Not Again!

By Rowena Banks

"Not Again!" is told through the eyes of thirteen and a half year old Jessica. It's been almost two years since they were the only survivors of a plane crash. In "Not Again," Jessica, Crystal, Sarah and their parents are enjoying some well deserved family time when circumstances take a turn for the worst.

"Here we were again, only this time we were lost at sea. We were still tied together. It was almost pitch black. We could only see the stars and the moon. We floated on our backs and sang."

• Language: English
• Publisher: BookBaby
• Release date: Mar 27, 2023
• ISBN: 9781667894638

Book preview

Chapter 1

The Law Suit

It’s been almost two years since our plane crash.  Mom, Crystal, Sarah, and I survived a plane crash that no one else had survived.  The investigators were not able to determine how our seats had become unbolted from the steel floor of the plane, or how our seats were sucked out of the plane without being tossed about.   It’s a mystery to most people how we had remained unharmed.  But we know that there is a very important reason for us being spared.  We just haven’t figured it out yet.

However, the cause of the crash had been determined.  A maintenance report had noted that there was deterioration of the metal on the wing of the plane.  Proper corrective action had not been taken so the court had ruled on the side of the families of the passengers of our flight.  We had been awarded $1.5 million per family member.

Crystal is ten years old now.  She hasn’t changed that much.  Her hair is still silky light brown.  Her hair is down to her waist now.   She only grew a couple inches and she is still hoping for a quick growth spurt.  Her large golden eyes are even more noticeable.

Sarah is almost as tall as Crystal.  She is tall and lean and lost half of her baby teeth.  Her pale skin matches well with her light strawberry blond hair.  

I’ve changed a lot in the last couple years.  I am now thirteen years old.  My body has matured and my parents call me a young lady now!  I’m really just a kid, though.  There’s no way that I’m ready to give up childhood and all the perks that brings!  I grew my hair down to my waist, and I’m about an inch taller than Crystal.  I’m thin and kind of short for my age.

The court ruling was several months ago, but we just received the check yesterday.  The net check ended up being less than half.  Even so, we were millionaires!  If it was only our ordeal of being in the mountains for two months we would say it was worth it, but over a hundred families had lost loved ones.   We grieved for those families, but we were thankful they had received monetary compensation.

We talked all the time about what we were going to do with our money.  Should we sell the house and buy a mansion?  Or move to another state?  We could build a luxury homeless shelter, or give gifts to all of our friends and family.  We could do all of the above!

We all went to the bank to deposit the money and then went out to dinner. We drove to Tahoe and went to a little restaurant called Austin’s right across from the Hyatt.  The restaurant has only a few tables with red-checkered tablecloths.  They make the best fries in the world.  At least that’s what I think.  We decided to spend the night at the hotel.  We had to buy swimsuits at the hotel store so we could go swimming in the indoor heated swimming pool.

Mom, Dad, watch me!  I squealed as I jumped off the island in the center of the pool and did a somersault.

Yay!  They both said as they clapped.  They swam underneath the waterfall and started hugging each other and laughing.  I wanted to know what they were talking about so I swam underwater all the way over to them.  They spotted me and stopped talking.

What are you guys laughing about? I asked.  

Mom said, you’ll find out soon enough!  

Sheesh, I’m the oldest, don’t they know they can tell me anything?  I didn’t bother reminding them of that fact because I knew it wouldn’t do any good.

Crystal, I yelled.  Crystal looked over at me.

Let’s play Marco polo.  

Crystal replied, OK, you’re IT first.  Sarah, swim over there and I’ll go this way.

Marco, I yelled

Polo, Crystal and Sarah squeaked.

I could tell where Sarah was but I didn’t want