Terminal Love

1. The take off

05.05

That was the flight departure to Sydney. It was already 4 o'clock in the morning and the taxi hadn't arrived yet. "What a shitty town, if I'm lucky, I won't have to come here again." She thought. But if the taxi didn't come, the plane would leave without her, and she would have to stay there forever. Alex wouldn't admit it, but the nerves were eating her alive. She hadn't been on a plane before, and she didn't even left the country. In fact, the only trip she did was with her best friend Alyssa. When she got her driving license, they made a roadtrip. They drove to Louisiana, and stayed there a couple nights.

She was thinking about her while she waited the taxi. She accepted the job internship, in part, because she wanted to forget about her. Alyssa didn't know, but Alex had been in love with her since they first talked. They never formally met, they talked in one or two parties, but they were too drunk or too shy to remember it, so at first they didn't talk in school. A few months later, they became close friends. They did everything together, but Alex never told her about how she felt.

When the taxi arrived, she started to have doubts. Was that the right thing to do? Did she made the right choice leaving everything behind? She started thinking about her dad, about living him alone, about Alyssa, all her friends, and about how much she would miss them.

One thing she wouldn't miss, for sure, was the place. She lived in a small village in Michigan, where everyone knew everyone. Each day she would run into the same people in the same places. No one left town, everything and everyone stayed there, but she didn't.

She was too observant sometimes, always analized everthing, looking at every detail, but no one noticed. She payed attention to the driver, who didn't seem to know the directions to the airport. "Is this your first time?" She asked, "Yes, I guess that you don't have to be a genius to notice", "I'm a shitty driver, still learning" He said. If it wasn't because of his humor, she would have asked for another driver, but the guy was nice, eventhough that his driving skills were far from good. They had a lot of time to talk, the airport was one hour far from her house, so they talked all the way. The taxi driver name was Ocean, a name that she loved, and he was 22, Alex's favorite number (she was obsessed with spiritual signs). She felt confortable with him, like they already knew each other from the past. When they got to the airport, Ocean helped Alex to get her luggage outside of the car. While he picked up her things, she noticed that he had an owl tattoo in the neck, and that was her spiritual totem. "I'll see you again, I'm sure", he said. She thought it too, and also that he was a sign from the universe, telling her that she was on the right path, that everything was going to be alright, so she ran to security check.

Once she passed security, she had to run to the flight gate, because the plane was leaving in a couple of minutes. She took off her shoes in order to go faster, and everybody watched her run like she never did before.

When the plane took off she stared at the window, watching how her country, with all of her life until now, became smaller and smaller.

Then she whispered: "THANK YOU UNIVERSE"