Since our flight was nearly the last plane to arrive the entire airport now showed signs of completely shutting down for the duration of the storm. There was one harried airline gate crew gal trying to sooth the irate nerves of over a hundred passengers that were just a pitchfork and a few torches away from turning into a raging mob. I didn't even try to wander over and join that crowd. I figured at a glance that the news would be all bad anyway and I'd be stuck here for the duration.
Close actually. Since the airport was shutting down completely due to the storm, they were going to have to clear the airport entirely and everyone was to be bussed over to the nearby Airport Hilton until the storm passed and the airport reopened, maybe by noontime tomorrow.
I saw Kathy fairly close nearby but she had her head attached to her cell phone and was loudly and animatedly giving someone, somewhere orders. Hopefully not to my new college to get me fired even before I was hired. She didn't make eye contact with me and was near the front of the line when the first bus arrived to take us away to the Hilton.
Since I was in no hurry whatsoever, I dawdled and took the last bus. I figured that by this point, since we were just about the last arrivals at the airport, my odds of actually getting any available room at the Hilton were just about zilch, and indeed my prediction was spot on. Several other earlier arriving airlines had already filled the hotel to capacity with their stranded passengers. Even the sofas and chairs in the lobby were all filled.
I found a dark wall corner and rolled up a sweater to use as a pillow behind my head. Being ex-military I'd slept in far worse places and under worse conditions. Indeed the first thing an enlisted person in any service learns is 'hurry up and wait', and the ability to sleep in any situation, even standing up. I'd slept in worse MAC Terminals in my day, or so I reminded myself.
I was almost asleep a half-hour later when I heard a female voice and felt someone tapping my shoe with theirs.
"Max, are you awake? I'm sorry for my over-reaction earlier. What you said was surprising and a bit shocking to me, but it
was
actually quite true. Some things just don't ever change I suppose. Let me make it up to you by buying you dinner, if you're hungry⦠or we could just have a drink or two at the bar and talk about old times."
Since I wasn't actually mad at her, I couldn't think of a good reason to decline her offers. Besides, my back was cramping being pressed against the wall corner and really needed a good stretch. Maybe I was getting a bit too old to enjoy sleeping on floors.
"Sure thing." I said, as she offered me a hand in getting back up. "They both sound like good ideas to me."
We remained on our best behavior during dinner and the vast majority of our conversation concerned the twenty-year reunion on Saturday night that I had missed. We had to stop often to refer back to her yearbook because I couldn't remember over half of the names of folks that she had talked to or seen. Mostly all leading normal conventional lives, happy or pretending to be so with husbands and wives close at hand and fat wallets full of pictures of their children, and even a few over achievers that had grandchildren already. Of all of the names she recounted I knew virtually none of them and had never had any sort of special relationship with any of them. In short, I silently thanked my lucky stars that I had done something else that night instead.
A 'quick trip to the bar for a drink or two' turned into a three hour marathon that rivaled many grad school parties I'd attended. Since there was nothing else for all of the stranded passengers to do, the bar was doing record trade and the atmosphere had turned into a sort of 'storm watching party' with the TV turned to the cable Weather Channel that was broadcasting non-stop details of this now historic west coast storm.
One drink lead to about seven and this was the point where Kathy admitted that the collapse of her marriage was largely due to her reluctance to put her career on hold to have children. Apparently seeing all of the happy folk at the reunion talking about their families had made her feel inadequate again. Being successful, making money and working with celebrities was now of lesser significance to having a good spouse, a happy home and a flock of children to adore. At least in her mind, anyway.
By the time she started to cry about 'choices in life' I decided that she'd had enough to drink and that it was time to get her upstairs to her room. Kathy had belonged to several different airline VIP programs and she called and pulled some strings to get one of the very last rooms. Lucky her. She lost both high heeled shoes making the stumbling walk to her room, but I finally got her into her room barefooted and tossed her shoes under the desk.
I steered her into the bathroom and shut the door on her so she could splash some cold water on her face and do any other needed business, and I was bidding her a good night through the closed door when she begged me to stay and wait for her a few minutes. Sigh. Ok, sure⦠fine. It beat sleeping on the floor downstairs.