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Her ear would not pop! Alisha in 23F
had tried to ignore the whole flight by keeping her window closed and
doing a couple Sudokus, but now that the plane was descending this was
too much. It was like someone was blowing up a balloon in her right
ear! Nothing was stopping it! She had gum to chew as soon as the pilot
said they were beginning descent. She chewed and chewed, working her
jaws and swallowing, working her jaws and swallowing, but it didn't
help. This hurt! She pinched her nose again, blew through it until the
air came out the tear ducts of her eyes. No good! She closed her eyes
tight, kept the hand pinching her nostrils, and blew again. The
pressure built and built in her head, began hissing out of her
equalized left ear, but just caused more throbbing in the right. After
fifteen seconds of daring, she let go of her nostrils. She needed a
release valve! She jabbed a finger in her ear. Maybe her French wrap
would reach the key spot. She pulled it out in pain. There was a lot of
swelling in the whole ear, and it hurt like hell, but even her nail was
too big to get at the sore spot directly. She took the pencil from her
Sudoku. She was crazy for doing this, but she just couldn't go on with
this ear! She gently inserted it into her ear, very slowly, not wanting
to do anything but make a tiny pinprick. The plane hit a storm cloud
head on, jarring it like an amusement park ride. Alisha might have
noticed the dark cloud if her window was open. She didn't notice
anything now. The pencil rested with the eraser on the closed window
screen, the tip deep within Alisha's brain. A hissing sound came from
her eardrum. |
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