serendipity ≫ mario götze

013

        Okay, to be honest, planes have never been my thing. When I moved to Germany, I had to do this flight for more than 16 hours and it was horrible. I'm not even exaggerating. It was terrible. When the plane starts moving, I already feel like puking. When it's just flying in the air, I'm pretty okay, but then when the turbulence part is coming. Don't even get me started on that. Thinking about it makes me puke. So I'm sitting in the plane and I have the entire row to my own. I don't dare sitting with the window, because I'm scared seeing the heights will make my nausea even worse.

        “Would you like a bottle of water?” I am asked when the plane is at the highest point. I click off my seatbelt and I'm finally feeling a little less claustrophobic, even though I won't definitely be able to leave this machine, obviously. I shake my head and the woman walks to the next row of people, chatting or watching movies on the screens in the chairs. This private plane is extremely fancy and I did not know that they would fly out family of the players in these planes as well. I feel like I shouldn't be here, but Mario had invited me. And his family is somewhere here as well. I told Mario is was going to hang out with my friends, so that he wouldn't wonder why I wasn't texting him anymore. Besides, my monthly bill was going to be high with all that texting to Brazil. Luckily we used WhatsApp too when both of us had internet. The last thing Mario said was that he would be preparing to go to the airport and the dinner with the team and the families after. I couldn't mention that I actually didn't really feel like a dinner with more than 75 people, because that would ruin the surprise. It helped that he had mentioned it, so I could pack a nice dress last minute. I take a book from my purse and start reading. It's an English book, obviously. I haven't gotten that good in German yet that I'm actually able to read long pieces of texts without getting a headache of all the umlauts.

        The book isn't interesting enough and I hear some snoring at the back of the plane. I turn around and there are some little kids, which could either be siblings or children. I wonder if they don't have to be at school or maybe they are excused from school. Maybe they fly back and forth every week. I don't know. I'm not really in the mood to talk anyways. One of the flight attendants comes again and ask if she could offer me something to drink. I ask for a soda this time and smile lightly at her. I'm tired, it's getting later, or earlier. It depends how you look at it. Practically we're going back in time, but it doesn't feel like that.

        I open my eyes and immediately the bright lights of the plane make me tear up a little bit. I fell asleep. I blink a couple of times and try to realize where I am. With my book still in my hands, I look around me. Most of the people were still asleep, but some were awake and whispering. I looked on the screen to see how many more hours still to go. Just 2 hours left. That means I slept really, really long. I never sleep on planes and I can't sleep when I'm nervous. I close my eyes again and I hear my stomach roar. I hope I would be able to eat something soon, because I see some plates in front of some people and some are still eating. So I hope I would be able to 'order' something or however this works in this plane. It feels like first class, yet I have never travelled first class.

        Not sure what to do the last few hours in the plane and while nothing is offered to me, I am practically starving. I fish my phone out of my bag and listen to some music instead, because I don't know what else I should be doing instead. Songs I am not really in the mood for, I skip and I listen to the few songs I am in the mood for. I hope we land soon and then I hope I get to see Mario, because honestly, I really miss his hugs.

        And there we are. The group of people, family, friends, lovers, stand there, walking out of the plane. I'm pretty sure my heart is not beating anymore and I am not breathing. I don't know what Mario will say or do when he sees me. He isn't expecting me, he must be waiting for his family instead of me. I sigh and I pull my suitcase behind me. I realize that I'm actually in Brazil, a place where I have always wanted to go to, but never got the chance to. And even when things would not work out with Mario, I always had the chance to see the country, but this didn't help to relax me.