Saturday 15 February 2014

SF(a)ADL - Finally on the Plane



On August 1 2013 I published Scenes from an Airport Departure Lounge. Descriptions of people at Heathrow. This week I am expanding on those descriptions a little with some imagined elaborations. 




               Finally the girl with apologetic eyes told us our plane was ready for boarding. Tired limbs and tired minds collected up belongings and shuffled through the gate and onto the bus. I saw the assembled cast around me, the sleepy girl, the greedy boy, the lovers and the windmill man, I felt like a Ghostbuster having captured little bits of their spirit; my phone being the proton pack. I couldn’t see the woman with pink nail varnish anywhere but she had to be there somewhere.
               The bus rattled across the tarmac on a seemingly never ending journey. I couldn’t have been the only one thinking that maybe the bus was taking us all the way to Prague. Eventually we reached the plane and again tired limbs shuffled around, moving like zombies to their seats on the plane.
               I checked my boarding card as much out of habit as necessity, 23C , it was always 23C if I can choose. I saw the bottle blonde hair before I saw the seat number; 23A the woman with pink nail varnish. I felt myself blushing, I’d devoured her with my eyes earlier, she caught me, and then maybe even wrote about me and now I had to sit next to her for 2 whole hours. I half smiled as put my bag up and took my seat, praying someone would come for 23B but no one did.
               Take off was smooth and wordless, I snoozed slightly as the plane made its ascent but woke when I heard the sound of bottles on the trolley. I could sense Ms Nail Varnish’s eyes on me, watching me.
               ‘I’ll show you mine if you show me yours,’ she said, laughter in her voice.
               To start with I didn’t know what she meant, but then I saw she was holding her phone out and I realised that she meant the stories.
               I dug around in my brain, did I want to show her the notes I made? I hadn’t exactly been complimentary. What the hell! She slipped into 23B and we swapped devices. We read silently; a sexual tension in the air heightened by the proximity of our bodies.  I felt my face redden as I read her words, The word ‘wow' on my lips. I could sense her writing something, on my phone. We swapped back, I looked down at the new note. It was a name and number and the simple line.
            ‘Waiting for the great leap forward.’


7 comments:

  1. :-) what if she weren't in 23A but 10 rows ahead?:-)

    ReplyDelete
  2. What if she weren't the first one to speak?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Then as it is a story maybe the shy goatee beard man would speak :-)

      Delete
  3. riddles..
    so, I never hit the target
    but as Billy Bragg said
    'In a perfect world we'd all sing in tune'
    feeling our craters moon skin back
    redden faces of shy hearts
    when the proximity of bodies mean
    we're on each other's Team

    You show me yours, I'll show you mine
    nothing sweeter than naked emotions
    like You're always on my mind

    ReplyDelete
  4. Woman with pink nail varnish15 February 2014 at 15:13

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nZaYEniPaJg&feature=kp

    ReplyDelete
  5. wow! You had 68 followers, now 67 ..maybe one whom doesn't like "sing in tune" as BB said on this song " waiting for the GLF"

    ReplyDelete