Crafted Among the Clouds
(A Short Story)
So you take the situation in with some tolerance. Ideas always seem to come floating to your mind through windows and this gives you that lovely feeling of conveniently catching them graphically. Now you chide yourself a little for wanting to complain that you are not in a Starbucks Cafe instead, so you tell yourself: "Come on, let it be that this window isn’t that of your favorite one! Just for the meantime, at least!" So you settle down in search for some comfort and you look straight out into the clouds. As you do, shapes slowly, slowly, come to soak your mind out.
You were seated right beside a window, too, that flight you had before this. Contrariwise, though, that was a flight from Malaysia to the Philippines and you found yourself beside a young man some years older than you were as you deduced. For the first few minutes, he had engaged the much older man on his other side in conversation during which, all through it, you looked out of the window, forcing yourself not to hear what they were talking about.... wanting, in effect, to listen to what thoughts your mind was whispering to you.
But then he turned to you with a casual “Hi”! As you tried to acknowledge his reaching out to you, your eyes had to meet his, which you noticed were fascinatingly greenish blue. You also noticed that that pair of eyes danced! Or was that a twinkle that simply arrested your interest in him? He continued, “You seem to be in another dimension just now, hope you don’t mind my asking where that is?” And he laughed a soft but low melodic one. The pleasantness of his demeanor kind of set you to pick up from where he started: - smilingly....warmly.... fun! So you answered, “Sorry, but you’ll have to bribe me to have yourself brought to that place!” This time he laughed a totally hearty one with “Hey, now, but did I find myself a partner in crime!”
The less than a four-hour flight turned into a non-stop give-and-take of information, affirmations and negations, coupled with some strands of emotional uptakes on personal as well as on environmental issues. From out of the conversation, you culled items that told you he was from Frankfurt, in Germany; that he was a structural engineer who had been in a number of places you had been to yourself; that he was stationed in Kuala Lumpur by the Swiss-based company he works for; that he was going to the Philippines to visit a girl friend he hasn’t seen in a long, long time.........- and more!
“Oh, so you’ve been to Cologne?” he had said in between! ‘My mom lives there at the moment. She’s an architect, you know, and with my construction know-how, she often asks me to go over so she could consult with me regarding stuff and I like it! See, she takes care of my fare and my lunch and my dinner...” and there he breaks once more into that characteristic deep laughter of his!
At another point, he had ventured to tell you, “That’s a beautiful name you have, Linda! I’m Fred, by the way,” extending his hand for a shake. But “Oh my god!”, you could only say under your breath because you were hearing that laughter again which was starting to sound sensual now and strangely, which you were starting to like even as you forced yourself to be indifferent to it. And still going on: “Imagine being introduced to each other only after hours of conversation!” He had turned half serious as those blue-green eyes of his tried to get hold of yours, - seemingly wanting to extract out of them secrets he seemed to suspect they held tight.
All throughout the flight, he had been in a most jovial mood, cracking a joke here and there as he recalled with you the fun aspects of places and events you both once found yourselves in: over in Europe... down in America....and even right where you were bound for... the Philippines! It was a bit embarrassing for you that he’d been in places in your own country that you, yourself, haven’t been to considering the fact that you were the Filipino!
But gratefully, you had noticed that he had a way of leading the conversation always to a safe and pleasant mode whenever it put either of you into a corner of discomfort. For instance, when you started to talk about that part of his life where his Thai wife and he had to break up in a divorce suit..... or when it was about an advertizing job you had so wanted but was given to another for reasons of race... or when in about half a dozen instances you or he recalled something that just wasn’t a happy thought, he’d reroute it in such a way that it simply transformed into a humorous news bit or a fun story. You thought he was that good and you admired him for it. In fact, things you were starting to like in him were starting to pile up.
And then that flight ended - putting each of you into his own way.
And then that flight ended - putting each of you into his own way.
The reminiscing brought a smile on your face. That flight was just a couple of weeks back, you recall, but funny how those weeks had shelved that memory. You had gone home for an invitational academic talk you had to give at your home university and in between the preparations for the task, there had been the activities you couldn’t forgo with colleagues, close friends and family. Your schedule of events had been heavy, time simply flew past. And now, you have to fly back to Malaysia. In fact, the announcement that seat belts may now be disengaged is being flashed. So you continue to make figures out of the clouds gently breezing past your window.
Your peace and quiet is suddenly invaded by a presence. One of the flight attendants is standing in front of the passenger at your left, and she’s asking him if he would like to swap seats with another passenger from Business Class. As ordinarily expected, your seat mate readily consents. And in your mind, you wonder who the foolish person is who would want to do this. In a matter of seconds, you get your answer. Your heart skips a bit as a tall German guy strides down the aisle towards you beaming with that characteristic smile you very well know.
Strange how you were just remembering him and the moments with him from just one flight ago. Now a thousand and one questions flood your mind. “How is it that this is happening?” you ask yourself as you fight to control that surge of emotion. “But a lot of time later for the answers,” you seem able to calm yourself down after all. Now he is seated once again beside you. He turns to you, extending his hand for a shake as he says warmly, “Hi! I believe your name is Linda? Glad to meet you, Ms. My name is Fred, by the way!” And he breaks into that low, melodic, laughter of his!
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