Have you ever had the feeling? That feeling you get when you have the flu but you can’t puke. The feeling that something bad is going on but you have no idea what it is. I had that feeling, and I had no clue why.
I’m Christopher State. Ever since I was little I was always determined to do something that could change the world. I have been working on a new plane model for the past 2 years. This isn’t like a normal plane where you get the little packages of peanuts and cookies like you did 20 years ago. This plane can travel twice as fast as a normal plane. The propellers are more powerful than ever, and just by the click of a button the plane could take off, fly, and land by itself. Which means there’s less crew members on the plane.  All I can say is it’s nothing like you’ve ever seen before.
“One more hour. How are we doing?” I asked my flight crew.
“Fuel will last us two more hours, but there’s been a little bit more drag than we expected,” My co-pilot, Tim, responded. Tim and I have been best friends since we were in grade school. He helped me build the plane. I nodded my head in response. That feeling was still there. Now it was much worse. I shouldn’t be worried, but I am. Nothing’s wrong. I thought to myself.  Just calm down. During that last hour of the flight the turbulence got worse and worse. I kept saying to myself over and over again It's okay. Everything's okay. But I knew it wasn’t. The new model wasn't flying how we planned. The XC 715 plane was going to crash, and I knew it.  That was the feeling. I had a bad feeling about this from the start. The engine roared. This was it.
“Sssir,” my co-pilot hesitated, “we are crashing.” This was it.
“Prepare for crash.” I replied. Trying to sound as subtle as possible. The engine was slowly stopping. Everyone was rushing around the plane like there was a shooting. Everything around me was normal but my mind was 10 steps behind. I don't get up to help. I don't tell people to calm down. I just sit there. I want to move, but I can't. The engines stop. Its dead silent. I feel the nose of the plane tilt down. My stomach feels like it's in a knot. The bright blue water is creeping up closer and closer to the front of the plane. I didn't know what to do. I wanted to move. I needed to move, but I couldn’t. The water got closer and closer by the second. Then, before I knew it, the plane was crashing into the water.
My eyes peeled open and all I saw was blue, everywhere. I reached my hand out to try and touch it but something was keeping me from feeling the water. Glass. I was still in the plane. How? I thought to myself. I felt something warm rolling down my cheek. I wiped it off and looked at my hand. My hand was red, bright red. I kept wiping the red oozing liquid off my face and it wouldn’t stop flowing out. I wasn't worried about the blood dripping down my face, I just wanted to get out of this plane. I flew out of my seatbelt and started looking for something, anything to use to get out of there. I flipped open a cabinet and a life jacket popped out. I grabbed it as I was running to the big lit up emergency exit on the ceiling of the plane. I strapped the life jacket around myself rapidly.
“On three,” I whispered to myself, “One... Two... Three.” I took a big breath and the door flew open. Water was flooding in everywhere. In seconds the whole plane was filled with water. I escaped the sinking plane without looking back. I didn't care about the burning salt water in my eyes or in the gash on my head. I swam as fast as I could up to the surface. It seemed miles away. I reached my hand over my head and kicked my feet as hard as I could. I felt the cold air of the wind on my hand and the wind creeped up my arm as I swam. I made it. I was alive.
I gasped for air when I reached the surface. I jerked my head left and right to find something to grasp onto. After some waves passed a device popped to the surface. I kicked and swam as fast as I could and threw my arm out to reach the device. My hand missed it and smacked the water. I went under with it and a dreadful stinging went to my head. My screams underwater were loud in my head yet silent in the water. I came up from under the water and climbed onto the big yellow floating raft. I threw my body onto it and rolled onto my back to catch my breath. I was panting like a dog.
After I began breathing normally, I reached my hand steadily up to my head and touched my wound. Blood was flowing all over the raft. I took my shirt off and ripped it so it was a little longer to fit around my head. I wrapped it around my head and tied a knot with the two ends. I laid back down and closed my eyes hoping that this was just a bad dream.
I opened my eyes and it was pitch black. I kept opening and closing my eyes and it looked the exact same. The water was black; they sky was black. The only color I saw was the bright yellow from the raft. I pushed myself up and my head started thumping. This was not a dream. I knew that for a fact now. I untied the knot on my shirt and unwrapped the shirt of my head. My white shirt had become red.  I threw the shirt in the water and touched the wound again. I looked at my hand and it wasn’t bleeding as much. I ripped a sleeve off my jacket and rested it on the wound. I laid back down. In just minutes the black sky was covered in stars.
As soon as I knew it the stars faded away and the black sky was turning pink, orange, and blue. I was never up early enough to watch a sunrise. The sunrise had all of my attention until my stomach growled. I hadn’t eaten anything. I looked in all my pockets of my jacket and in my jeans. I found nothing. Not even a crumb. I had to eat something. I looked over the edge of the raft and there were two fish swimming around my bloody shirt. I had one chance to grab a fish. I waited until I was close enough to reach them. I slowly lifted my hand and reached towards the fish. I waited a couple seconds and then plunged my hand into the water. I felt the slippery scales on my hands. I squeezed my hands together and lifted them out of the water. The floppy fish was struggling to get out of my grip. I threw it onto the raft. It was flopping everywhere. I waited for a minute or two and it slowly stopped. After that I didn’t hesitate for a second. I bit right into the side of a raw fish.
