been happy to go along with Sandra’s suggestion, she’d read up about aerophobia and knew that some sufferers could really panic during take-off.

She was determined not to, even if she had to grit her teeth and dig her stubby nails into her hands!

‘We need to take a photo of you on the plane to show that you’ve struck off another thing on your bucket list.’ Sandra fished her phone out of her pocket and selected the camera app. ‘Smile!’

Patti gave her a big smile. She was doing it! She was actually flying for the very first time.

She kept calm as the plane taxied across the runway but when the cabin crew gave their talk about safety and what to do in an emergency, she felt her heart race.

She could do without them reminding her that the plane could topple out of the sky!

She gulped, gripping the arms of the seat as the plane took off.

Heck! She was actually doing this! She was in an aeroplane, flying through the air.

She took a deep breath, allowing that fact to sink in.

‘Have a boiled sweet to suck, sometimes the pressure as we go higher up – and when we descend – can hurt your ears a bit.’ Sandra held out a bag of barley sugars and Patti took one. As she sucked the sweet, she felt herself start to relax.

‘Fancy doing a wordsearch?’ Sandra whipped a puzzle book out of her bag. ‘We can do one together or one each, which do you prefer?’

‘One together,’ Patti replied.

They chatted away, solving the puzzle, then another one, and gradually her nerves subsided. The cabin crew came around selling duty-free goods, hot drinks and snacks and they had a cup of coffee each, then they watched a film on Patti’s iPad and the time went remarkably quickly.

‘Only half an hour to go,’ Patti said, looking at her watch. ‘That’s gone fast!’

‘It does if you keep yourself occupied.’ Sandra smiled at her. ‘I bet Mary and Keith can’t believe that you’re actually coming to visit them.’

‘I can’t believe it either. I wish I’d done it before. Never mind! I intend to make up for lost time.’

She tried not to think about the landing, and chatted to Sandra about Keith and Mary, and what she knew about where they lived, sucking away at another barley sugar, and before they knew it, the captain was announcing they were preparing to land and – with a little bump – they were in Spain.

Patti’s face broke out into a triumphant grin. She’d done it. She’d actually done it. ‘Well that’s another one off my bucket list!’

Sandra took a photo of Patti as she came down the steps of the plane and posted it on their Insta account with the caption:

Well done, Patti. This was top of her bucket list!

Then she added a tick to ‘Get over my fear of flying and go to Spain’ on Patti’s bucket list and uploaded that.

‘We’re acing this bucket list,’ Patti said with a grin.