Silent Pain

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We're going home today, so I had all my belongings packed up and my suitcase by the door. I asked Javier about his flight and he said his flight leaves at 11:50 on American Airlines. Since our flight doesn't leave until 2:20, my mom offered to drop him off at the airport. Javier thanked her for that. I helped Javier put his suitcase in the trunk of the rental car and gave him a hug. He kissed my cheek and said he'd see me later. I didn't go back inside until I couldn't see the car. Javier texted me when he got to his gate, then in his seat. Tina, Aunt Avery, and Uncle Liam were spending the afternoon with us since they won't see us again until Allen's car accident is brought to court.

Javier will be back in California at 1:30 California time, and we'll be there at around 3:10. I'm sad that this trip has come to an end, but I'm also glad it happened. After lunch, we said our goodbyes and gave each other hugs then we headed for the airport. I waved to my family from the back seat as we drove away. We went to the car rental returns first. Mom and dad paid a fee then we took a shuttle to the airport. "What airline is everyone on?" The driver asked. We stopped at the American Airlines entrance, Delta, Jetblue, and Southwest. My parents and I were on United so we were the last ones off the shuttle. The line for United Airlines was long, my feet began to hurt. I could tell dad was getting impatient until two more employees came out and opened two more lines. "All of this just to check in?" Mom says under her breath.

The security team divided the long, single line into three lines to speed up the process. We still stood in line for a while, maybe ten minutes because the group at the desk had a bag that was overweight, and they didn't have enough money to pay the extra fee so they were trying to stuff clothes into their carry ons. The bag was still too heavy, thus the people could not go through yet. At this point, the passenger started throwing a fit. He was yelling at the employee. The two other employees beside them were motioning people in our line to come to them while this full grown man threw a tantrum like a toddler. "You don't get it! My niece needs me! I can't keep playing these games about luggage weight with you people!" He started stomping his feet and pounding on the desk. We were the third group back from this person when security finally got involved and pulled him aside. The lady at the desk apologized to the next family and continued the best she could with the protester still screaming.

"My niece is going on trial! I have to be there for her! I'm the only one who can get her a good lawyer!" The man yelled. "Can't someone living closer to her do that?" "NO! My niece needs ME!!" Of course he thinks the yelling will persuade the staff to let this guy on a plane, but what it did was get this drama king kicked out of the airport. Finally. In fact, he was put in handcuffs and other passengers applauded, or at least anyone who wasn't recording. We quickly checked in our bags then stood in the line for security which was long too. A lot of people's bags were getting pulled over for inspection even though most of them didn't have anything that was forbidden. I went ahead of my parents without any problems, but they pulled both my mom and my dad's carry ons. Mom's bag was searched first, they poked around in her bag and of course, she had nothing. Dad didn't have anything either, but they inspected his laptop by opening it and rubbing it. Dad wasn't happy about that but he politely didn't say anything and waved. Our gate was only half full, and we only had about 30 minutes before boarding began.

I remembered our flight here, how a woman held up the whole flight. I'm hoping this doesn't happen again, and I'm also hoping that Javier didn't have as many issues as us. It's 1:50, so Javier is still in the middle of his flight but I did text his phone so he could see it when he lands. I sat down with my parents and looked out the window. The sun was trying to come out through a hole in the clouds. The ground outside looked like it had a lot of ice melt poured on it, or it was warmed up by the engines of the planes. We boarded and I was between my parents this time. Mom took a picture of the winter weather from her seat and posted it on Facebook. Dad put his headphones on and fell asleep. When the plane backed out, it was smooth at first. The wings were rinsed before we started heading towards the runway. Right before we reached the runway, it got bumpy. Mom looked out the window and said that there were bumps of ice on the ground. The runway was clear of ice bumps, but had some snow on it, although I would have never guessed once the plane started to speed up and take off. I saw the ground for a little while until the plane went above the clouds. This was going to be a three hour and forty minute flight, so I pulled out my DVD player to pass the time.