A Reception Day [Part 5]

That Night at the Airport

If you look me in the eye, I would ask you to tell me “what do you see?”

If you open your eyes, then you will see, that it is just you and me!

If you tell me the things that you want, I will give you all the things that I have got.

Trust me darling, it’s a perfect paradise.

When your heart skips a beat,

when you feel butterflies in your stomach, the same way you felt for the first time,

when you place your head over my shoulders,

I would say, Hey! Listen to you breathe; Are you living in a dream?

It is time to be together, forever!

***

 A dream!

My friend must be feeling like living in that perfect dream. The dream which has been made true today.

By ten forty-five, on that night, while I was arriving at the airport, my friend would have already gotten married. 

There would have been no shortage of pure swoon-worthy moments from the wedding and really, what more can you ask for in a marriage ceremony?

From the moment of him, looking at his bride, falling in love with her all over again, to telling her that you look amazing; the wedding must have had crying moments of happiness and love.

And here I am standing at the end of the driveway to the airport departure gates, miles away from the action.

While still outside the terminal, I could see the planes slowing down, gliding from one end of the runway to the other. With so many planes landing, it becomes difficult to keep track of that one plane continuously. Sometimes it disappeared and then reappeared from a fleet of aeroplanes. Many manoeuvres later, it would take that one final turn and start moving towards the airport terminal, towards the departures side. 

Men dressed in orange work vests would guide the plane to its rightful spot, vigorously signalling with the lighted batons that they held in their hands.

Time to get in! 

It was way early for me to arrive at the airport, for my flight is scheduled to depart at around half past one in the morning. 

Nowhere for us to go anyway, have we?

Besides, with all the buffet that I had before, it is genuine to have a seat to rest. So, what better can you do than to suck it up and wait in the airport, waiting for your delayed flight!

“Identifications please!” asked the security personnel while I handed over my phone to show the booked flight confirmation email.

“Oh sure. There you go” I replied as I passed over my identification card.

Having a careful glance over my face, he utters a simple but formidable “next”, signalling me to move on ahead.

Life moves on but as the Avengers said it: Not Us!

So, take me over, yes take me over to the crescent of the moon. Oh, my operator, take me to the dream; a place to make me throw out the keys and start living in that dream, with just you and me!

Yes, that dream!

In that dream I knew you well,

where we could shape-shift and trick the past again,

Sigh, that dream.

In the end, the truth is just a ruse!

I am being told to dare to dream. That saying of “if you can believe it then you can do it”, is somehow associated with my superficial innate ability to dream big.

But that is not how it works in general, is it?

Now that truth is a ruse, you being driving a car on the tarmac knowing everyone standing beside the road, patiently looking for a ride; they will take a ride from everyone, for everyone wants a ride-but not from you. They pull away from you!

The reality is often disheartening isn’t it?

But does that stop you from dreaming? Think about it.

I didn’t, cause wandering into that space leads to peril, which causes imminent cold, that shivering to my bones; perhaps I needed someone to reset my soul.

Thoughts spread like wildfire inside that wonder of a brain, multitasking its engines to glide me through to the baggage space and bringing me back to present, to face the back of a queue.

I never liked long queues, or more people to be precise; however, I was content with time that is being leveraged which was anyway going to be slacked on till the eventual flight schedule.

“Haul it over ma’am” explained the baggage security as a girl, in her early twenties, tried to place her luggage in the scanner.

Wait wait…now you would have a question on how I knew that the girl was in her early twenties?

I mean, common, it’s not that hard to know about these things, though my assumption might be visceral in nature at times.

Well, you see, that was how I met her, the girl with the glasses, or caught a glimpse of her while my motor functions were gliding me through the crowd.

She seemed a tad distracted then, for she was awaiting her friends while pulling her luggage along, else she would have surely noticed by gaze by then.

Adorned with a pretty flowered midi dress, she was quite ravishing in her attire; yes, she felt like a Prima donna girl! And all she wanted was the world, but she was stressed at the same time peeking towards the entry gates for some positive news.

Nevertheless, we were in the same queue - might be in the same flight?

“It’s big and heavy, you see!” quipped the girl as she tried to lift her big trolley, by holding its neck from one end, lifting it up from the base with her other hand.

The adrenaline in her veins. Well not so much! For apart from her heavy luggage, she struggled to hold on to her thin strapped purse by the right, which slowly was slipping down from her shoulders.

I saw no one step in forward to help, so I decided to be the good Samaritan.  

“Shall I help?” introducing myself as I jumped ahead to help her out.

That was my first step, perhaps so as was I told later on.

“Yeah, thanks, but I am fine” she quipped as I backed away, only to stop her from slipping while she bent her back to haul her gear, miserably failing in her attempt to do so.

Apart from holding her on the shoulders, I had no other part in the gear rescue operation, as the person manning the scanning machine later helped with the luggage. Perhaps there was no need for me come ahead to help either, and with that shrug of a reply, I was not sure why I came up to her in the first place.

As the sages call it, it is all in fate!

But as always, I am impulsive at times, little bit too much every time – that’s nothing new. Perhaps I need an encore to move things through.

“In line please” proclaiming a middle-aged person in the queue, seemingly not impressed by my actions lately. He might have also readily aligned my actions with the failure of a generation that I am part of, who knows!

Anyway, I went back to my usual place in the line and fortunately didn’t have anyone shouting from the back, accusing me of cutting in the line. That actually went well with no problems whatsoever. Sometimes the people behind are the best people around!

I think we do lack the sense of empathy and mutual understanding. And while everyone being stressed, there has been no time to sit, share and relieve of our problems lately. From that perspective - where is the time for you?

Perhaps we all need to go to Mars and start a new life there. That might lead to something!

Dropping the tagged belongings, post collecting the boarding pass, I proceeded slowly towards the security bay, trying to catch a glimpse of that girl. Wandering in my thoughts, I completely missed her post the screening queue until I found her again standing united with her crowd.

A group of mixed people, seems like they were late to arrive or our girl here was earlier than usual.

A strange feeling beseeched upon me, and I shook it off saying that there is no way I am introducing myself to this girl. It would be so awkward, isn’t it?

With the idea of not letting myself known out in public, I convinced myself that it was indeed a good idea. Moreover, I felt like the chance was blown apart when I was subtlety shrugged off at the queue. Let’s not be a creep and give people to make a blot out of my generation, shall we?

So, I decided to do what I do best.

Post security, I found myself a comfortable seat, took out my writing pad and plugged in my earphones to play my usual playlist.

My scheduled flight was still hours away, and I was just sat there writing on a fantasy story.

Slowly, everything was building up well,

“…from the gory depths of mystic mountains, rose the nightmare king, rising from the hell beneath; the nightmare army raised by the wizards of the frosty mountains…”

      “Hey…”

A murmur whiz passed my ears which I rarely payed much attention to. But it kept insisting from right. I had no interest of leaving my story and thought “God! Is there no way I can have a little time for…”?  

I was interrupted with a slight tap on my right shoulder, which forced me to look towards that direction and boy I was surprised.

It was that girl – the girl with the glasses. Yes, she wore those big round glasses and I didn’t know her name yet!

Smiling she waved at me and said “Hey!”

I didn’t know what to do neither had any clue how to respond to that.

Be composed, calm and bold. You gotta be cool…right?

***