Episode 14: Airport Security....and counting

I slammed the door to the cab and briskly walked up to the curbside check in at the airport. I was early for my flight as usual, but there is still an unnerving feeling of not being completely ready until everything was checked in. I straightened my lapels as the attendant took my bag to the conveyer belt and watched it disappear. He handed me my ticket and I walked into the crowded airport. I had become accustomed to flying alone because I did it so much during my college days. I have since learned all the commonly unknown tricks of how to survive in an airport. For example: Don’t scream bomb in the middle of the terminal, sometimes keeping the razors blades inside of things helps, never put the lighter and the hairspray in the same zip lock baggie. I have always wondered how much humorous thought was put into airport security. It always seems to me that no matter how prepared you are for security, they always make you feel rushed. Here’s a curve ball: Your laptop must be taken out of the laptop bag and put in a separate plastic container to go through. Of course they make you unlace the starched shoes laces on the neatly polished dress shoes, and walk through barefoot because the socks could be a chemical weapon of mass destruction when combined with airplane peanuts. One gentlemen in front of me was instructed to remove his toupee because they thought he could be hiding something under it. What could he possibly be hiding under a toupee?
I managed to make it through airport security halfway dressed….the other half was still being investigated by the FAA because it looked too legit to belong to a man in his 20’s. I made my way down the terminal to my flight gate and took a seat. I pulled out a book and sat and waited for my flight to arrive. I have always found it to be a distraction in the airport when random people’s names are called over the loud speaker and told to go to the nearest “white courtesy telephone.” Did they just win the lottery or something? “Congratulations you are the 736th person to enter the airport today, come to customer service to receive your United Airlines sticker.” I have always wondered what they were being called for. I never thought my name could ever be called on one of those. I regained my thoughts and glanced down at my book and continued to read. A few moments later my name was called over the loud speaker. I was instructed to go to the nearest courtesy telephone. I went to the phone and picked it up. I gave the operator my name and my call was redirected. On the other line I heard her voice. Just what I needed before heading off to New York City, I thought. Not only was the other day considerably awkward, the conversation ended with nothing more than a simple goodbye. I was still in shock. Maybe shock isn’t the best way to describe it, but needless to say I saw it coming….

I opened the door, and there she was standing right in front of me. She stood frozen before me as though I was responsible for the first few words, she took a deep breath and words finally came out…. “I have some big news to tell you,” She said toying with the shiny diamond on her left hand.” I was stopped in my tracks even though I was standing completely still. She looked down while talking to me as if she knew my eyes were just as weighed down. I choked back my selfishness and smiled politely as she told me her story of how he proposed…
“As you know he works in a hospital. So the other night he called me and asked me to come to the hospital to meet him for dinner after he got off work. I drove into the parking lot and walked to the lobby of the ER. We walked out together and got in his car and drove to our favorite restaurant downtown called ‘The Taste of Italy.’ Dinner was pretty uneventful for the most part up until his pager went of. He looked at his pager and told me he had an emergency back at the hospital. He didn’t want me to rush from my dinner so he told me he would call a cab for me whenever I was ready to meet him back at the hospital. I finished up eating a while after he left and called him to call the cab. When I got down to the street, the cab driver was waiting for me. I got in and told him the destination. He told me he was taking a short cut back. Instead we came to a stop in front of mainstreet park. He told me to wait here. So I got out of the cab and saw a row of candles leading to the side of the large pond there at the park. I followed it to the end, and there he was on one knee holding a glass of water filled halfway up. He told me his life was half empty up until he met me, and he asked me be the one to fill it up. So that’s kinda how it happened.”
I was silent for the first few moments till I mustered up enough energy and encouraging words to make the transition as painless as possible. She thanked me for my encouragement and told me she had to go. This time I had no sarcastic comment in my mind about why she had to go, but rather a sense of relief in knowing I could let it all go. I shut the door quietly behind me and slid to the floor resting my head on the mahogany door frame. Everything seems much bigger from the ground. The chairs, kitchen table, and even the ottoman have an overpowering sense of size over my head. I sat there for a few hours with the numbing feeling in my stomach knowing it would all be over soon. The tapes rewind and replay everything that happened in just a few short months: the coffee stain on my baby blue jeans, awkward conversation, voice messages and unexpected visits, best friends wedding, nightmares, and misconceptions, all flooded my mind as the linoleum below me was painted a clear shimmering texture from my eyes.

