I only noticed her when she started talking into her phone. At first I thought she was leaving a voicemail because she went on uninterrupted for a fair bit. She’d end her sentences with “you know what I mean?” and “isn’t that how it goes?”, (I may be off but I’m giving you the right idea.) but then she’d launch into the next thought without any break.
Eventually I heard her laugh a few times and do some nodding, even though that wouldn’t come through on the phone call. So she was talking to someone.
At first I tried to tune it all out and just watch the planes, but her being so close was hard not to listen to. Here are some of the things the woman said into the phone.
I don’t know anything about concrete.
He’s convinced he’ll die at 51 because that’s when his father died.
Not everyone is good at their job.
The only good thing he did for his country was die.
She loves her dog more than her husband, I’d bet my leg on it.
She was talking to her daughter. They talked about the daughter’s job and the daughter’s apartment. It sounds like she had a bat problem at one point and the daughter couldn’t get over it. They talked about how she needed to go to the dentist, this is the mom now. She said her teeth were feeling loose, maybe it was the stress she thought. She said out loud that she thought I mean.
Then the daughter spoke for awhile, the woman did a lot of “hmm”ing and “exactly”ing. The daughter said something funny and the woman laughed and laughed and needed the daughter to repeat something. She laughed again.
“We used to walk you guys up and down the aisles.” The mom was speaking now, softer. “You weren’t great flyers, you or your brother. So your dad or I, we’d take turns, one of us always had an aisle seat, we’d walk up and down, and you’d both want to know all about the people on the plane. You both, like little reporters, would ask total strangers about where they were going, and if they had kids, and where they got their clothes, and what they were going to eat for dinner. And this was back then, before everyone had headphones and everyone had screens and things to do. Some people read and some people slept but a lot of people were happy to talk to a little kid, and tell them they got their shirt at the mall, and that they were probably going to have a burger, and that they didn’t have any kids, but maybe a niece or a nephew.” She was quiet for a bit, I couldn’t tell if she was listening or just sitting. She said “I miss him too” and she was quiet again.
I watched the planes take off and land, each with their 200 people, and their 200 screens and, and their 2 pilots, and I thought about where they could all be going. Was everyone on their way home? ■