The Greener Field

Across the Pond

         As Sarah looked out the airplane window and saw the little geometric farms receding ever in the distance,  her decision to fly across the country would not stop in New York. From there she was scheduled to make the connection for her flight across the Atlantic to London. It was utter madness she kept telling herself from her reclined seat, to risk her new job at the clinic just to capriciously join the man she now felt so emotionally connected to. 

            Had it not been for Jess' attractiveness, his finesse in bed, and more importantly his gentlemanly and charismatic nature towards her, she would never had been so vulnerable to let this happen. Part of it all  was the fact that she was now twenty-four years of age, and could honestly say she had never had a fulfilling relationship with a man as of yet. As her friend Carrie and her mother had been telling her for years, it was time to get over her past tragedies of the heart and move on. And to the two of these counselors, and now even Sarah herself, Jess was a superlative potential mate—scoring high in all categories of what a woman would seek in a man. 

            It also didn't hurt that Mr. Jess Danford was a man of considerable means. On every occasion of their adventures together, he did not falter in his generosity, nor demonstrate his insistence on a lifestyle that was jaw-droppingly well-funded and fueled by his exquisite tastes. All of this was like candy to a baby for Sarah's mother who, like most maternal caregivers she had ever known, wanted a good life and a first-class existence for their daughters. 

        After the six and a half hour flight across the country, Sarah spent her two hour lay-over looking at gossip magazines and partaking of the shopping which all airport terminals force upon people in transit. Looking at a number of the glossy covers on these magazines, all highlighting the enviable and glamorous lives of young women currently in the limelight of cinema or the recording industry, Sarah could honestly say to herself a life with Jess promised nothing less than such an existence.  Of course, this was all early speculation, and she could not yet even hope to fully know how much of his expressed feelings towards her were truly serious  or promised a future. She could only hope his gestures had the lasting and growing quality a woman wishes for from a healthy relationship. 

        Passing by a mirror unexpectedly on the wall of one of the shops, Sarah could see this young woman she had become, with all the fair features any of the celebrities gracing the covers of those magazines had—and without the magic or techno-wizardry of Photoshop or surgery. Boarding her connecting plane that mid-morning hour to depart for England, she felt a certain trepidation leaving her native land. It was in fact the first time she had done so alone and by her own volition. Her only previous trip to the UK with her parents so many years ago was only now a blur of partial memories and unpleasant images—the cloudy weather and boring adults who seemed to make over her annoyingly where ever she was paraded by her parents. 

        The flight across the Atlantic Ocean was filled mostly with businessmen who, while boarding, rudely and hungrily gave the dark honey- haired girl that lingering look—a gaze which she was only too happy not to have to endure back at her work each day. There her only contacts were women therapists and the exceptional children whom she worked so diligently with. Fortunately, the person sitting next to her for the entire flight was herself a woman. Margie, as she called herself, shared for several hours polite conversation and some laughs. She entertained Sarah with several humorous stories about raising her three children in the Midwest. She also proudly boasted of her thirty-two year marriage to a man she still loved and admired. 

        "I know very well how rare that is today," Margie told her. "Almost every girl I grew up with eventually got divorced or became separated from their men. It's partly luck and mostly a lot of hard work to stay together," she added.