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Tuesday, September 25, 2012

4. Crashing with fate



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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