To the reader: Yes! At last, it is another story in the Jason Garrett series! In the nearly five months since I last wrote a story in this series, I have had a number of requests for another one. This story is set approximately six months after the events of
Northridge Exposure.
Erin:
So after Jason and I went to Hawaii for our honeymoon, I had always kind of wanted to go back. There was so much that we didn't get to do while we were there, but tops on my list was the true disappointment of not getting to visit the USS
Arizona
memorial.
Over the following four years, I had told him that I wanted to go back several times; unfortunately, when you're married to a pastor, there's really not much vacation time available. So, when his church decided to give him two more weeks vacation time than we had been expecting, I jumped at the chance, telling him that we needed to go to Hawaii.
Well, of course, he immediately objected with the money issue. "Erin, let's think about this for a moment," he said. "Airfare will cost at least $400 for each of us roundtrip between here and there. Then, there's hotel costs, transportation, and food."
But how convenient was it that I had brought this up over a family dinner? Jason's brother, Austin, and his wife, Kat, were there, as were his sister, Emily, and her boyfriend, L.A. Marauders quarterback Martin Daly. The moment Jason mentioned airfare, Austin started. "Um, you know," he said, "being that I'm the chief aide to the adjutant general of the California National Guard, I'm quite sure that I could finagle you a flight to Hickam Air Force Base. You'd have to fly out of March, near Riverside, but it
would
be free."
Kat spoke up next. "I have a voucher for five nights free at any Marriott hotel," she said. "It was one of the… um… perks, you might say that I got from… well, you remember the photo shoot."
About a year and a half earlier, Kat had done a rather graphic photo shoot for Hustler magazine. How graphic, you ask? Well, that's another story, but let's just say that it involved hardcore SEX. "Yeah," she continued. "I guess Mr. Flynt wanted me to do another shoot, but he sent me that voucher, no strings attached, so I just kept it and never replied to him."
Finally, Emily's boyfriend spoke up. "You know," he mused, "I have a national sponsorship deal with Toyota. I bet that I could call up a dealership in Honolulu and get them to lend a car to my brother in law."
Jason threw his hands up in the air. "Well, I guess I know when I'm defeated," he said. "You've all got answers to everything… although, I guess I wouldn't mind another trip to Hawaii."
Austin spoke again, this time a little more quietly. "There's just one thing," he said. "You'd have to fly in a KC-135 tanker… and those don't have windows."
Oh, that was not good.
Jason has somewhat of a problem with motion sickness. When he's in a bus, car, plane, train, whatever, he's okay as long as he can see out the window. But you shut the window on that plane, and his world begins to spin.
In fact, he was turning green just thinking about it. "Well," he said with a weak smile, "I guess… maybe you guys should buy stock in Dramamine."
* * *
Jason:
Well, first of all, it was a little exasperating having my entire family throw a statement that I had made right back in my face. I mean, yeah, I do enjoy Hawaii, but this was a little annoying, having them have an answer for every damn thing I said.
Anyway, I tried not to get visibly annoyed. After all, I'm a pastor, and we pastors are supposed to be a beacon of God's love, not assholes. So, I took a deep breath, and I was doing okay, until Austin mentioned the part about flying in a KC-135.
Oh, that was not good. I can't even deal with a closed window on a plane, let alone an entirely windowless plane. How was this going to work?!
I was beginning to feel nauseous. I swallowed hard, and took a deep breath. "Well," I said, trying to smile and failing miserably, "I guess… maybe you guys should buy stock in Dramamine."
And quite honestly, that would've been good advice. You see, the week before Erin and I left for Hawaii, we went on a shopping trip to buy supplies. When we were at Sav-On, I bought a full ten packages of Dramamine. As we were checking out, the clerk gave us a raised eyebrow.
"My husband gets terrible motion sickness," Erin explained, "and we're flying to Hawaii later this week. The last thing we want is for him to vomit all over the plane."
The clerk didn't look entirely convinced. I don't know if she thought that I was going to use the Dramamine in a way other than prescribed on the packaging or what, but she gave me a suspicious glare as we left.
