Whispers of the Colours in Sky

The hum of the cabin engine on Flight AI-842 The captains announcement that "we will be landing in 45 mins , woke Meera from a deep slumber. Beside her, seat 14B was empt

​"Ananya?" Meera whispered.

​Five-year-old Ananya had been coloring in her sketchbook right before the plane took off from Delhi’s Terminal 3, to  Pune. Meera had drifted off briefly as the seatbelt sign switched off. She checked under the seat—only a box of crayons remained.

​Panicked, Meera unbuckled her belt. She checked the aisle and the lavatories, calling her daughter's name. A senior cabin crew member, Rohan, approached with a tablet.

​"Ma'am, please calm down," Rohan said softly after checking his screen. "According to our manifest, seat 14B was booked, but marked as a no-show. You scanned in alone at the gate."

​"What? No!" Meera grabbed Rohan’s arm. "My daughter boarded with me!"

​"Ma'am," the passenger behind her interjected gently, "I’ve been awake since boarding. You sat down by yourself."

​A cold sweat broke out across Meera’s neck. Frantic, she opened her phone’s gallery to prove them wrong, but every photo from the lounge showed her completely alone. Whispers erupted across the cabin. Is she delusional? Did she lose a child recently?

​Desperate, Meera dropped to her knees by seat 14B. She reached under the cushion and pulled out Ananya’s sketchbook. On the last page was a fresh drawing in bright yellow crayon: a plane with small human figures drawn in every seat, except her seat 14A.

​14A was drawn empty.

​Meera blinked, her vision blurring. She raised her trembling hands—they passed right through the fabric of seat 14A without making contact.

​Confused, she turned to look down the aisle.

​At the front of the cabin, Rohan was crouching beside a crying, lost five-year-old girl in a yellow dress. Ananya was clutching a small pink water bottle, surrounded by concerned passengers.

​"Her name is Ananya," the passenger in 15A was explaining to the crew, holding up a forgotten boarding pass from the gate terminal. "Her mother, Meera, passed away in the ICU this morning in Delhi. Relatives placed the girl on this flight to meet her aunt in Pune, but the child keeps insisting her mother walked onto the plane and fell asleep right next to her."

​Meera stood frozen in the aisle as realization flooded over her. She looked down at seat 14B, where her lingering spirit had watched over her daughter all along. Smiling through her translucent tears, Meera walked over and gently wrapped her phantom arms around Ananya, whispering one last lullaby into the cold cabin air until the little girl finally stopped crying.