Standing By

Musical Chairs

(Tim)

Why people take forever and a day to get off an airplane, I have no idea. It's like they stand up and switch on slo-mo, slowwwly pulling each carry-on out of the overhead bins one at a time. Slowwwly picking up purses. Stretching out as leisurely as possible. Oh look, we just landed after a long flight; let's refresh makeup and brush hair—gotta look pretty for other travel-weary passengers. Just stand up, quickly grab your things, and move, for God's sake! It actually took me close to ten minutes to get off the plane and I was only in the sixth row.

Irritated, I made my way out the gate and to the baggage claim area. I found our carousel and camped out near the beginning of the bag-loader to wait for my bags. The luggage started to trickle in. Suitcases, garment bags, backpacks, duffel bags, a golf bag. A guitar. Something that looked like a bowling bag. Three bright orange bags. Ya won't be losing those in a crowd. I started seeing the same bags over and over again. OK, where's my blue suitcase? I watched a green Samsonite go round and round as people from our flight were dwindling. I eyed the last couple of people still around. A harried-looking man ran up and grabbed the green Samsonite, then a middle-aged woman came back with brown suitcase and placed it back on the carousel with a soft 'oops'. The other couple grabbed it, looking relieved.

The carousel was now empty, as were my hands. Ah shit. Not good. My suitcase was nowhere to be found. How the fuck can they lose a suitcase when it was a direct flight? I scowled up at the board that was now displaying the information for a flight coming in from Dallas. Shit, shit, shit. Grumbling not-so-nice things under my breath, I went to the customer service desk.

I slowed down as I approached it, a large crowd already there. Wow. How many suitcases had they lost? Shaking my head, I stood in line, bracing myself for a long wait. I pulled my phone out of my pocket. Might as well finish the game I'd started on the plane. OK, let's see here...apple, orange...

Somebody tapped me hard on the shoulder and I spun around, accidentally hitting the banana icon. It fell, freeing up a whole row for me. Wow, that'd been a good move, even if it was accidental.

"Have you heard anything?" a red-faced woman asked me urgently.

I blinked at her. "Um, no."

"Oh God," she groaned. "Knowing nothing is killing me."

"What do you want to know?" I asked confusedly, but she'd already turned to another woman, asking her the same thing. Strange. I wondered what her deal was. I went back to my game only to get bumped into a minute later. I glared at the guy that'd done it.

He sighed at me. "Sorry, but it's the least of my concerns right now."

Well, at least he'd apologized. I nodded at him before poking at an orange. I looked up a minute later when the woman to my left started crying. She caught me looking at her and shrugged. OK, seriously, what was going on here? People all crowded up and bumping into each other, women crying, and people wanting to know if we'd heard anything. Something ain't right here. I paused my game and glanced over the people closest to me. Several of them looked like they'd been crying.

Tucking my phone into my pocket, I turned to the calmest-looking person that was nearby, a stocky middle-aged African-American man. "Um, sir? What's going on?"

He shrugged. "No one knows yet. They're still trying to sort stuff out. I'm just waiting; no sense in knocking people over for information they don't have yet."

I scratched my head slowly, his response not answering a thing for me. "OK?"

"My suggestion is just to step aside. I figure they'll let us know when they know anything," he advised.