Who Says Love Has to Be Left up to Fate?

The plane dived down as it prepared to land back down to the earth far bellow. My pulse quickened and my stomach lurched as I felt myself getting closer and closer my dream destination. The lady on the speaker came on with that reassuring tone they put on so effortlessly.

‘Good morning passengers of British airways. Will be arriving at the Dallas airport in 20 minutes. Please make your way back to your seats and tighten your seat belts. The time in Dallas Texas is bright and early 8 am and it is 2pm in London currently. The weather in Dallas is said to be currently 90 degrees, but average out to a hundred for the rest of the week with clear skies and no rain. Hope you had pleasant trip with us at British airways and enjoy your stay.’

She went on and continued her message in a couple other languages while I sat back and took it all in. After around ten hours of nonstop flying I was finally going to land back in my old home. I leaned over the old sleeping grandmother that I had been partnered with, and went to raise the small and cute airplane window that was on her side, but she let out a short snort and I quickly pulled my hand away. I looked at her in slight disgust and tried again and managed to raise it just as we fell below a cloud and Dallas became visible. I smiled as I saw the all too familiar cityscape below. It was early and as we got closer to landing I could see that there weren’t that many cars out for such a famous city. The sky was very blue and though it was early the sun was up and very bright. Texan summer here I come.

I fell back into my seat when the Alberta Cooper gave another snort, this time followed by a small fart. I withheld a sigh and turned around. I would be away from her soon enough, I consoled myself, just a quarter of an hour left. She had joined me in the middle of the night claiming that she couldn’t sleep with those ‘noisy godforsaken brats’ behind her a few rows below, so I felt obliged to give her my empty seat. I regret it now; she had to have the window seat though she later told me not to raise the window as she was afraid of something breaking the glass, and heights. Furthermore aging people, I’ll be sure to remember, have a constant need for the toilets and she was a pro at asking me to get up every other second. And they are very talkative, I know more about her ‘little arthritis problem’ than my grandmother.

However she was worth in every single way this trip I am now going be starting, or have started since I left England, my current home. I live in the UK, Cambridge to be exact, and it is extremely different than Dallas. The saying everything is big in Texas, well that statement can’t apply to Cambridge, it isn’t even a city, it closer to a town, the only noteworthy feature it has is its history. And that isn’t what counts to most sixteen year olds my age. The lack of sun and fill of rain is not something I’ll miss this summer. Sure there are the sunny spells, but it is hard to get a good tan without spending hours outside. Compared to Texas where I lived before I move to Britain, there isn’t as much to do in the summer. Outside pools are always uncomfortably cold. But this summer I was going to chillax and have fun in the sun.
I’ve been making plans all year since January to revisit Texas, and I had saved up like mad to simply get the ticket and the small amount of spending money I had. The deal was that I would be a live-in babysitter for my aunt in Dallas, and get free food and lodging, as well as free time to catch up with old friends and do my own secret mission. I planned to finally meet some people on my stay here and I had long since decided that it was my fate to get to see them personally.

We touched down safely concluding a plane ride with few insignificant scenes of turbulence, which might have saved my knees. With the slightest jolt my neighbor in front of me would start rocking back and forth terribly saying weird suicidal muttering is to himself. In the questionnaire that was passed out on ‘ways you’d like your flight on British airways made more pleasant’, I wrote down something about how there should be special planes made especially for those with the fear of flying. If that was too much of a financial stretch at least a separate section. I don’t know how the lady down a couple rows ahead of me like the summer Santa guy with the Hawaiian shirt and too short shorts, puking down his third helping of chocolate cake. I had managed to take a quick trip to the claustrophobic toilets and do my face before we arrived, so I was confident that I wouldn’t look much more terrible then I did getting on the plane. Washing and doing a facial scrub in a plane toilet is much more difficult, and putting on eyeliner is near impossible as every jolt make your hand jump a mile. It took me longer than I expected and the guy that was waiting for the toilets after me looked pretty desperate. I’m just glad I didn’t go in after him; I knew that casserole surprised didn't look right.

I went to get my luggage and took my time getting there. We had arrived a whole hour and a half in advance and my ride wouldn’t have been coming anytime soon. Making my way over to the luggage claim, I decided that I liked travelling alone. It was my first time going somewhere without my family or school and it and international flight as well. I was quite proud of not having gotten on the wrong plane, or getting lost in the airport. That is the definitive plus of the increasingly tight security in the airports; it made it virtually impossible to go anywhere you weren’t supposed to. I got to the baggage claim but after few moments of searching it was clear that my bags hadn’t made their way here. I had carefully picked my suitcases. They were unique as they had a black background with a multitude number of well know phrases written on in bold neon colors saying things like ‘Frankie says relax’.

