I take another half an Ativan, finishing my second cranberry and vodka with soda. The steward comes to the back row (it is a Monday), takes my glass as I nod yes, and asks if I want the chicken marsala or the macaroni and cheese. I love macaroni & cheese. Baked and warm. I dive into the crust and crawl untroubled from one white tunnel to the next like rubbery Boeing 777 tubes in a dream, through the emergency exit down the puffy slide and into the cheese strata—before the man in 6B, who brushed my ass with the back of his hand when I lifted my carry-on, stabs me with a fork.
With a PhD and MFA, Chella Courington teaches writing and literature at Santa Barbara City College. Her recent work appears in The Los Angeles Review, lo-ball, and SmokeLong Quarterly. Her e flash novella, Talking Did Not Come Easily to Diana, is about Diana McPhear, an adjunct at Earl Warren CC.