Crabby goes on the Plane
Sofia's ponytail bounced through Perth Airport, and hidden deep inside it, eight little legs gripped tight. This is not stowing away, Crabby thought, as Sofia's Baba wheeled the suitcase past security. This is a strategic accompaniment. Someone has to keep an eye on Sofia for fourteen hours. It might as well be me. He'd snuck in that morning, right after Sofia tied her hair up, and now there was no going back – not that he wanted to. Crabby had never been on a plane. He fully intended to enjoy every second of it, sideways and undetected, as always.
The trouble started somewhere over the Indian Ocean. Sofia had fallen asleep against the window, and Crabby, bored and restless, decided a quick mission down the aisle was in order. He slipped out of her ponytail, scuttled along the headrest, and dropped onto the little tray table of the man in 34C – who was mid sip of his juice. "What in the –" the man spluttered, staring at his lap, then at the empty tray, utterly unable to explain where the small red visitor had gone, because Crabby was already gone, flattened against the underside of the seat in front.
That could have gone better, Crabby admitted. Emboldened, Crabby's next stop was the food cart, parked innocently in the aisle while the flight attendant helped someone with a bag. He found the little foil lids on the dessert cups irresistible, and to his delight, he opened one to find chocolate mousse inside. One clawful of chocolate mousse later, he was sporting a fine brown moustache and left several tiny footprints across the cart's top shelf. "Did someone get into the mousse?" the flight attendant asked her colleague, frowning at the smudges. "Maybe turbulence" said the other, unconvinced.
Crabby was already halfway back down the aisle, sliding under seat 36A just as Sofia stirred and reached up to touch her ponytail. He made it back with seconds to spare, tucking himself in just as Sofia yawned and asked her Baba how much longer until London. He stayed still for almost a whole hour, which for Crabby was practically a personal best.
But when the in flight movie started, and someone three rows up had the volume too loud, Crabby simply had to investigate. Again, he climbed down the seat, across a sleeping stranger's blanket, and pressed himself against the chair, marvelling at the movie being shown from the little screen.
That's when the seatbelt light dinged on, and the pilot's voice crackled overhead "cabin crew, please prepare for a little turbulence." The plane gave a gentle shudder. Crabby, caught mid scuttle, was flung sideways into someones dropped boarding pass, wrapping himself in it before rolling to a stop against a shoe. The shoe's owner looked down. Blinked. Looked again. Nothing to see here, Crabby thought desperately, holding very, very still. Just a boarding pass. A completely ordinary non crab shaped boarding pass.
When the turbulence finally passed, Crabby unrolled himself and bolted back down the aisle. He arrived at Sofia's ponytail breathless, mousse still faintly visible on one claw.
Sofia woke properly this time, and peered out the window at the lights appearing below. "Baba look – its London!" Tucked deep inside her ponytail, exhausted from his adventures, one small red crab peeked out just far enough to see the city lights twinkling below. A successful mission, he thought, as his eyes closed. No one saw anything. Nothing happened. And that mousse, for the record, was excellent.
The End