Stress At It's Finest
Stress at its Finest
by Emerson Neczek
She is bouncing her leg nonstop. A drop of sweat starts to form on the top left corner of her hairline. She looks out the window and tries to calm her breathing. She watches as the clouds race by and follows the wings of the windmills in Kansas. She tries to convince herself that everything will be fine, that it was just a scarf, “Well a scarf from Henry which he got in Venice that possibly cost him a ton of money!” The flight attendant looks at her in concern. Mary with stress in her eyes and the drop of sweat now following along her cheek bone, takes a deep breath and turns to look out the window again. He’s never going to forgive me, she thinks to herself. Her eyes gaze around searching for something to stay focused on, but the only thing she is really thinking about is the scarf that should be resting around her neck. The drop of sweat is now at her jawline.
A light shuffling can be heard coming from behind. A man saying “excuse me, sorry, thank you, pardon me, excuse me, sorry” is repeated until it stops next to her. The man sits down and buckles his seatbelt. He takes his newspaper and continues where he left off. A sigh comes from Mary as she looks out the window. The man looks out the corner of his eye, and with the tips of his fingers dips down the corner of his paper. “It was just a scarf Mary,” says Henry. Mary takes a breath, wipes the drop of sweat ready to fall, and reaches out to take Henry's hand.