A Hectic Day

A Hectic Day

Here it is Friday afternoon 5:00p.m My daughter and
I are trying to get to the airport. The highways are packed. We are
fighting traffic, people getting off work, it seems like every one at
this time of day
" Are going crazy " People blowing their horns,
cutting people off, yelling out the window at each other, cutting in
and out of traffic.
Everyone is rushing this way and that way? It seems they all want to be
the first ones into the airport.
You would see young women in brand new cars just cutting in front of
these huge trucks, taking chances that I could not believe.
A lot of elderly people driving, cutting from one side
of the road to the other practically making u turns in the middle of
the Street. As we get to the front of the airport, I'm a nervous wreck
smoking one cigarette after another, my hands shaking as we near the
entrance. I see three or four police officers standing there talking to
a security guard. The security guard
is sitting down, in his security truck, drinking coffee. They should
all be out directing traffic so it would move faster. My daughter
reached over and grabbed me by the arm and told me to calm down, we had
Plenty of time before the plane lands. This is the first time I've been
to this airport. Yes I am very nervous and excited. I know I need to
calm down.
It's from all that coffee at work and fighting this traffic that is
making me hyper. After a long wait in traffic,
my daughter and I got to the entrance. She dropped me off and I
proceeded in to the International Airport in Los Angeles well My
daughter went to park the car. I rushed over to the arrival monitor to
see how much time was left before the plane landed with my son on it.
My son was arriving from Houston Texas where he has been working for
the last two years.
He just turned 21 a few days ago. I'm so nervous
and excited about seeing him it has been a long two years for me. We
have talked quite a bit over the last two years but seeing him is
completely different.
My daughter just came in to the waiting area after parking the car and
looked up at the monitor and
said we have nearly an hour. Well I think I will look
at this newspaper while we are waiting.
My daughter said why are you so nervous?
I seen my brother just three months ago when
I was in Houston and he's doing fine.
You don't have to worry about him. I told her I know but all this crazy
stuff is going through my head.
What if something goes wrong with the airplane,
what if they have trouble landing it.
My daughter said dad, I know you don't fly,
don't worry about the airplane, their not going to
have any trouble. Come on Dad let's go sit down
and wait. We both found a seat and sat down.
My daughter put her coat between us on the chair
and started reading the newspaper. I glanced up at the monitor once
again to see how much more time before the plane lands. I said to my
daughter, let's move closer to the window so we can watch the planes
coming in to land. We looked around and found two seats near the
window.
Sitting there trying to calm down my daughter
reading the newspaper. I am so nervous and anxious about seeing my son.
Gently I leaned my head back and closed my eyes to relax. A minute or
so later I opened my eyes and glanced to my right there was a book
laying on the chair next to me. It didn't seem to belong to anyone so I
reached over and picked it up. As I was glancing through it, on one
page there was
a picture of an man and his son standing on a hill overlooking this
beautiful ocean view. Right away it brought back a lot of memories of
my father and I when we used to go fishing off rocks along
the beach. It was amazing how much the gentleman in the picture looked
like my father. Once again I glanced up at the monitor to see how much
time we had before the plane landed, it looked like about 35 minutes.
Glancing back through the book I stop on
the page where the gentleman's picture was.
It was amazing how much he did looked like my father. I slumped back
into the chair, put the book
on my chest and crossed my arms over it.
I closed my eyes and whispered to myself gosh
that looks so much like my dad it was amazing.
I started thinking back to when I was 9 years old,
with my father. When we used to go fishing and we would do so much
stuff together.
Whenever we would go out anywhere we would talk about a lot of
different things. I would learn alot from my dad. He was a Carpenter by
trade and in his
spare time he would carve things out of wood with
a pocket knife and over the years he taught me how
to also. But I remember him most from being close
to me and giving me these big hugs. Whenever we would go anywhere he
would hold my hand and tell me to stay close to him. We would do a lot
of talking, we were very close and I miss him very much.
As I opened my eyes I look up at the monitor and
showed that the plane had landed. I looked over to
my daughter and said when your brother gets off of that plane, I am
going to give him the biggest hug
he has ever had.

A story by Norman Clifford
6-18-03