Anyway, the morning came. I found it very hard to sleep that night, because I was nervous about flying in a windowless plane. I was up at 5:00 brewing coffee, and Erin and I weren't leaving until 6:30.
So, when we hit the freeway that morning, I was a little jittered out on coffee already. My reflexes almost overloaded when I got cut off by an idiotic early morning driver on the 60, but I recovered alright.
* * *
Erin:
Jason didn't sleep for shit the night before we left. I guess he must've just been nervous about the concept of flying in a windowless plane, because I heard him leave the bed at 5:00, a good hour before I got up. When I finally got up, he was pacing the kitchen, clearly hopped up on caffeine.
He almost got us killed on California 60 on the way out to Riverside. Some moron cut us off, and Jason slammed on the brakes and swerved all over the freeway, nearly turning our Impala over - not an easy task! - but he somehow managed to recover.
When we finally got to March Air Reserve Base, Austin met us at the gate. He escorted us to the motor pool, where Jason parked the car. Then, he took us in his government car to the plane. A staff sergeant met us there, and took our luggage to load it into the cargo hold.
Then, as we were getting on the plane, I noticed something strange - Austin was boarding, too!
"Are you going with us, Austin?" I asked.
"Oh, come on," he replied. "You didn't honestly think that I'd be able to get you on a flight to Hawaii without a good reason, did you? You got VERY lucky in that the general needed me to go out to Hickam Air Force Base this week for a conference."
Then he looked at his brother, and added under his breath, "Besides, you didn't think I'd miss the chance to see my older brother turn green, did you?"
Jason looked straight at Austin. "Fuck you."
* * *
Austin:
So yeah. My brother did not look good. Erin looked pretty concerned about it, too. I mean, it's okay if you toss your cookies on an Air Force tanker - they clean up easily, and people do it all the time, anyway. You think about tankers, they're bobbing all over the place up there in the atmosphere, dragging along huge aircraft like C-5 Galaxies and B-52s while transferring fuel. Naturally, most people who fly on tankers are going to get motion sickness at one point or another.
But when you add those two factors together, I was afraid that Jason was going to be yakking all the way to Hawaii, in which case he'd probably have to be treated for dehydration at Hickam before he and Erin went anywhere.
So, Erin and Jason took their seats, Jason popped a Dramamine, and closing his eyes, leaned back. He appeared to be trying to go to sleep, but his eyes kept popping open.
I shook my head and went into the cockpit.
* * *
Jason:
I tried to fall asleep. I really did. But I had drunk too much coffee.
For about the first fifteen minutes of the flight, I was okay. But that was about it. Just off the coast of California, we met up with three F-14s off the USS
Nimitz
. As we sat there, bumping along in the turbulence, I lost it for the first time. Fortunately, my brother had made sure to place a large stack of US Air Force issue barf bags within quick reach of me. And so, the first one was filled.
After I had cleaned myself up a bit, I tried again to go to sleep, but to no avail. For the next two hours, it seemed like every time we hit any sort of bump in the atmosphere, my stomach was set off again. I went through an entire tube of Dramamine, but it had no effect.
I was abso-fucking-lutely miserable.
* * *
Erin:
I didn't know if Jason was going to make it. He was throwing up what seemed like every fifteen minutes. After a while, I wasn't sure where he kept getting stuff to throw up, but it kept coming up, over and over. From about the fourth time on, it had to have been mostly stomach acid, which was definitely not good for his throat.
And then, about halfway to Hickam Air Force Base, I had an idea.
We had been riding in smooth air for about twenty minutes, and Jason seemed to be okay for the moment. There were a number of rough bunks in the cabin of the plane, most likely for medical evacuees. "Jason," I said.
"Uh."
"Come lay down on one of the bunks. I want to try something."
Staggering as if he were drunk, Jason laid down on one of the bunks, sprawled out all over. "No, no, turn over on your front."
He did so. Gently, I pressed each of my index fingers against the base of his skull, right behind his ears.
"Ohhhh…" he moaned.