It had been the strangest of flights. Two hours of nervous glances and silence brought about by this unanticipated situation that we had now found ourselves somewhat locked into. A booze fueled recurring nocturnal fantasy seemed to have come to life in a strange slow motion, twilight zone kind of way.
Was this gut churning nervousness being felt by me entirely, or was it a shared feeling. I suspect that her quiet focused demeanor was her way of not letting whatever thoughts and feelings that she was having become known and possible fodder for discussion. My wife is a kind, generous and loving woman with a splash of dominant in her nature and a tendency to stubbornness which should be factored in. The latter two traits probably gave her a sense of control and purpose that I did not possess at the time. These realizations made me feel that for the time being at least I was flying at high speed and dizzying altitude into a situation I might not entirely be prepared for. I did know however, that I must handle every aspect of this operation well, whatever the outcome.
I am not going to give you the name of my wife, her age, hair color, height, body type or occupation. It really isn't the point, anyway, people lie about that stuff endlessly. So, I will leave all of that up to you. My thought is that if you didn't have imagination you wouldn't be reading this. Suffice it to say, I love her, every aspect of her and that is all that matters to me. I will say however, that she is a professional, well respected and very attractive. There, I gave you something.
Being over two meters tall, disembarking from an aircraft is always such a pleasure for me and my dented knees. The procedure of disembarkation and all that that entails gave my mind a little respite from the last days and hours of head churning unresolved thoughts. Collecting our baggage was largely an uneventful and quietly executed affair, as was locating a taxi and the subsequent journey to the hotel.
Checking in at the hotel was a different matter. Not so slow motion now. Sharp technicolor reality was creeping in on waves of air conditioning and I don't mind saying that I was very much on edge. Confused and a little shaky would describe me pretty well at the time. The elevator ride up to the ninth floor and the short walk to room 904 (a number I will never forget) was excruciating. We were never more than a meter or so apart at any time. Her perfume that I know so well was everywhere around me in the elevator and in the corridor. Just before we entered the room I wanted to reach out and touch her and say something that would shatter this involuntary dome of polite semi silence. Something that would put us more at ease. The moment passed and I felt deflated and disappointed with myself. I resolved to try again as soon as the moment was right.
We busied ourselves unpacking a few things. I didn't have much but I made a stretched-out fuss of what I did have so as to give myself something to do. I am sure my unnatural clumsy time filling activities were noticed but what about all of this was natural, at least to us. We were now the inhabitants of a brave new world.
The hotel room was booked for two nights. We had planned it that way purposefully and It all seemed to make sense at the time. The big event was scheduled for 10:00 pm tonight. Our logic dictated that reducing the thinking time we would have would be easier on both of us. It was akin to jumping in at the deep end. Sink or swim. It was proposed that tomorrow would be a day designated to usher back as much normality into our lives as we could.