Well, They’re Off
Took them to the airport at lunchtime. Bawled my head off for half an hour after they walked off into the terminal with their dad.
Funny stories …
Got them out of the car and got their luggage out. Helped the oldest on with his backpack and turned around to hand him his pull-case. When I turned back to hand him the handle, I saw him slowly topple of onto his back! Helped him up and reset the straps of his backpack so it would fit properly and not pull him over. LOL!
Got them all settled with the correct luggage, and the older boy just saunters off. No goodbye. No hug. Nothing. Amazingly, X had the presence of mind to tell him to come back and tell me goodbye.
Went to the airport post office to mail some letters and park so I could see the runways. Can’t go in to wave goodbye from the gate anymore. Fifteen minutes before the plane is supposed to take off, my cell phone rings. It’s X. The kids left their wallets in the car. He wants me to meet him at the first security gate. I know MEM like the back of me hand, because my dad is the architect who designed a pretty good amount of it. So I asked him what gate he was at. He told me … It was just about the farthest you could get from the terminal entrance. I told him it wouldn’t work. That I was at the airport post office, so I’d just run in there and mail their wallets to his mother’s house. They’ll get there Tuesday if I send them priority registered.
X calls me again five minutes before the plane is supposed to take off, to tell me that they’re on the plane — some kind of mixup with the seat reservations had originally had him and the boys separated, so they had to get on last to get their seats rearranged. Over the plane’s intercom, I hear the pilot say that there’s some sort of snafu and they are going to have to call the refueling car back because they are 2000 pounds short on fuel … and then X says he has to go.
I stayed watching the planes for a half hour after that, not sure which one I watched was theirs, but it made me feel better.
2 Comments
WHATever did you put in that backpack?
Oh, not much… some activity books, a sketch pad, colored pencils and writing pencils, a couple of books on tape and his tape player … it was heavy, but not overly so.
That child is a born comedian … he probably did it on purpose to make me laugh.