As he buckled himself into the airline seat, Richard couldn't help but feel tense. It certainly wasn't his first time flying, nor did he have any fear of heights. However, he couldn't stop thinking about his encounter with that strange man on the street earlier in the day. The one with the Donkey on his jacket;

Richard was snapped out of his daze as he collided with another man on the pavement, and a jet of white vapour shot out of his mouth as he gasped in surprise, quick to follow up with an apology.

“Hey, sorry, I didn't s-”

“You're going to die on that flight you know.”

“E-excuse me?”

Richard's mind went blank for a moment after hearing the remark, as a shiver worked its way from his neck down to his toes. Despite his warm attire, he could feel his body turning as chill as the winter air around him. The feeling only lasted a second, after which his mind kicked into overdrive. How did the man know he was headed to the airport? Were his tickets out? Was this some prank from a friend? If it was, the man was putting up a damn good poker face.

“Listen, I'm not here to tell you to switch flights or any of that. You're not superstitious enough to anyway. All I'm asking you to do is take this coin and flip it before you go through the terminal and don't look at it when it lands. If it's heads, you get to live, if not, the plane's going down as usual. What have you got to lose?”

“A lot apparently if you're right”

It was the only response Richard could come up with, and in spite of himself he reached towards the man's outstretched hands. Without another word the man dropped a coin into Richard's hand and continued walking. Richard glanced at the coin for a second, noting it was just a quarter, before turning to watch the man walk away. Baffled. Even more so at the Donkey sewn into the back of the man's jacket. Eventually though, he gathered his wits about him and kept walking towards the airport.

He had a flight to catch.

Despite writing off what the man said as nonsense, Richard still found himself flipping the coin he was given before going through the terminal. He also found himself resisting the urge to look at it after it fell. After all, even if what the man said was nonsense, what did he have to lose?

Maybe it was because he did what the man said that he felt so nervous. It told him that at least a small part of Richard Atkins bought into the crazy encounter. He glanced around at the other passengers, scanning for any people who looked like they might be terrorists ready to hijack the plane, which much to Richard's disdain had him searching for people who looked like they might be from the Middle East.

While he felt guilty about it, he also felt better when he saw none. One major disaster scenario likely avoided. He supposed he couldn't really check to make sure the engines wouldn't explode, so the rest of his mental checklist would have to go unanswered. It was too late to get off the plane at this point anyway, even if he was actually worrying over what that strange man had said.

I probably have nothing to worry about.

It would be almost forty minutes before Richard deeply regretted having that particular thought. The immediate loss in altitude of the plane was hardly noticed until the tell-tale headache that Richard had when a plane began its decent began pounding away at him. His stomach dropped like a stone when realization dawned upon him that the plan was losing altitude much too early into the flight, and he wasn't the only one.

All throughout the plane questions were being asked to the flight attendants, calmly at first, but like a wave confusion began sweeping over everyone. After confusion followed anger at the attendants' obvious inability to answer what was going on, and panic as they began instructing on emergency procedures. The woman across the aisle from Richard was praying, h heard another one behind him sobbing.

Richard just closed his eyes and tried to calm his heart, which was trying to beat itself out of his chest.

I guess it landed on tails.

There was no doubt in Richard's mind now that the man was absolutely correct. Whether he was a Gypsy, psychic, or just one hell of a good guesser. Overhead he heard the oxygen masks drop, but Richard didn't even bother opening his eyes, the masks wouldn't do anything if the plane crashed. He noticed then that the praying had stopped, the crying had stopped, the questions and cries of anger had stopped. An eerie silence had fallen over the plane.

Despair, acceptance, bafflement, disbelief, unity. There was a certain comfort in knowing that every single person around you was in the exact same situation you are. A certain understanding that transcended any communication.

The seconds passed slowly, but soon Richard felt the pain in his head lessen, and the feeling in his gut vanish. Tentatively he opened his eyes, and noticed others do the same. Then, the intercom overhead told everyone what they had dared not even hope to hear.

“Passengers, this is your captain speaking, I would like to apologise on behalf of the airline for the inconvenience. We were experiencing some technical difficulties and they have now been resolved. Thank you for your patience.”

Immediately the silence throughout the plane was broken. Some cheered, some cried, some laughed hysterically. Richard was in the latter two categories. Never in his life had he felt so overwhelmed with emotion, emotion and confusion. Whoever the man had been, he somehow saved Richards life, or at least gave it a chance.

“Thank you God”

And with that he laid his head back against the seat, and tried to sort out his thoughts.

*****

“Hey dad, look what I found!”

Outside of the airport terminal a father waited with the infinite impatience of one who is good with children for his son to finish the hundredth interruption of the trip.

“What have you got there Dylan?”

The man crouched down to see what his son was holding up, it looked to be a quarter.

Kids, every cent is a fortune.

With as much enthusiasm as he could muster he took the quarter from his son to look it over, putting on a look of pride that could fool any five year old child.

As he flipped it over to see which state was printed on the back, as there was no date on the front, and frowned in puzzlement. He handed the coin back to his son and ruffled the boy's hair.

“Looks like you found a trick coin there Dylan. It'd sure make something cool to show to your friends! Just don't try and scam them, or they'll be real mad when they find out.”

How odd that one's just lying in an airport..

However, the man shook the thought from his head and stood up once more.

One man's trash is another man's treasure I suppose.