The last bite of the fish slithered down my throat. I had to have something in my stomach so I forced the fish down my throat. My next problem was to get out of the water. I didn’t have anything to get someone’s attention if they flew by. I didn’t have a paddle to row away. I didn’t have a phone to call someone. I did the only thing I could do. I started paddling with my hands.
After a long time of endless paddling I saw something. Something hazy in the distance. I leaned to the edge of the raft and squinted my eyes to try and get a better view. It was land. A rush of adrenalin spread through my body. I threw my arms in the water and paddled. I paddled and paddled and paddled. My arms were so tired but I still paddled. I’ve never wanted to get out of an ocean so baldy.
By the time I couldn’t paddle anymore the land became a clearer view. It looked so nice. There were trees and plants everywhere. Cars were driving around the edge of the land. That was where I needed to go. I went to reach my hands in the water and start paddling again but I couldn’t lift my arm up, let alone paddle. I wanted to get there as soon as possible but I was so tired and sore my eyes were forced shut. I laid down and didn’t try to stay awake any longer.
“Sir, Sir, are you okay?” A strange quiet voice said to me. It was a woman.
“Sir, do I need to call 911?” She said again. This time it was a little louder. I peeled my eyes open. She was beautiful. Her hair was golden blonde. Her eyes were as blue as the sky. I was speechless. I needed help but I couldn’t speak.
“Help.” That was it. That was all that came out. She whipped out her phone and dialed 911.
“Hello 911. I’m at Waikiki beach and this man in a raft floated up on land and all he’s said is help.” She paused for a second. Then spoke again “He has a big gash on the right side of his forehead and looks very ill.” I couldn’t take my eyes off of her. She whispered something else on the phone but she said it so quietly I couldn’t hear it. Then she hung up.
“Help is on the way,” she said to me slowly, like I was stupid. I nodded my head in response. We sat there. She didn’t say a word to me, and I didn’t say a word to her. I couldn’t speak which usually isn’t like me.
Not long after the phone call, I was in an ambulance truck on my way to the ER. The lady who found me came in the truck with me. I couldn’t take my eyes off of her. She was perfect. I wouldn’t talk to anyone else but her. I looked at her hands. They were shaking. Why? I asked myself. I should be the nervous one. Not her. I don’t even know her.
We arrived at the hospital and she went into the hospital with me. She went into the hospital room with me. She went everywhere I went. It didn’t make sense to me. After a while of dead silence, I asked her something.
“Why are you here?”
“What do you mean?” she answered.
“Well after I got into the truck you could’ve left but you didn’t. why? “
“You needed help and so I helped you. That’s why.”
“Thank you.”
“You’re welcome.” she answered. That’s all we really said to each other. After that, she left the hospital.
After a week of being stuck in the hospital I was released. I went outside of the hospital and sat down on a bus bench. It was 2:30 on a Wednesday so not as many cars were driving around. Everyone was at work. I had nowhere to go. I sat on the bench and just thought. I thought about the plane crash. I thought about the girl. I thought about life. I was looking down at my bare feet and all of a sudden a new pair of feet showed up right next to mine. A girl. I looked over and it was her. The girl that saved me. I was in total shock. She just sat there. She didn’t say a word to me. I figured I would start the conversation.
“Long time, no see.”
“Yeah,” she said with a smile.
“Do you think you could give me a ride somewhere.”
“Yeah, where do you need to go?”
    “The bank.”
“Yeah, follow me.”
I followed her about a block back to her car. I got in the car and she started driving. The whole car ride was silent. Nothing was said. She just drove, and I just watched the road.
We arrived at the bank and I thanked her.
“Do you want me to wait here for you?” she asked me. I did. I wanted her to wait but I knew she had to be somewhere.
“No, that’s okay,” I replied. She nodded her head and drove away.
I walked out of the bank and put the money I got into my pocket. Nearby there was a fast food restaurant. I needed to eat something so I walked across the street and went into the restaurant. While I was waiting on my food and sipping my first cup of coffee in a long while, I noticed a newspaper laying out on the table next to mine.
The headline read: “Fatal Crash Leads to Breakthrough”.  There, before my hungry eyes was a picture of MY AIRCRAFT!  It had been resurrected from the depths of the ocean. My heart raced to read each word but skip to the point. Was this another dream? As it turns out, my engine had not failed! It just was not complete. My colleagues discovered the minor fault and through the study of my invention, a turning point was being made in history. I wasn’t a failure! This was no longer a nightmare… But a dream coming true.
All of the experts in my field were pictured with the aircraft, along with scientists and scuba-divers. But one individual stood out. She had funded the whole project. She was blonde with blue eyes, like the sky.