Shortlisted
New Tales of the Great Wall
Maggie Y
shifted uncomfortably in my seat. Jasmine glanced at me out of the corner of her eye.
neck
ang, Group 2: Fiction, Kennedy School
I
“
You okay?”
I nodded. “I’m fine.”
Jasmine didn’t respond immediately. I turned my head to look at her, only to see my sister craning her
to see the pilot.
I followed her movement. The pilots’ eyebrows were furrowed, and the co-pilot was staring at the radar. He
pressed a button, and the signs for seatbelts lit up.
“
Passengers, attention.” The co-pilot’s voice resounded through the small plane. “We are going through a
severe turbulence. In ten minutes we are going to pass over the Great Wall to have an emergency landing, so
would everyone please put on their seatbelts and get ready.”
I sighed and fastened my seatbelt, and then did Jasmine’s, trying to stop her from hyperventilating. My little
sister always had a problem with heights, so having a sister like me-calm, cool, and level-headed- that had a
strangely catastrophic life was very useful for her.
“
Oh, God, Stephanie, what if we crash? What are we going to do-” The plane wobbled.
“
Whoa!” Jasmine’s knuckles were white on her seat. She began to grab at the emergency jacket under her
seat, and gestured at me to do the same. Sighing, I obliged. Jasmine stuffed the jacket behind her and began to
pack her bag.
The plane shook again. Jasmine froze for two seconds. “Do you think we’re going to crash, Steph?”
“
We’re going to land soon, Jazz. No worries.”
Jasmine nodded slowly. “No worries. Right.”
The plane swayed a few times. The plane’s nose suddenly dipped, and I suddenly regretted telling Jasmine
that it would be fine.
We began to plummet. A few passengers screamed as the air pressure increased rapidly. I imagined myself
as Brian Robeson, in the plane that was crashing and suddenly landing in the ‘L’ shaped lake.
Three hundred feet, two hundred, one hundred fifty, one hundred…
I blacked out.
“
Stephanie! Wake up!” I sat up, and Jasmine’s forehead hit mine.
I rubbed my head wistfully, as if I was an amnesia victim. Jasmine stared at me.
“
You’re awake! Finally!”
“
I figured,” I muttered.
“
I can’t believe we crashed. There was an airport, like, this close-“ Jasmine narrowed the distance in
between her thumb and forefinger. “-and BOOM!” She imitated an explosion. “We landed. You blacked out
when we were almost at the ground. Eve’s hurt really badly, since she was sitting roughly where the plane
cracked.”
“
Who’s Eve?”
Jasmine narrowed her eyes at me.
“
Oh, a passenger. Of course.”
We sat in silence for a while, listening to people shouting, the noise mostly coming from where Eve was
sitting.
Eventually, the noise died down as Eve fell asleep. The head pilot called in an assembly, to get to know
everyone and their situations.
There were roughly fifty people on the plane. None of us really cared what the other parties were doing, but
we just wanted to get home.
“
Don’t worry, everyone. We’re along the Great Wall, so we can’t be far from civilization.” The head pilot
reassured a few passengers that were panicking.
Soon, night fell as the daylight dimmed. Groups of twos and threes huddled together, whispering about the
situation. Jasmine and I just lay in silence, knowing that no words could help.
All too soon, I woke up. It was about six o’clock, so there was enough light for me to explore. I began to
walk eastward. There was a forest there, next to the plain that everyone was sleeping in. Jasmine was still asleep,
so I didn’t worry about her.
The forest was dry, which made me more confident. I moved fast, since I was one of the best athletes in
Yale.
A few minutes later, I was tired. The forest seemed to go on forever, but I knew that the end had to be
somewhere and I was determined to find it.