Between the hustle and bustle of the airport I had a chance to eat the
sandwich with double cheese and the juice that my mother had prepared for me. I
knew that it would not had many of these in the coming months so I enjoyed it
to the fullest.
When I was ready to board the plane, I saw a woman with a nearly 11-month
pregnancy, the poor woman moved with so much difficulty that an elephant would
have danced ballet graciously compared with her, I asked if she would be comfortable
in her seat, but she said that it was not an issue about comfort but get to her
destination. I asked to the responsible
of the airline if I could change my seat
in first class by the lady so she would have
more room, with a smile and a wink she replied I couldn’t be more friendly. When I changed my ticket,
the woman smiled so much that I thought her baby was going to jump through her mouth.
I looked at my new seat number: 17B.
When boarding the plane I came across a so small hallway, that breathing
was difficult, but I found my seat, next to the window there was a woman who
didn’t care my presence, she had a camera in her hands and when she found
something to take, made her shot and then left her camera aside and paid a
little attention on me.
She moved a little her back pack near her feet. I could not recognize the
nationality of her features. Something else caught her attention outside and she
kept shooting a couple of times. When finally saved her camera, took her cell
phone from her pocket and sent a text message.
I tried to fit in the limited space of my seat and my neighbor, with a
strange accent asked me if I had enough room: "Enough for the price of the
ticket", I said. She smiled and told me that it was silly to pay for
first-class tickets, because when the plane crashes, there are no distinctions,
and then we both laughed and she stretched legs and accommodated a sweater as a
pillow, amazingly, it seemed that the seat was enough for her.
She took out her cell phone to read the text message that had arrived and
smiling said: "I am returning home after a conference and I have already offers
for another at the other side of the country.”
A voice announced that the door the aircraft was closed and we began to
move. Strangely there was no one on the other side of my seat. The flight would
not be so bad after all.
I couldn’t avoid talking with my neighbor, I thought her accent was
interesting, somewhat educated, so I began the typical chat: are you going to
visit Chicago?
"No," she responded with a big smile, " I live there, I went
to Atlanta as a speaker but I can't wait
to go home".
Oh, what do you do?. I asked
"I am educational Advisor.”
Her answers were short, she pronounced very careful every idea, but she
didn’t like to go deep, kind of reserved, I think she did not like very much
all my questions, so she asked: and you?
I told her in detail why I was in that airplane and we could not evade
initiating a chat about education, we talked about challenges,
perspectives, stories, examples; in fact I talked most of the time and she
listened, but when she opened her mouth, she gave me deep information about
education. When we realized, we were landing in Chicago.
She allowed me to see through the window Chicago downtown, I enjoyed an extraordinary
view of a city front a Lake so large that it seems a sea.
She asked me to that part of the city I would be living, when I told her that
I had an apartment two blocks from the school, she smiled at me and said:
"I can take you, that’s on my way, if you don't mind".
I pretended that it was not necessary, but being in a city where I knew no
one her offer could not be better. Besides, it was good to save money.
I dared to ask her email and asked if I could bother when a doubt about
teaching jumped on me, taking a tiny pen, she wrote her email and when Gabrielle
gave it to me, she said: "nothing makes me happier than helping a teacher
with problems".
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