Fetch!

Once upon a time on the year 2021

"Amsterdam Schiphol Airport!" the automated PA system announced as the train zipped through the tunnel and entered the station. Tijs left his seat and started walking towards the door. The train stopped, the doors opened, he alighted. Not that many other people did that afternoon. The train platforms were mostly empty in stark contrast to the bustle that Tijs was used to. At a distance, the Thalys train to Brussels had a few people on it or approaching it, to Tijs, it also felt lacking and incomplete.

Tijs walked the moving walkway which lead from the underground train station and up towards the airport. The vast space to which he emerged seemed to have more people, but they were still far between. It was eerily quiet to Tijs, Schiphol then wasn't what he used to know, the busy crossroads of people from all over the world.

Tijs walked around the airport, some shoppes were closed, including a beloved restaurant he had many good memories of. Other shoppes were open but they were longing for attention.

Tijs went back to the vast indoor plaza where he came from. He stayed there watching as the few people pass by, or as others buy train tickets at the machines. He sometimes looked to the glass doors which lead to the outdoors. Out there, as well, the foot traffic was small.

Tijs felt nervous, he was waiting for someone, someone who just landed from a long flight overseas. He stared at one of the screens which showed the timetable of flights. They too seemed to have more blank space. He did not know what to expect. He was at unease with this new and different world.

Tijs grew reticent, standing still, slightly crouched, both his hands on the pockets of his trousers, while staring at the screen. The place that surrounded him no longer had the gaiety, the vibrant cosmopolitanism that was. Instead, the isolation, the distance, the desertion brought by the near-missed apocalypse as shown by that place made Tijs felt queer.

Tijs stood there in front of the screen silent, his surroundings also silent. One thing is for sure, the flight he was waiting for was already there, and the person he was longing for will come.

Then a sound emanated from his Watch. "Attention to your 9 O'clock!", it said.

"Attention to your 9 O'clock!"

Tijs looked to his left, and some thirty metres away, there was a man in pilot's uniform speaking at his wrist. He charged towards him, running like there's no tomorrow. As he approached the man, he jumped unto him. The man caught him and carried him on his hips. "That's my boy!" the man in uniform said. Tijs scrambled to take his mask off and the mask of the man. He squeezed the masks on his hands as he squeezed his mouth unto that of the man, in a firm kiss. The man in uniform seemed reluctant at first, but he quickly gave in to the physical contact.

Tijs just suddenly felt the urge to kiss the man in uniform, and so he rushed, he run, he kissed. His heart was pacing. Deep down it just felt wrong. It felt badly inappropriate. "No, physical contact in public!", the authorities said. Men weren't supposed to touch each other, even worse, kiss each other on the mouth. But Tijs didn't give a damn. It was unfair so he broke them rules. Tijs will kiss the man in uniform whenever he wants, wherever he wants, for the man was Jan van Jachtveld, Tijs van Jachtveld's husband of nearly seven years. Jan was his man in his eyes and in the eyes of the law. This must be an exception Tijs thought, nothing can take him away from him. After all, who are bystanders to judge? He was merely fetching his beloved husband from the airport, and if other's don't know their story then they have no right to judge.