Final Call

She knew she must look a fright. It was evening and yet she was walking through the airport wishing that her huge sunglasses would cover her entire face. Or at least more of her swollen and flushed cheeks. The tears wouldn’t stop. She’d been fine when they’d said goodbye (well maybe not fine, maybe just ok), even though she could see that he was emotional as well. Just hold it together, she had told herself. She’d heard once that running the tip of your tongue front to back along the roof of your mouth would stop you from crying so she was doing that furiously as she made her way through security and towards her gate.

As she looked up at the window overlooking departures, she saw him watching and that’s when it really hit her. His palm was pressed up against the glass and he watched as she dropped her bags and looked up at him. They just stood like that for a few moments, tears running down her face.

In those moments, she reflected on their last few days together, how they had become even more completely in tune with each other. Knowing that such a long separation was coming had somehow brought them even closer together. The days had passed in a kind of haze. They were together constantly, arm in arm, skin to skin. It was as if they were trying to make up for future lost time.

She was jolted out of her thoughts when they announced again that her flight was in the final stages of boarding and she seriously contemplated just giving up on the whole idea. But he let his hand slip down the glass and then into his pocket as she smiled weakly up at him and gathered her things. She blew him a kiss and he caught it as he always did, and waved sadly.

And then she turned away and ran to her flight.

She couldn’t bear to walk and she refused to look back.

Ah, the airport. And the tearful goodbyes. I see them all the time. I hate them when they’re my own especially. But it’s what we do, right? Today’s flight was not emotional at all, thank goodness, but I’ve had a few that were, although not quite as dramatic as this one LOL.

No, tonight I was sitting in the “normal” Qantas lounge (yes, I am no longer Platinum, just Gold) when I heard a familiar voice say “you wanna come to the business lounge?”. It was an ex-colleague of mine, actually an ex-customer who I recommended for a position in the company I was working in at the time. I hadn’t seen him in ages so it was great to catch up on how he and his family are doing and all the usual gossip of life. We were both flying home to Brisbane, so we walked to the plane together, having a laugh about the trials of business travel.

Isn’t it a nice feeling to meet someone again after a long time and still find that you can have a conversation as if you see each other every day?

Sorry, this little summary has nothing to do with my actual story, I guess I’m avoiding talking too much about those emotional goodbyes. Maybe another time 😉

The photo is for Lucile’s Clinic – it is one of my Rainbow Roses shots that I’ve edited to a high contrast black and white. I wrote this whole post a couple of weeks ago on a flight home, not tonight as it seems. The joys of pre-scheduling posts!

x desleyjane

PS How many of you tried running your tongue on the roof of your mouth when you read that bit? LOL, it really does work – try it next time you’re trying not to cry!