"Wake up,"
I felt my shoulder being gently pushed. Opening my eyes, I saw my latest friend, Colin, a bloke no taller than 6'1" with toned blond hair.
I had met Colin just shy of one month ago at a pub in Berlin, he noticed my American accent and asked me where I was from. "New York."
To both of our surprise he was a New Yorker as well. We chatted up on how our trip was going and the coolest spots we'd found. What I found strange about Colin however was how reluctant he was to tell me why he was here. Every time I asked he would completely ignore the question and go off on another topic such as "Oh, what're your views on guns, Scott?"
I would just sigh and answer his question hoping to bring up my own questions again.
The reason I was here was because of my late aunt, who had lived here for almost twenty years before her tragic kiss with death. It had happened no less than a week before I arrived, funeral preparations were quick and by the time I landed she was already cremated. The time I spent here in Berlin after the funeral I used to visit my cousin and travel around. Consequentially of my aunts surprising funeral I had just a week to learn enough German to get by, thankfully I had found Colin two days prior to the funeral, his German was superb and as I recall he said he spoke fluent Russian as well.
Without too much effort I propped myself up and checked my watch. 5:20. My flight was set to leave at 6:00, just four hours before Colin's. Why he decided to come here early with me, I don't know, but for that I was thankful he was here to wake me up.
The irony of how similar Colin and I's experiences were had me wondering if his aunt too had perished here and I decided to give one last try asking why he was here.
"Colin, before I go, may I ask why you are here? In Germany that is."
He tensed up for a few moments, then relaxed, turned his head, and spoke to me in a low, timid whisper as if someone else were listening, "Scott, there's no business talking about it here in Germany, once-, if we meet in New York it's best I tell you then and there." He calmly sat back looking at the people passing by.
I sighed in frustration and agreed to meet him in New York sometime soon to hear about this so called 'secret' reason he was in Germany. We then quickly exchanged goodbyes and departed from one another in separate directions.
***
On the plane I sat still thinking of Colin and what he had said. Maybe he was a spy on a mission, I wasn't sure.
As I thought of Colin and what he had said the man sitting next to me barfed right on his suit pants.
"Schieße!"
Disgusting. A flight attendant quickly rushed to his aid, getting him towels to clean up his mess and water to get rid of the retched taste of vomit. His said reason for throwing up was apparently 'plane sickness' yet it was clear to me and anyone else within a meter's radius of him that he had too much to drink the night prior. He reeked of alcohol and had a nose the shade of Crimson, he was no picture perfect Christian salesman, but more or less a pitiful junkie. He gave me a glare and continued on with his business as soon as the nervous flight attendant and doctor left.
Next to him sat a woman easily 300 pounds snoring so loud everyone on the plane could certainly hear. She probably hadn't even noticed when the man in between us threw up. In the row next to ours sat what seemed to be her three kids, two asleep, the other one, no older than eight, curiously looking around the plane's perimeters. I sighed and looked out the window watching the clouds pass and the sun rise. In perhaps an hour we'd land and then I'd go onto my connecting flight to New York. If only Colin hadn't booked a direct flight then there might've been the slightest chance we'd ended up on the same plane.