“Last call for boarding flight 4220 to New York City.” I regained my thoughts and stood up from my chair and headed to the gate. I handed the attendant my ticket and walked down the tunnel into the cabin of the plane. I took my seat and waited for the preflight safety presentation. The flight attendants gave us the usual BS about keeping our hands and feet inside the aircraft at all times, and flushing the only when flying over the great lakes. They get paid to make us feel more at home through their dry humor, so I might as well give them a courtesy laugh. They demonstrated the oxygen masks and how to remove the safety pamphlet from the back of our seats. Sometimes I wonder how much of the general population really needs to be talked at like preschoolers in order to fully understand how to put on a safety vest. I laughed my way through the presentation as I watched the disinterested American public read their magazines and Best Sellers to pass the time while the FAA does their shindig. I reclined my chair and put in the ear buds for a long flight to New York City.
About an hour into the flight I was wide awake thinking about the events of the previous two days. I remembered the faded picture in my portfolio and pulled it out for a quick glance. I almost wanted to roll down the window of the 747 and watch it drift away in the breeze, but seeing as though airplanes don’t have that option I had to resist the temptation. I guess in the few seconds I took a short glance at the picture, the gentlemen sitting next to me peered his eyes upon the faded photograph. He turned to me and simply said: “Do you love her?” A sharp pain cut against the sides of my heart as I pondered on the question. I turned to him and said: “No she’s just a good friend of mine.” He curiously positioned himself in such a way as a child would getting ready to hear a bed time story. He told me he didn’t sense that she was just a friend. I wasn’t in the mood to reopen these already fresh wounds of the previous day and ponder them any more than I already had, but I felt compelled to tell the story….just once more.

He turned looked at me and asked me the same question again after hearing my story. I looked at him rather confused as if proposal wasn’t enough to stop a man from loving someone he can’t have. He simply looked at me and said: “She isn’t married yet.” I wasn’t sure how to react to such a statement because they both seemed to believe they were right for each other. I only met him a handful of times, and he seemed like a quality guy. You know the kind of quality you would find in a store brand cereal. Same concept as when you by the cheapo brand of Frosted Flakes…same picture…different taste. Naturally my opinion is a bit cynical and biased considering all she put me through. All for what? This? I turned back to the gentleman and said: “That’s true,” hoping he would turn back over and fall asleep. After a few moments of awkward silence, he turned his head back the other direction and fell softly asleep.
The plane landed at JFK international airport around 4:30 in the afternoon. I stepped out of the plane into the vast crowd of people waiting for the departing flight at the gate. I made my way to the baggage claim and grabbed my bag. I guess Hollywood wasn’t exaggerating when they showed the man dressed in the expensive black suit holding up the professional looking sign with my name on it standing beside a black Lincoln. This really was New York City. I put my bag in the back of the car and introduced myself to the driver. He gave me a condensed tour of the city while we were in route to my hotel room down town. I expected to check into a Motel 8 across the street from an Arby’s and 24 hour dry cleaning, but that wasn’t exactly what I got. The attendant at the hotel took my bags and handed me the keys to my room. I made my way to the top floor of the Hilton Hotel downtown and put my bags down to change. I found a card left on the dresser from the client I was going to meet instructing me on how to get a hold of the driver.
Within a minutes of my stay at the hotel, I was already leaving to meet the client for an afternoon introductory meeting, then dinner…probably at an expensive restaurant judging by the way I have already been treated. I entered the board room full of men with nice suits and $80 ties, as I made my way to the front of the room. I set up my equipment and took a deep breath before giving my presentation. Before I knew it, the 2 hour meeting was over. Everyone loved the presentation, but from the minute I said “good afternoon,” I was already on auto pilot. So needless to say I don’t remember half the things I said. To be completely honest I was just speaking while my mind was off in some distant face…..I mean place. After a few moments of shaking the hands of important business men and CEO’s of multi million dollar companies asking for my autograph….ok I made that last part up, I made my way down to the lobby of the complex to meet the client for dinner. We drove to an expensive restaurant on Broadway and he gave me an introductory tour of this part of town. We were able to get a table for two at this nice restaurant, and we made our way to the back of the room. As we sat down he began to question me about different things in my life….hmmm maybe I should have given him my autobiography. He didn’t seem like the kind of man to ask too much about my personal life, but as the evening went on I found him to be a genuine individual wanting to know more about me as a person.
Once we got past all the business logistics of the trip he asked me if I had a wife. I apparently look like I’m 30 when wearing a suit. My face slightly dropped as it has in the past during these interesting conversations. “Tough subject I take it,” He asked without hesitation. I looked back and thought to myself, “Here we go again.”
After an hour or so of telling my story, he told me the exact same thing the man in the plane told me: “She isn’t married yet.” I’m not that kind of person. I don’t want to go down in history as a home wrecker, and she is completely happy with where she is. I just needed to come to terms with that and suck it up like a man. We continued to talk a little bit more about it, and I found myself being the love-struck reject from so many popular movies and novels that goes to self-help groups and never does anything about the problems. I was slowly but surely turning my back on this concept of never finding love again.
He drove me back to the hotel and thanked me for my presentation and the time we shared this evening. This was of course the first time I would get to see him during the two day trip ahead. I pressed the button for the top floor and waited patiently as the gold doors slowly opened to the maroon interior of the elevator. As the doors closed, my tension from keeping a straight face dropped significantly, and even a tear dripped down the side of my cheek.
I closed the door behind me and unbuttoned the top collar of my white shirt and took off the thrift store tie. I laid on the bed and stared at the ceiling wondering if somewhere halfway across the country, she would remember me…

To be continued….