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“I’m never going on another plane after this again.” Zac exclaimed as he sat down in his seat in first class. Ike sat beside him while Amanda was near the window, next to Zac. “Where’s Taylor and Phyllis?” Amanda asked, turning over and looking at Zac and Ike. “Beats me.” Zac said, shrugging his shoulders. Ike just smiled and pointed to the open door of the plane. Phyllis and Taylor were walking on, hand in hand. “Jeez.” Zac stated and rolled his eyes. Phyllis and Taylor sat across from the other three. “In a few more hours, home.” Phyllis smiled and looked at Taylor. “This has been one of the most interesting experiences.” Taylor said and smiled to himself. “You know, in a weird sort of way, I’m going to miss being on that island.” Taylor added. “Why?” Phyllis questioned. “Yeah, why?” Zac piped in as he leaned over Ike to hear better. Taylor gave him a look. “Because, it brought all of us together.” Taylor smiled. “WHATEVER! I just want to go home!” Zac said and sat back in his seat. Taylor just shook his head. “Phyl, we’re landing.” Taylor nudged Phyllis. She woke up and took her head off his shoulder. “Safely I might add.” Zac yelled over Ike. Ike pushed him back down in the seat. Amanda just chuckled to herself, watching the hijinx between the brothers. “So, finally, a nice bed and some clothes and real food…” Zac said, leaning back in his seat and sighed. “I have a feeling we won’t be getting that right away.” Amanda said to him. “Why?” Zac asked, puzzled. “The media is going to be all over us like a fly on…” Amanda began but stopped seeing Taylor’s expression. “On garbage.” She smiled. “THIS IS YOUR CAPTAIN, WE’LL BE ON THE GROUND MOMENTARILY. I AND THE REST OF THE CREW HOPE YOU HAD A NICE TRIP.” The intercom came on. Everyone took a sigh of relief as the plane started to descend down. Taylor looked over at Phyllis and smiled warmly at her and took her hand. The plane finally reached the runway and rode to the gate. It stopped and the intercom came on again. “THANK YOU FOR TRAVELING WITH US.” Taylor got up first and reached up to the overhead compartment and grabbed his and Phyllis’ bags. “Here’s your bag.” Taylor said handing it to her. “Pretty light.” She smiled. They didn’t have anything except the clothes on their back to call their own. Zac was given clothes and they took back some things that they were given. Ike and Zac got their bags along with Amanda’s and they all headed off the plane. Taylor waited patiently for Phyllis to get off the plane and grabbed her hand. She was still limping pretty badly but was doing a lot better than she did before. They walked through the gate to the hundreds of faces all around. There were camera people all around and reporters practically breathing down all of their necks. “Uh…Taylor Hanson!” One reporter yelled to get Taylor’s attention. Taylor turned and looked to see who was talking to him. “Is this young lady your girlfriend?” The reporter called and shoved a microphone in his face. “We’re not answering any questions, we just want to see our families!” Taylor said, pushing the microphone out of his face. He pulled Phyllis ahead of him and put his hands on her back to take her through the crowd. The media were all over them. Taylor stopped, seeing his mom and dad standing there, waiting patiently for him and his brother’s arrival. “Taylor? TAYLOR!” His mother yelled and ran as fast as she could with Mackie in her arms. Taylor let go of Phyllis’ hand as his mother grabbed a hold of him and embraced hard, crushing Mackie. Mackie hung onto Taylor’s neck and Taylor picked him up. Zac and Ike saw their dad and hugged him. “MY BOYS!” Mrs. Hanson exclaimed, letting tears of happiness stream down her face. She grabbed all three of them and hugged them. “Uh…ma…you’re crushing us.” Zac said in a muffled voice. Mrs. Hanson let go and looked at Phyllis and Amanda standing there. “Oh…uh…mom, dad…this is Phyllis and Amanda.” Taylor said, pushing Amanda and Phyllis in front of him. Phyllis and Amanda put their hands out and shook Mr. Hanson’s hand and went to do the same to Mrs. Hanson. They were cut short when Mrs. Hanson grabbed both girls and hugged them. They were both extremely shocked. “Uh…nice to meet you.” Amanda managed to say. “I’m so sorry.” Mrs. Hanson said and looked at both girls. “It’s all right.” Phyllis smiled awkwardly, not knowing what to do. “What a horrible thing to go through…” Mrs. Hanson was stopped when Amanda and Phyllis’ parents came over and grabbed them. Phyllis’ mom and dad hugged her and wouldn’t let go. Phyllis looked over at Taylor and smiled, trying to breathe under the pressure. Taylor just laughed. Amanda’s little brother was hanging on her. “GRANT! GET OFF!” Amanda yelled. “Uh, mom, dad, this is Ike, Zac and Taylor.” Phyllis introduced her parents to the guys. They all shook hands. The guys