Runa sat quietly looking out the window of the airplane into the night sky. She was on her way home from Los Angeles. The sky looked calm. It could've fooled anyone into believing everything was alright. But there had already been plenty of turbulence. The truth was that when it looked the calmest, it was really the tensest.

"You're so uptight," Runa told her. Or rather, what she told herself. She turned away from the window and looked beside herself... at herself. Or so it seemed to her because the person beside her may have sounded and even looked like her, but it couldn't have been her. This 'other' Runa was wearing a very immodest, tight, black leather dress. It almost made Runa self conscious to look at her. She looked at herself to see that she was still wearing her jeans and cute but conservative blouse.

"What?" Runa asked the other Runa.

"You're so rigid. You got to get the stick out of your ass, Runa," she told her.

"Who do you think you are?" Runa asked.

"I'm the better you; the one who doesn't let the world run all over her."

"I don't let the world run all over me."

"Sure sister, you keep telling yourself that. It's worked for you so far."

"Look, I think you should keep your opinions to yourself."

"Like you? No. I don't operate like that. I tell people how I feel; like it or lump it."

The plane jumped and the pilot came over the speaker, 'Ladies and Gentlemen, we are experiencing some turbulence and ask that you take your seats and please fasten your seat-belts.'

"And if you're gonna let some jerk beat the hell out of you, at least enjoy it." She looked at her with devilish eyes and smiled. "Really get into it." She laughed and the plane shook more.

Runa looked around and people were starting to look at them. Her eyes grew wide with anger as she looked at the other Runa. "Shhh!" she whispered now, "That's nobody's business."

"You're pathetic, Runa. You really are."

"Brian is a great guy. He loves me."

"Ha!"

"He does and besides, you don't know him like I do. He had a horrible childhood."

"Oh boo hoo! And that gives him the right to be a jackass then?"

"He just needs someone to understand him."

"And who's going to understand you? Who even knows how crappy your life is?"

"What do you mean?"

"You know," the other Runa told her. She sat back as the turbulence struck again; harder this time.

"Whatever."

"Yeah whatever," she mocked. "You need to get tough. You need to fight back. You think these people you surround yourself with really care at all about you? They only care about what you can do for them."

"That's not true."

"You're such a 'little goodie two shoes'," the other Runa said, shaking her head.

"I am not!"

"Yes you are. You need to grow a backbone."

"I'm tired of you. Go away." She looked back out the window.

"Fine," the other Runa said, "But we aren't done."

"Oh yes we are!" Runa said, turning back. But the other Runa was gone.

The plane shook violently. It dropped and it shook and it dropped again. The lights flickered and it started to go into a nose dive. The oxygen masks fell from the ceiling.

The lights went out and people were screaming.

The lights flickered on and off and someone appeared in the shadows. Another passenger was staring at her.

"Runa," he said. She looked right at him. He was a tall, attractive older man. He was wearing a business suit and red tie. "It's alright he said."

Runa woke up in the tight, cramped little closet, in the dark and asked, "Dad?"

She started to cry. She reached around andgrabbed an old coat off its hanger. She had not worn the coat in a couple ofyears. It was too big on her. But she loved to wear it. It was her father's.She leaned forward and held it close, crying into it loudly.

*****************************************************

The air set heavy over the town in the twilight, along with a thick fog that morning. It was quiet. Nobody was moving yet. The occasional car passed by the Catholic Church but no one saw the dark shadow of a tall, lanky person walk up to the side of the Church. They approached the marker stone and seemed to be doing something to it. A small light flickered in their hand. A sound of several 'clicks' would have barley been audible if anyone were nearby.

The shadow moved silently into the old graveyard and to the family crypt that Runa had noticed the other day. It moved behind the crypt and out of sight.