"Oh shit that’s my flight"
Davis had been so enwrapped in his thoughts, enjoying his coffee that he had lost count of time. His world was complicated all right and in that world everything went as he wanted it to, perfect! Time seemed to stand still there, which he had loved. He never had enough time and when he had, it wasn’t time he wanted and couldn’t do anything he wanted to.
Davis made a dash for the boarding gate. He had pictured an angry flight attendant waiting for this vagabond passenger who had no value for time and the other people on the flight. Luckily it wasn’t the case; there was quite a line actually. He arrived and stood in line panting. He took a moment to catch his breath. He shifted his head right out of line and tried to take a look at how many people were ahead of him...he also caught a glimpse of the attendant in front checking tickets. She was tall, blonde slender...dressed well. He had always had a thing for girls in uniform. But somehow airhostesses had degenerated over the years. He remembered a time when getting on a plane was an absolute thrill. He used to always get a chance to visit the cockpit and his eyes used to light up watching all the lights and high tech gadgets in there. It was the coolest thing ever. As he grew older and his hormones came into play, it was not about just flying that wanted him to become a pilot, but the opportunity to meet all the beautiful women. And he had thought them to be the sweetest and most beautiful people on the planet with their looks and smiles and charm. The hormones grew and Davis wised up. Later he realized that they were not anything special, just women who were dressed up and trained well enough to pull off the smile and sweet look.
"Can I have your boarding pass please?” she said. They were indeed trained well he thought handing her a piece of paper with his seat number and other details. “This way please” she motioned into the plane with her smile. The training must be fantastic! the way she was trained to point with her index finger pointing outwards and the other fingers folded yet not folded, all moving in a synchronized grace was amazing. Wonder how long that class lasted he thought.
It was back to where he was an hour ago, but this time in a new plane, headed to his final destination, and with an old lady seated next to him. Sweet or not he was yet to find out. The airport looked bustling outside his small window. Probably they made it small so you couldn’t see far enough or wide enough to realize the realities of a place. Everything looked beautiful through that glass window.
It had been a tiring day so far. Davis figured he should get some shut eye because he needed all the energy once he landed to find a place to stay and get settled.
He opened his eyes slowly to find everything pretty much the same . What could change? His room was now one seat, which was his bedroom and only room apart from the dining room which was the collapsible table in front of him. There were aromas of food in the air though, which was a good sign because he could feel his stomach growling. Though most people he knew hated plane food, he had always fancied it because it fascinated him how they managed to pack allot of things all neatly and arranged in a small tray. At home he would generally have a meal with rice, one non-veg dish ,one veg. dish and some pappads (a crispy chips kind of a thing),and of course something sweet. And it always occurred to him that one plate was way too small. But here they had used some complicated computer program or something beyond him, to pack so many things in a small tray.
"Would you like my chocolate" the lady said. She seemed sweet. She reminded him of his own grandmother. “You see my son, I am diabetic. I wish I could eat them, I love them so much."
"Oh thank you so much....I love chocolates a lot too, maybe someday I won’t be able to eat them as well"
She reminded him of his own grandmother. Actually not his own but his grandmother's sister. He was closer to her and loved her more even though he saw her far less often. She used to love chocolates and all sweet things for that matter. She used to ask him at many a gathering to get her an extra scoop of ice cream or an extra Jamun from the desert table. She had told him she felt embarrassed asking them for an extra and when kids did it, it was ok. She was always very sweet to him and they used to talk for hours, talking about how she had seen life, her experiences and so on. It always fascinated him. Maybe also because she had a unique knack of telling stories that he used to listen with his eyes all glittering with excitement. It had been more than a year since she passed away and how he missed their chats and sneaking sweets for her. He used to miss her more at all those family gathering where he felt alone and different. She would have helped him through his life’s many dilemmas. She would have understood him. She always did.
"I’ll tell you what; why don’t you have a tiny piece with me?” Davis said.
"No my love I shouldn’t. If my daughter finds out she will kill me.." she adorned a beautiful grin on her face. Davis could see she wanted to so badly, but knew she shouldn’t. Davis went ahead and broke a tiny piece for her, just enough so she could just taste it and handed it to her with a smile. She took it and said "I shouldn't but I guess a tiny piece won’t hurt"
"You know I’m going to visit my daughter. She works in Barcelona. She always wants me to go stay with her. Oh I know it’s not because she wants to spend time with her mom. She just wants somebody to look after her young Daniel when she goes to work. At least I can spend some time with my grandchild.” She lowered her head. There was a lot of agony in the poor old woman. Davis could only imagine what his kids would be like. He knew he would tolerate no such thing. But sometimes in life, you love so much and would do anything to be with your loved ones. Davis felt sad for her and wanted to say something that would cheer her up.
"You know..." he said "...at least you will have Daniel growing up with memories of you and which he would always cherish"
She smiled again and said "Thank you my son...someday you will make some lucky girl very happy"
He felt happy, but the thought of a lucky girl had worried him. Who would it be? He wondered. All his relationships had always ended up in failure. He thought of the saying “all is fair in love and war” What the hell did it mean he had wondered? It was never fair at least not to him. Some crazy fool had said that once, trying to justify his loss of a loved one, and delirious and deprived of love as he was, made up something vague that nowadays people used as a tool to explain the loss of a loved one.
.....The seatbelt sign blinked above him. They were about to land in Barcelona. They fastened their seat belt and she looked at him and said. It was nice to meet you....aaaa....."
"Davis..."
"Davis...my name is Agatha"
"It was nice to meet you too"
"I wish you the best of luck...with everything” she said that and winked at him gently tilting her head towards him.
Davis smiled. He was about to land in Barcelona. It all lay in front of him now. There was no turning back now. He was there. He was going to taste a new life, new people, new experiences...one that he wouldn’t have even imagined in his wildest dreams. It would be a new page in his book of life..one that would lead to Barcelona being one of his favourite places....
to be continued
back to Chapter I
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