Jet

The flight was only going to take forty minutes. We got there an hour before take off, checked in and waited patiently for boarding to commence. I was sitting next to a family of three children and hoped with all my might that they weren’t going to be sitting next to us. The children’s relentlessly grating laughter might have just driven me off the edge.

The newspaper had a story about the abnormally freakish weather we have had been having of late. As always, global warming was the devastator according to the journalist, yet another aspect of humanity that we should all be proud of.

I looked at Samantha sitting next to me. The only spec of colour she was flaunting were her much favoured gold rimmed sun glasses. She had a long dark dress on covered by a long black overcoat. Her shoes happened to be the new ones she bought a couple of weekends ago but I’m sure that she didn’t suppose, at the time of purchasing, that this was going to be the first type of outing that she was going to be wearing them. She bought the shoes because they were on special and knew that she didn’t have any shoes to go with that black dress of hers she was wearing now. She looked effortlessly elegant for such a solemn occasion. I was glad she was with me.

I was wearing my one and only cheap suit I own. I bought it when I was travelling in South America from a tailer who made it for me for the price of a walnut. For a cheap suit it oozed style and class, something that I generally don’t have the time for. I’m normally a person who dresses very simply. Ioju doesn’t go out of his way for he feels like he doesn’t need to. I look at pity at all the suits that walk around town these days. I’m sure they look at me when I walk past in my tired cross trainers, jeans and t-shirt with the elitist mindset of the queen bee in a hive of millions. They will understand how wrong they were someday but it might take a good while. Feeling important by wearing a suit is something that you could get quite used to I’m sure. Ioju on the other hand knows that the suit should only be worn at weddings and funerals. This was the third time in my life that I was wearing one.

The children next to me screamed in delight when they heard the announcement that boarding was about to begin and ran towards the terminal entrance with the vigour and excitement that only children know and understand. Samantha and I walked towards the terminal, hand in hand. She smiled at me with the reassurance that everything was going to be OK and I was happy that she could convey that message with just a smile.

We boarded our tiny aircraft, threw our overnight bags in the storage compartments and made ourselves somewhat comfortable in the somewhat uncomfortable seats. The children were in danger of being treacherously ear-splitting but the parents deserved a medal for being able to contain the children before take off.

We took off and half an hour later we landed at our destination.