Rotten Coke

                                                                                                Rotten Coke
It was the summer of ’98. I was ten years old and was visiting my cousins in the United States for the first time. We had taken a flight earlier in the day to Heathrow and later took the connecting flight to Newark.
My brother and I sat side by side and our parents sat behind us. After an hour into the flight, the air hostess served us some refreshments with a choice of having either orange juice or Coca- Cola as a drink and I chose coke with my sandwich. I took a sip and I thought it had a funny taste.  I told myself that I was imagining things and nothing was wrong with the drink. I took another sip and again got the same funny taste. I was convinced this time that I was served a can which had passed the expiry date, that’s the only possible explanation I thought and decided to check the date. To my surprise I found it was within the use by period. It boggled my mind a lot as I tried to find a logical reason that would put me out of my misery.
‘’ Is everything all right, Sir?’’ asked an air hostess who was passing by.
‘’Yeah, it’s good.’’ I replied with a smile not daring to complain.
My brother had finished eating and was staring out of the window. The air hostesses started clearing the tables and put the trays pack into their trolleys. I quickly finished my sandwich and took another sip. Again I got the funny taste. Feeling frustrated I decided to lay matters to rest.
I nudged my brother,’’Oi Rob!’’
‘’What?!’’ he replied.
‘’Take a sip of my coke. It’s got a weird taste to it.’’
‘’What do you mean by weird taste?’’ He looked puzzled.
‘’Er…it tastes as though it’s gone rotten or stale!’’
He chuckled. ‘’What rubbish! Give it to me!’’
He took a sip and looked at me and again took another sip before putting it down in front of him and stared at me.
‘’Well?.....’’ I asked impatiently.
‘’You’re totally nuts!’’ He smirked.’’ It’s not gone stale or rotten like you claim! It’s been mixed with rum!’’ He sniggered unable to control himself any longer.’’ Wait till everyone hears about this!!’’
I felt really stupid at that time and didn’t say anything for the rest of the journey.
After seven hours, our plane landed at Newark. We collected our bags and met our cousins at the exit. My brother told everyone about the incident on the plane and they all had a good laugh.