Flights
Leave a commentSeptember 24, 2021 by ellie892
January 27, 2020
Sometimes we take random steps and don’t realize how close we came to our goals. Often we simply tally our losses and overlook our gains. I’m sitting in Pearson Airport. My feet are on the ledge of a wall of windows overlooking the tarmac. I study the names of the Airlines: China Air, Delta, United, Aer Lingus and look at the symbols for each one: a Red Swan, a red chevron on top of dark blue chevron, a light blue square with a blue checkered globe emerging from the lower left corner, and the jolly shamrock for the plane that will take take us to Dublin for a nine hour layover before connecting to Faro.
I expected with the news that people would be masked and I noticed a few employees dangling blue paper masks from their ears or tucked under their chins. I am hungry for breakfast and I walk to the executive lounge areas to see what’s open. It’s so lavish and I am privileged. How deserving I feel. This is only because, before I retired I had an excellent income that allowed me these special credit cards with all sorts of benefits and I grew accustomed to such things. So I indulge when I can, because after this it is back to low end youth hostels, cheap beer, and peanut butter sandwiches for the long roads ahead.
Oddly the lounges are not open yet so I sit and wait. Then pace, then sit in another chair, pace some more and suddenly the Air China lounge opens and here the women at the reception desk are fully masked and they move slowly with caution. It’s quiet compared to the rest of the airport and to October when I flew overseas and the atmosphere was more energized. I find a place near a window, leave my one carry-on by the side table, and return to the food displays. These lounges are plush, comfortable, and most are well stocked with hot and cold food selections. There is plenty of everything. At eleven the bar opens and that will give me forty minutes to have a couple of drinks before boarding the plane.
hands are gloved
faces will fade
we begin to watch
Alleyway Letters 