Terminal

The world shook in her sleep. Robin’s eyes fluttered open as she jolted awake, a smooth hand on her shoulder, the woman’s arm reaching over a passenger who for lack of a better word, was similarly disgruntled in his own slumber. The expression on the stewardess’ face was distinctly professional yet she could sense the hint of annoyance in her tone. ‘Ma’am, please put on your seatbelt. We’ll be landing shortly.’ Robin moved away her blanket and put on the seatbelt. How did she even know it was unfastened anyway? She closed her eyes again, as she then felt the soft rumbling of the plane landing on the runway, shaking her body, as she refused to open her eyes again. 

Robin got off the plane to be met by the cold air across the arid night of Doha’s airport.  People tunnelled into the bus that led to the main terminal and she was forced to get squeezed shoulder to shoulder, desperately holding on to her backpack. She didn’t mind the warmth of the bus, though she would, like most people prefer to breath fresh air. Glancing around, she could see the tired expressions on everyone’s faces, as if they didn’t just spend the last five hours sleeping. She carried on in the terminal, managing to pick up her polka dot bag from the baggage claim and now found herself walking around the airport aimlessly, not hungry enough to eat, and not brave enough to take a nap and risking the next flight. So instead, she, like many other people waiting in transit, walked across the long airport corridor, passing boarding gate after boarding gate, passing the people on their chair,s sleeping, eating, and on their phones. No smiling faces in sight. 

After almost reaching the end, she finally found a place to sit. It was near empty, the sign at the boarding gate stating the flight would be departing in four hours. She plopped herself down and sighed a bit too loudly. Four hours of transit? She put her hand on her head and continued sighing. She shouldn’t complain, or rather she can’t complain since she chose the cheapest ticket back anyway. She pulled out her phone, realising she missed a slew of messages from her mother. It was a cacophony of ‘Tell us when you’ve boarded, honey’ and ‘Have you landed?’ that she seemed to have missed before her flight. Among the messages was a picture of her mother on the bedside of her bedridden father, his eyes closed, his complexion gone paler. ‘It’s been so long. We’re looking forward to see you.’ Robin frowned at this and shot a quick ‘In transit’ before turning off her phone completely, leaning back on the chair and closing her eyes.

She hated the guilt tripping her mom always did, if it wasn’t for her sister she wouldn’t even be convinced to come visit home. It has after all, been years since she had talked to them. ‘Are you really going to leave us?’ her mother wailed as her dad crossed his arms, his eyebrows furrowed as he glanced away from her eyes. ‘Leave her be, Mary. She’s an adult. She made her own decisions.’ She hated how arrogant he sounded. It was as if he was convinced that she would come crawling back eventually, that she would eventually renounce who she was and come back and apologise for doing nothing wrong. Just remembering it ticked her off, eliciting a groan from her as she opened her eyes to wipe away the vision. Her hands pulling away from her face to let the light back in, and she realised where she was again. 

She glanced across from her and saw a child clutching onto her clearly tired parents. The mother was asleep, barely able to keep down her snoring even, and the father was kept awake by the child excitedly jumping onto and off his lap. She noticed the bags under his eyes, desperately holding themselves up. A soft monkey plush clenched in his hand as he softly shook it for his child, the only way to keep her close. Was I ever that annoying? She wondered. No way I was. I was a good kid. I never asked for anything. But memories flooded into her head. A time when she was fourteen, and it was her birthday. A time where she cried and cried because the cake wasn’t in the shape of a dinosaur like she wanted. She could see the frown on her mother’s face, and the awkward expression her dad had, his hands out, trying to desperately console her. He lifted her up in his burly arms. 

‘It’s okay. It’s okay. We’ll get a new one.’

‘I don’t want a new one.’

‘Then I’ll make this one a dinosaur.’

‘You can’t. It’s gotta come like that.’ 

‘Don’t worry, it will.”

He picked up the cake and dashed out the house before she could argue. When he came back, in his hands were a cake in the shape of a dinosaur, messily molded at the edges. But the strawberries for eyes was enough to console the young version of her. He was worn out, but he was grinning when she smiled. He was happy for her. He went out of his way for her. He willingly kept up with a child’s unreasonable request. So why couldn’t he do the same when I left? But the answer didn’t come to her. She looked across her again and found the child sleeping peacefully in her father’s lap, the father finally being able to close her eyes. Surprisingly, a smile crept onto both of their faces as they slept. Whatever, she thought. A nap couldn’t hurt. 

When she woke up in a ditz, it was already close to her boarding time. She got up and pulled her bag along as she walked into the long queue leading into the gate. At the end of the line, were the dressed-up security officers, waving their wands up and down a man who had a blank face on, much like the one she had on her. It was then that her phone vibrated in her pocket and her focus was pulled away from the line.  

“Are you boarding now? Take care on the flight honey. We love you.”

She stared at the words on the lock screen for a while. The words reflected in the glint of her eyes. Until she was interrupted by someone coughing behind her. The message was still lighting up her phone as she hurried to fill the gap in the queue. Her fingers hovered over the lock screen for a moment, before falling away as she turned off her phone once more. She got past the boarding gate, past the security officers and past first class and found her way to her seat. Closing her eyes, she could feel the plane once again take off into turbulent weather. Her mind kept coming back to the message and the picture as she tried to keep her eyes shut. The world shook around her as she slept.