The Silent Girl (Chapter 9)

 

*Disclaimer*: This is a work of fiction. Some events may be based on real life, but some events are made up. For translations of the Chinese, see the Translation section at the very end.

    We went to the airport at 5 pm. Our flight was at 7pm, but it took a long time to go through security. My mom told me that it was because we were taking an international flight. 

   Japan is an island in in Asia. Even though our family isn't Japanese, our great uncle lives there. It's because he went to collage in Japan and he married a Christian part Chinese and part Japanese girl named Li Li there. He loved Japan so much that he decided to live there. Everybody just called him Uncle because everybody felt like he was their uncle for some reason.

    When we finally got through to the waiting room, they had just called all of the seniors and their families to board the plane. Since Ye Ye¹ and Nai Nai² were seniors and we were family, we could all board the plane before any other passengers could. This plane was so much bigger than the one that we took to Idaho. 

    This plane seemed double the size of the one we took to Idaho. The plane had three groups of columns. Most groups had three seats but a few groups only had two seats. Plus there were more rows of these groups than I could see at once. It looked like there was one hundred people inside the plane not even including the pilot, co pilot and all the other people working on the plane!!!!!!!

Since there were three seats in almost every little group, I sat with Clara and Ava. Ava used to sit with Malachi and Austin but Austin made a moaning/groaning/crying noise when he is on a plane. Ava got the window seat because she got the most air sick and I took the middle seat. Clara took the seat next to the middle column because she was always the hungriest out of all of us and the moms were the ones with all of the snacks. The moms sat next to us in one of those extra tiny group with only two seats in the middle column, since we were the first passengers to board the plane and none of the two seats were taken. Ye Ye and Nai Nai sat behind the moms. (Next to the boys.) Malachi, Austin and Hayden all sat together behind us. 

Another cool thing was that there was a personal screen in front of every seat. You might be wondering how you can possibly everything from your screen if 100 people around you are listening/watching different things. Well, each person gets a pair of ear buds and you plug it in to the screen in front of you, to hear what's on your screen. If you unplug your pair of ear buds from the screen, you won't be able to hear anything. If the people working on the plane have something to say, your screen will pause and you will hear the person speaking through your ear buds.

I started to explore. I found games, movies and some other weird stuff. It was fantastic. I had only watched three movies in my life time, so I decided that I would start there. I pushed the button that said movies and a whole bunch of pictures with titles at the top came up. I scrolled around and found a movie called Lego Movie 2. What in the world did that mean? I knew what Legos were, since Hayden played with them a lot. I guess that meant people dressed up in lego costumes and doing a little play but I'm not sure that is what it actually means. I decided to try it out, since I could always come out if I didn't like it or it was scary. It turned out there wasn't anybody dressing up as legos. The story turned out much different and much better then I had originally thought but I soon started to get hungry and tummy started to make sounds. 

"Hey! Isabella, are you hungry? Your tummy is kind of loud. Do you want some dried mango. It tastes almost as good as the one Nai Nai and Ava makes." Clara said, offering a bag of dried mango.

I gratefully took the dried mango, but I was still hungry afterward and Clara, Ava, Malachi, Hayden and Austin had already eaten all the rest of the snacks. I sat there watching Lego Movie 2, while my tummy made louder and louder sounds. It was so embarrassing but at least only Ava and Clara could hear my tummy. 

 Thankfully, a flight attendant came by asking if we wanted an Asian meal or an American meal. We all choose the Asian meal, since that is what Nai Nai usually cooks for us. Later you could also get a meal later for breakfast. Just like at home, they served us xi fan and fresh fruit. They also served us orange juice or apple juice. 

The flight attendant soon came back with lots of food and my mouth watered. The meal tasted really good. My favorite part was the little can/box of fruit. 

I soon went back to the movie with a full tummy and no loud noises coming from my tummy. I spent the rest of the flight eating, watching movies, playing games, listen to people snore around us and sleeping a lot.

I woke up to a flight attendant telling everybody on the plane that we were about to land in the airport in Tokyo, Japan. We made sure that our seatbelts were plugged in and we passed around gum, so our ears wouldn't hurt. This time the gum flavor was watermelon. I didn't like watermelon flavored gum but at least it would make my ears not hurt.

The plane swooped in and then parked where it was supposed to be. We unbuckled and got our backpacks. Since we were in the very front we all stepped off the plane and headed toward the outside of the airport. Our great uncle would be picking us up in his car. Since we are ten people in all, his wife, Li Li, would also drive there other car so we could all fit. 

When we got outside, we quickly found them and got inside. I was in Li Li's car. I sat with Clara and our moms. Ye Ye, Nai Nai, Ava, Malachi, Austin and Hayden were in our great uncle's car. We were in this order because Li Li needed to go to the grocery store, so everybody who wanted to go to the grocery store went with Li Li and everybody who didn't want to or wanted to go to their house went with our great uncle or Uncle as everybody called him. 

The grocery store was cool. Unfortunately, I got hungry again. This time I didn't make sounds though. We soon finished and also headed to their house. 

Their house was huge. Their were two stories. We walked up the drive way and Li Li unlocked the door. Clara walked in and then her mom did. Then my mom did too. I slowly walked in I wondered how different life was in my great uncle's house then it was in our house in California and I was going to soon find out.

Translations:

¹Grandpa

²Grandma

To be continued... 

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