also shook Amanda’s parents’ hands and Taylor bent down to shake Grant’s hand. “Hi, you’re…uh…Grant…right?” Taylor asked, putting his hand out. “Hey.” Grant smiled and slapped his hand. Taylor laughed and looked back at Amanda. “Uh…excuse me for intruding but we would like to ask you kids some questions about the plane crash.” A man stepped out of the crowd and announced. He was tall with a tan trench coat and had a hat covering his face. He held up a shiny badge and looked up to meet with the eyes of all of them. Phyllis’ father immediately spoke up. “Just leave them be, they need to get some sleep and relax a little.” “Oh…of course, we just need to know what happened on that flight. You five are the only survivors.” The man said. “Here’s my card. I will meet you at a hotel. There are two vans waiting to take you there.” He said and handed all of the parents his card. He smiled, tipped his hat and disappeared into the crowd. Once again, the media were surrounding them. They all left the airport swiftly out to the awaiting vans. The Hanson’s took one van while Amanda and Phyllis’ families took the other. Phyllis felt a little lonely without Taylor sitting beside her but she knew that she would eventually see him. They pulled into a hotel a couple of miles away, but far away so none of the media were following them and filed out of the van. They saw the man climb out of a black car with another man in similar clothes. He walked up to the van and stood to meet them. “I want to talk to the kids by themselves if you don’t mind. We will talk them in a room in the hotel. Feel free to have lunch on us in the restaurant.” The man smiled. Taylor, Phyllis, Ike, Zac and Amanda all followed the man but looked back at their families just to make sure. “All right, make yourselves comfortable.” The man said and took his coat and hat off to reveal a blue suit and short brown hair. His blue eyes were finally revealed and he sat down at a table in the middle of the room as they all sat down on the couch and chairs awaiting the questioning. The man leaned forward in his chair and rested his elbows on his knees. “Okay, all we want to know is what do you remember while you were on the plane when it started going down.” He smiled. “I’ll start with you.” He said and pointed to Taylor. “Well, uh…the intercom went on and the pilot said we were in the middle of a hurricane and were going to make an emergency landing…” “Uh huh…what did it look like outside if you can remember?” The man questioned. “It was really dark and the wind was really heavy.” “Okay. Do you remember anything else?” He asked. “Not really, I tried to block it out as much as I could.” Taylor said then looked over at Phyllis who gave him a reassuring smile. “Okay, does anyone else remember what was going on?” The man questioned, searching the faces of all of them. “Well, the lights started to flicker.” Zac spoke up. “Do any of you remember anything else?” The man asked. “To tell you the truth, none of us really remember much of anything. It was too traumatizing to really remember.” Ike said. “All I really remember was waking up on the shore of the island.” Said Amanda. “Well, you all have been a great help to us. You can go ahead and enjoy your time with your family.” The man smiled and stood up. They all stood up and shook his and his colleagues’ hands. They all headed to the door and everyone left but Taylor. He stopped and turned to the man. “Why did you want to know?” Taylor asked, curiously. “We just needed to know in case there could have been other reasons that the plane had gone down.” The man said, putting his hat back on. “Other reasons?” Taylor asked. “Nothing for you to worry about.” The man smiled. Taylor took his word for it and headed back with his brothers, Phyllis and Amanda. He met them down at the hotel restaurant and sat with his parents and the rest at a big table. “Well, we’re going to have to leave soon. We’re going home for a long deserved rest.” Phyllis’ father spoke up. “We are?” Phyllis questioned. “You didn’t think that we were going to stay here forever did you?” her mother laughed. “No, I just thought…maybe we were going to stay at least over night in the hotel or something.” She spoke up. “Sorry hon. We’re leaving as soon as we finish here.” Her father said to her. Phyllis immediately looked over at Taylor with a sad look. “You might as well start exchanging phone numbers and addresses now.” Her father smiled. Phyllis got up and sat by Taylor. She grabbed a napkin off the table and her mother handed her a pen from her pocket book. She scribbled down her information and handed it to Taylor and Taylor did the same. “Call me when you get the chance.” Phyllis smiled and took his hand and squeezed it. “No problem.” He smiled hesitantly. << Previous Page of Story>> << Back to Story Page>> << Back To Index Of Chapters Page>> Back To Main Page>> |