BLEARY-EYED AND RESTLESS
Zoe fidgeted. She hated flying and had just settled into the routine and fun times of a family holiday in Acapulco when her father, Jack, had been recalled by his boss at the mail-order company he worked for in Boston. They had only enjoyed four days of a week's stay in a swanky hotel with swimming pools, waterslides, and the palm-tree fringed beach only a short stroll away. Now she had to endure another flight, red-eye or not.
"Let me be," Leo her handsome, but temperamental, brother asked as she kept shifting in her seat. "We're on the last leg home so get some rest. We've got hours to get through."
"Don't I just know it!"
She looked around her, at the other passengers who seemed to be asleep, or sat with eyes closed as they listened to some music. The in-flight entertainment did not appeal to her as it failed to distract her from the jolts of the air turbulence.
"Don't take up so much room or I'll put the armrest down between us." His petite sister, with her curvy figure, was even more attractive now that the Mexican sun had bleached the blonde strands in her sandy-brown hair a little fairer. She kept shifting under the blanket they had decided to share and his hand would brush the warm skin of her leg.
"Not a good idea, bro, you doing that...not here," She whispered in his ear as she moved closer to do so.
As kids, they had often lain together in front of the TV, much to the disapproval of their mother Eleanor. They took no notice of her snappy comments that they were too old, as nineteen and seventeen-year-olds, to be still doing that. But their bond was as tight as ever and they'd had fun on holiday, snorkelling and water-skiing, deciding to pair up and not get involved with anyone while they were away.
"You're bigger than me, so you reckon you can take over the space we've got and do what you want?" she went on, speaking in a soft voice but there was an unmistakable tone of annoyance in it.
Zoe saw him smile, his teeth bright and even, his tan deep. He sure was handsome and his body was toned and nicely muscled. There'd been many girls in the resort hotel who'd looked enviously at them as they fooled around in the pool or lay on their sunbeds and talked. He shrugged before he grinned.
"I'm older and bigger than you, so I need more space. It's that simple, sis."
"I might agree if I cared enough about you." She had perfected her teasing ways with him long ago.
"Fine, have it your way," he shrugged. "I'll leave you to it."
Zoe hugged the blanket a little tighter as she looked across the small space between them. She did love her brother even if they did have their moments of snappy exchanges. She was about to touch his face out of fondness for him, and grateful that he'd agreed to sit with her and not their father a couple of rows ahead of them, when the plane jolted.
"Shit!" she said with an audible gasp of fear and reached out to tug on his T-shirt. She shifted in the seat to snuggle closer to him. "Leo?"
"It's turbulence, Zoe, so get used to it," he muttered.
"I've never been able to do that, and you know it." Leo had not opened his eyes as she spoke, her voice trembling. "I know it's turbulence and I know I shouldn't be scared, only I am."
She whimpered again as the aircraft jolted and she thought it dropped before it recovered and settled into stable flight. She sought reassurance from Leo and gripped his T-shirt a little tighter.
Leo sighed as he took hold of her hand and felt her answering squeeze. He gazed into her eyes, open wide in fear. "I'm not going to sleep, am I, if you're in this state."
She bit her lip and nodded. "Just talk to me, distract me in some way, please, bro?"
Their grip on each other tightened as the plane jolted again. Zoe wondered if her mother would come along the aisle to check up on them, knowing of her daughter's fear of flying, but the seat belt signs were on and no one around them seemed bothered by what was happening.
"Fine, so what do you want to talk about? We had a good time on holiday, short as it was. I didn't miss my girlfriends one bit..."
"You mean I took your mind off them?"
"Yeah, sure, you looked great in your bikinis and you look good now, in your denim skirt and T-shirt. I thought you'd be cold on the flight, but now I'm not so sure...seeing...feeling how you snuggle up to me."
"You know why! There's no other reason."
"Oh sure," he answered sarcastically. "Do you want me to forget how you held onto me on those scary fairground rides Mom and Dad let us go on?"
"No, I don't want you to forget that. You cared for me just as you did long ago." She answered him and sought to move away but the touch of his hand to her skin, on her thigh, made her close the space between them once more. Just what was going through his mind after he'd done that? She changed the subject. "How's college going? The team training you've been doing has sure done you some good."
"And I'm feeling good about it all," he answered and smiled at her. "How come you're interested all of a sudden?"
"Just because I haven't asked, just lately, doesn't mean I'm not interested. I've always taken an interest in you. We're close and always have been, even if we have our hissy fits sometimes."
"Well, excuse me if I haven't noticed my 'hissy fits'." He said it on leaning back in his seat and closing his eyes. "Is there anything else you want to say? Until this holiday, I was beginning to think that you didn't care anymore."
"Well, I do...I do care."
They fell silent again and she wondered if he'd drift away and into sleep. But Leo spoke again and turned his head to look her way.
"College is fine and the girlfriends don't intrude on the work or the training." He reached out from under the blanket and pressed his fingers to her lips. "Before you ask, classes are fine, the tutors are okay, and you'll find out soon enough that the parties can be great. Just keep away from the stuff young guys peddle that can mix up your head."
"You've done that?"
"Hell no! Who do you take me for?"
"My caring brother!" She answered him as the aircraft trembled and shook for longer than earlier moments of air turbulence. The pinging sound of the seatbelt warning signs was close to freaking her out. She clung to his arm tightly and felt again the brush of his fingers over her leg. He was reassuring her, that was all; there was nothing in those slow touches on her skin, none at all. "Are you seeing anyone special?"
"No, and those I do see you don't know." Leo sensed she would talk about anything as long as it took her mind off the patches of turbulence the plane was flying through.
"Go on, please? She felt as if she was being rocked and jolted by a drunken man as she lay in a cradle.
