a compendium of airport friends
The toddler travelling with her mother, who entered the long line for security shushing her mother vigorously; when she moved on to shushing me, I shushed her back, to which she responded with delighted and disbelieving laughter.
The three middle-aged women at my departure gate in Halifax airport, from (variously) Florida, Montana, and Halifax; the secondmost of whom told me that my hair was “the nicest coloured hair I’ve ever seen—some people with colourful hair just don’t look right, you know”; the thirdmost of whom correctly assessed after five minutes of conversation that I worry too much, and advised that I should “be fearless,” as she likes to tell her baby nieces.
Their stoic and unspeaking husbands.
The person who found my phone where I had left it in a tray at US security in Toronto airport, and proceeded to return it to me immediately, thereby proving the real and urgent merits of having a photo of yourself (and your fiancé) as your lockscreen image.
The US border guard who let me into America; she didn’t do anything especially funny or charming, but she did let me into the country. Thank you, US border guard!
The toddler (another one!) travelling with his extended family from Toronto, who:
Spent about five minutes reaching fruitlessly for a bag of Sun Chips, which his father withheld;
Tried to eat a bottle of Gatorade when nobody would open it for him;
Insisted on handing me his passport, then said “thank you” when I took it;
Went on to reach fruitlessly for my passport, which I did not relinquish;
Hit his older brother repeatedly while beaming benevolently at me.
His older brother, who explained with the profound weariness of older siblings everywhere that “my baby brother just loves to hit me.”
The elderly woman beside me on my second flight, who offered me two discrete kinds of chocolate in exchange for my help in using the touch-screen in-flight entertainment (she started and abandoned no fewer than three documentaries) (I took and ate the chocolate).
(Experimenting with slightly shorter dispatches every so often! In the meantime, I am in San Francisco and on vacation for a month. Congratulations to me!)