Gesundheit

When I arrive back at the checkpoint, I look up the schedules. Delayed some more. The flight is set to arrive at 12:30 AM, so there’s even more waiting. For a while, I sit at the base of an escalator, positioned directly across from the metal detectors. I see a guy slouching, and notice a nice frame for a photograph. I try taking a few pictures. Still a complete friggin’ noob, all of my shots are blurry.

After about 4 pictures, the security guard (sitting in the middle of the pic) comes over, and tells me I’m not allowed to take photos of the checkpoint. Security and all that. I apologize and promise to erase them from my camera. I fumble with the buttons. I know how to delete every single image from my card, but not how to delete one specific image. I make pretend motions with my hands, and put my camera away out of shame.

When my legs fall asleep, I decide to move towards the benches. Seated, there is a girl who is also reading and an asian girl sleeping. I sit to the far right of them, and continue into my book. Over the next 45 minutes, I read, I do a few chicken necks, I zonk out and wake up thinking "Jebus, was that me snoring?"

At one point, when I was awake.. the girl sitting farthest from me sneezed. And then this weird movie-like moment happened, which I tried to jot down. I think the movies bleed too much into my head – as that’s a constant comparison I use. Here’s what I wrote:

She sneezed, and I thought briefly about saying gesundheit. I held my tongue and noticed that, immediately after she sneezed, she looked right at me. Out of nowhere, a big road opened up in front of my eyes, a large fork right in the middle of it. For a moment, two pathways, hell – two universes existed side by side: one where a conversation began between me and this girl; another where we remained silent passengers waiting for a plane to arrive.

There was the smallest of windows for me to say, or not say, something.

For good or ill, I chose silence.