The people found their bags and the large airy room became empty until I was alone. I sat down on the edge of the revolving mate considered my options.

I should probably go find information or go to the help point and ask where it was, or I could wait a bit longer. I could wait and take a ride on the moving mat; something I always wanted to do before. I started to lean myself back inching my bottom towards the mat when loud voice made me jump out of my sink and clear from the revolving mat.

“I wouldn’t do that if I were you,” the voice came from a tall man on my right, who looked more like a bodybuilder named Hank the tank then, Alistair senior security as his badge said. “Are you Ms. Bonchevalle?” I gulped on the inside, and tried not to let anything show. I worried on the reason why he could possibly need me. Yes I was Miss Bonchevalle but frankly he had deformed my name so badly that I could have said no and that I don’t recognize that name. What he wanted was my pressing question. I had I screamed bomb at some point, or had I left my suitcase somewhere in London Heathrow airport and they had blown it up and that is why it wasn’t here. Maybe I could ask to speak to my lawyer before I answered any more question. That is if I had one.

“Yes that’s me. May I help you in anyway?”

“Hey wait”, he said with a smile that broke is hard exterior into a handsome and gentle face.

“That my line. I’m here to bring you to your suitcase; it had to be placed on another plane.” He softly led me along a few more spacious corridors while carrying my carryon bag effortlessly for me. He must have noticed how scared I was. Maybe for once in my life, I actually had looked younger than my 16 years.

“Thanks.” I said tilting up to look at his tall frame, “You actually do fit Alistair better than Hank.” When he looked at me strangely I realized what I said and felt embarrassment softly color my cheeks. We continued silently down to another claim that had a lot of other hanks lookalikes in it.

Security guards were everywhere, and it was a lot more uncomfortable than in the previous claim room. Though here the décor was more class and chic the people didn’t seem to have time to stop and appreciate it. Alistair turned to me and looked at me with a look that commenced all the patronizing kinds of lectures, we as teenagers get.

“This is a VIP traveler claim room. There were complications so your bag had to be placed on one of the more private planes. You are here to find your bag and not bother anyone is that clear. If I so much hear you address the people in this room; you and I are going to not get along. Is that understood?” I resisted the urge to salute him with a ‘sir, yes sir’, by biting my tongue and looking away. The don’t-mess-with-me-hank-the-tank was back and fiercer than ever. Running the information in my head a few more time I finally realized what he was trying to explain. Rich and successful VIPs were all around; most I didn’t recognize probably business workers. However a snippet of a conversation caught my attention from across the room.

“Hey Joe, I bet your going to like this suitcase. Look at it. It has so many cool neon sentences.” My heart lurched as I recognized the voice; I had been listening to it way to much recently. I edge forward slowly to satisfy my curiosity and growing belief that it was my suitcase that he was talking about.

“Wow really cool, Nick. I wonder which up uptight business man it belongs to. None of them seem cool enough to own it.” He and Nick did a quick circular scan of the room. I froze and tried to blend into the cream wall I was using for support, and looked around for them myself. My eyes spotted them automatically as if pulled to them in a way. They were standing near the exit with their own suitcases beside them and mine rolling away down the mat. They were wearing their shades like me but they were far too easy to recognize. A light polo for them both a bold colored tight jeans and some vans, that all I could take in because they turned around too quickly afterwards.

They hadn’t spotted me, and I felt disappointed. I wanted to go up to them and ask them exactly what they thought of my suitcase and its owners coolness. But Alistair shadow kept me down. I waited until they had left out the glass doors and down some corridor before I unfroze. I grabbed my suitcases and made my way back with Alistair to my arrival area, where my aunt and uncle would probably be waiting for me now.

I knew I was fated to make their acquaintances and get to know them during my stay here in Dallas. They just didn’t know it yet. For what other reason would my bags have mysteriously not gone on to my plane? And I had only spent 45 minutes in Dallas, and I had already met them. Well sort of.

I went off not feeling too sad and humming the same song I had been sing all plane ride and the same song that the boys were sing as they left. It was so going to be a fated summer, I could sense it.