A Second Chance

Part 75 - Distant Thoughts

The airport shop was small but had enough for what we needed. Charlotte moved through it with the specific energy of someone who had too many thoughts running at once and was expressing it through browsing speed.

"That looks like a lot of money!" 

"Airport prices are just that big! I can afford it, don't worry! Just pick something,"

It would have been good if she actually picked something and didn't change her mind every five seconds. What was supposed to take 10 minutes took 30, and by the time I was done, I just wished I forced her to go back. 

"Thank you so much! You're such a nice guy."

"Eh, you're my sister, so why not spoil you a little,"

We moved through the main terminal toward security and Charlotte's head was going in every direction at once, taking in the scale of the building, the volume of people, the boards displaying departures and arrivals in a constant scroll.

"Are those the locations that people go to?" she said.

"Yeah, there are a ton of those, huh? Pretty sure this is one of the most busiest airports in the world!"

"Woah!"

"Ours is in the bottom! UAE!"

To different countries."

"To different countries, different cities, different continents. O'Hare is one of the busiest airports in the world."

We reached the security line and I pulled out my ID. The TSA officer scanned it and then looked up at me with confusion.

This ID was in very high clearance, and it would easily get me past, and something else...

"What about her?" the officer asked, looking at Charlotte.

"She's with me," I said. "I'm responsible for her."

He looked at Charlotte. Charlotte gave him a small wave that was perfectly normal and also somehow made her look like she had absolutely no idea what was happening, which to be fair was not entirely inaccurate.

"She doesn't have ID?"

"She's traveling under my supervision," I said. "You can run the clearance on mine, it covers other people."

He looked at the ID again. 

Something in his expression changed in the way it did when someone encountered a credential level they didn't see often. He took a moment longer than standard, checked something on his screen, checked it again, and then handed the ID back.

"You're free to go," he said.

Charlotte fell into step beside me once we were through. 

"What was on that ID?" she asked. 

"Big things,"

We followed the signs down to the transit bus for Terminal 5. The bus was crowded and Charlotte stood near the window watching the tarmac as it moved, and that was when she saw them properly for the first time.

Planes. 

Multiple of them, at different gates, one of them moving slowly away from a jetway in the distance, another one on a far runway beginning its approach.

"Were those what were in the air?"

"Yup, and ours is much bigger than theirs,"

She pressed closer to the window. "How does something that size even get into the air?"

"A bunch of aerodynamics!"

She turned back to the window and watched a plane taxi past at a distance, the sheer scale of it moving slowly across the tarmac.