Passengers
on a small commuter plane are waiting for the flight to leave. They're getting
a little impatient, but the airport staff has assured them that the pilots
will be there soon, and the flight can take off immediately after that. The
entrance opens, and two men walk up the aisle, dressed in pilots' uniforms--both
are wearing dark glasses, one is using a seeing-eye dog, and the other is
tapping his way up the aisle with a cane.
Nervous
laughter spreads through the cabin; but the men enter the cockpit, the door
closes, and the engines start up. The passengers begin glancing nervously
around, searching for some sign that this just a little practical joke. None
is forthcoming. The plane moves faster and faster down the runway, and people
at the windows realize that they're headed straight for the water at the edge
of the airport territory. As it begins to look as though the plane will never
take off, that it will plow into the water, panicked screams fill the cabin--but
at that moment, the plane lifts smoothly into the air.
The
passengers relax and laugh a little sheepishly, and soon they have all retreated
into their magazines, secure in the knowledge that the plane is in good hands.
Up
in the cockpit, the copilot turns to the pilot and says, "You know, Bob,
one of these days, they're going to scream too late, and we're all gonna die.."
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