A Room With A View

Chapter Fifty-Two - Madeline/Brian

November 24, Friday

Madeline

Madeline sat on the airplane between a woman who kept cleaning her camera lens, and a man who slept with his mouth wide open.

Neither of them had been conversationalists. And as luck would have it, the plane's wifi was down, so Madeline wasn't even able to lose herself in a mindless television show. She wished she'd had the sense to download the latest episode of Wish Upon A Star before boarding.

Madeline leaned her head back against the seat and turned up the volume on her headphones. She was hoping to drown out her thoughts with Something Corporate, but every song seemed to lead back to the same thing: Brian Cooper.

They hadn't spoken to each other all week. Madeline had typed up a "Happy Thanksgiving" text, but she hadn't been able to send it. She hadn't wanted to bother him with too many messages. It was just the start of something, and Madeline didn't want to ruin it.

Of course, when she'd told her brothers about this they had said that Brian should be the one texting her night and day, worshiping the very ground she walked on. Well, Tim and Ezra had said this. Colin had told her she needed to keep playing the field and keep her options open, but Madeline had never been one to "play the field". That was Len's game, not hers.

Madeline smiled. It was Tim who had started the conversation about Brian, which was surprising. He'd always cringed the most when Madeline had started talking about guy problems.

The man on Madeline's right snored suddenly. It was so loud it startled the woman on Madeline's left, making her hand jerk across the camera lens.

The woman cursed under her breath. She spritzed more cleaning solution onto the lens and started slowly polishing it once more.

The main chorus of "Punk Rock Princess" started up, and Madeline immediately switched it off. Two seconds. She had lasted two seconds without thinking of Brian. The sneeze and swipe had managed to clear her mind for two precious seconds, but now all she could think about was Brian as her garage band king.

Madeline sighed and took off her headphones. The plane's ambient sounds flooded back. Madeline's noise-cancelling headphones had been a gift from Colin at her graduation. He'd said they were to protect her "virgin ears from all the nastiness of New York City". He hadn't exactly used the word "nastiness". Madeline hadn't yet confessed to Colin that the day she'd arrived in New York a cab driver had shouted the foulest thing from his side window, so Madeline had spent the next three weeks with her headphones firmly clamped over her ears and her eyes glued to the pavement.

The camera woman set down her cleaning cloth. The movement jerked Madeline out of her reverie. In the forty-five minutes they'd been in the air, the woman had not once stopped her methodical cleaning. Madeline held her breath, worried she'd ruin the moment.

The woman picked up her camera. She brushed a lock of blonde hair out of her eyes and leaned forward to examine the lens.

Madeline could feel her lungs squeezing, gasping for breath, but she kept her lips firmly locked.

The woman set the camera down on the fold-out tray. She picked up, of all things, a magnifying glass, and brought her face right up next to the camera. And then...

Madeline cringed inwardly.

The woman sneezed. It was a sneeze that could have woken up the entire plane. The woman stared at her camera, looking utterly shocked. Her lens was flecked with, well Madeline didn't know what, and even her cleaning cloth looked newly speckled.

Madeline gaped at the woman. The woman gaped at her camera. The man on Madeline's right just snored.

"I'm--"

"Just don't," the woman said, cutting off whatever Madeline was going to say. The woman reached into a side pocket of her camera bag and withdrew a new cleaning cloth. Gritting her teeth, she spritzed more solution onto the lens and began swiping, with less care this time.

Madeline watched for a minute more before resting her head back against the chair.

It was going to be a long flight.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Brian

Brian tapped his fingers against his knees. He was going to be seeing Madeline in no less than five hours, and he was apprehensive. They hadn't spoken to one another the entire week. Brian had crafted numerous messages to her, but they had all remained unsent. Every one had sounded juvenile.

"Hello Madeline, how is your day?"

"Hi Madeline, I hope you are well."

"Hiya Madeline, I was just thinking of you."

He felt as if he'd left his maturity behind the moment he'd met Madeline. Every word out of his mouth now seemed to hearken back to his high school prom proposal days: awkward and thoroughly tongue-twisting.

But Madeline also hadn't reached out to Brian, and that worried him. He should have said a more profound goodbye that showed just how much he cared. He could have given her a bouquet of lilies--her favorite flower--to show that he listened when she spoke. Instead he'd given her a pat on the back and wished her a good flight, too afraid that anything else would betray just how deeply he felt about her.

What girl was taken in by a pat on the back and a hasty goodbye? No girl, that was the answer.

Brian sighed heavily and forced himself to focus on the fast-moving landscape outside the train's windows. He'd booked his NJ Transit ticket just that morning. He'd told his mother that Charles had called for a late afternoon meeting, but really Brian couldn't bear another moment in New Jersey thinking about Madeline. He was internally in knots, and the only solution seemed to be heading back to New York and awaiting Madeline's eventual return. He would do it right this time. He would stop by the florist on 3rd and 71st and pick her up some lilies. And maybe another box of Bisquick for good measure.

Brian smiled, his plan in place, and let himself enjoy the scenery. They were passing through Edison, New Jersey. Brian could feel his younger self brimming with excitement. He'd been fascinated by Thomas Edison when he was about nine. His near obsession had led to a family trip down to Florida to see the Edison Ford Estates, along with a summer camp based in STEM. While the STEM camp had done nothing for Brian, the Edison Ford Estates had launched his writing career. In a sense. He'd been so taken by the idea of Edison switching on the lights in what was largely a farm-driven town, that he'd penned his first historical fiction novel in the hotel room that night, much to Alina's chagrin. She'd wanted to see Aladdin in theatres, but their parents had said that they couldn't go without Brian. So they'd stayed in, and Alina had grudgingly rented a film while Brian had furiously written down his story.

Alina had never let him live it down. Even yesterday she had said, "Remember that time when we could've seen Aladdin in theatres but we didn't because you were lame?" Brian would have to get her tickets to see the production on Broadway. With any luck that would make up in part for his nine-year-old self.

Edison flew past outside the window. Brian could still see his story's characters milling about the city, like phantom apparitions. Perhaps once Carnation Dust was through with final edits he would return to his Thomas Edison story. But then again, perhaps not. He was due to write a another literary love story, and this one he hoped would have a happy ending.