After my flight to Dallas, I was hesitant to get onto my new flight. I was a walking dead. I wasn’t a zombie though, as i was hungry for real food. I barely had time to grab a bite before my next flight. I avoided the long lines at McDonald’s to grab a breakfast burrito, which in hindsight I ate at the same place years ago when I was returning from Baltimore.
In no time, I was boarding the flight to Ft. Lauderdale. I sat next to the window thankful that at least my right side would be protected. I waited, fully anticipating someone sitting next to me that would occupy the space. I was surprised to find an attractive young woman, unsmiling, her hair pulled back severely, sit next to me. She seemed tired and unpleasant. I was tired, but I don’t think I was unpleasant. I said something to her, and I recognized an accent. “I took a bus New Mexico for a wedding and I am going back to Miami.”
“You live there?”
“Yes, for now.”
“What do you mean?”
She smiled, stretching her neck and flexing her shoulders. She had the look of traveling far carrying heavy bags. I admired her excellent posture. “I live in Miami sometimes, but I live in Norway but born in Latvia…”
We were interrupted by the people in the back of us. The main on the aisle, a loud, big fellow, said “Alright are we going to have to fight each other for the arm rest?” It as bizarre. And only got bizarrer as he later apologized for his behavior stating he had a rought morning as he had just broken up with his fiancé. It sounded like something from TV. It got worse. The couple sitting next to him was actually on their way to get married.
“I am nurse… I come to Miami to get away from Norway, family and friends.”
“Well if you want to get away from all of that, you should just leave.”
“Yes, I am thinking of doing this.”
We talked, off and on, sometimes interrupted by the conversation of the people in back of us, others by sleep. She was not as harsh as her face seemed to indicate, just tired and regretting a bus ride from New Mexico with a stop in Amarillo and an early morning arrival in Dallas to catch a flight to Ft. Lauderdale where she would be headed to Miami to enjoy the sun… something that Norway already did not have.
