The Yankee is back from New England. Picked her up at the airport, which is, I think, the low-water mark for people watching.
It could have been my mood. After the drive to Atlanta, which was fine, if drizzly in places, I found a traffic jam in the parking deck. I made it inside 10 minutes early, to see the arrivals board already had her plane on the ground. This was really a statement of confidence on the part of the airline and the airport. The plane was still in the air, but close. They were supposing that they could get the plane down, or that gravity would lend a hand.
Thankfully for all involved the prophecy proved true. I stood at the landing by the escalators that bring up passengers from the underground trains. There a woman was more than a little miffed to have to wait for her husband. It was as if, she implied to her children, that the entire unseen process of landing a plane, gathering one’s things, disembarking and traveling through an airport the size of a small city was entirely his fault and he was doing it on his own schedule with complete disregard for her.
No wonder he was taking his time.
Two other young ladies were waiting for their friend. There was a great deal of texting between them, the expectant waiters and the unseen traveler. When that broke down — “How did she get to baggage? Where’s baggage? Why isn’t she here? Where am I!?!?” — they reverted to an actual phone call. Their friend had exited the train and entered the wrong terminal. So they hung up the phone and left.
Sadly I’ll never know if they were able to find their friend.
An airport steward came along and instructed us to get out of the walkway. We were a fire hazard, he said. We were standing between an escalator and the restrooms. No one moved. He did not put up much of a fight, convinced by our logic that, in the event of a fire in the area, we would no longer be a hazard.
Finally The Yankee rode up the escalator. We were like peas and carrots again.
Picked up her bags, which were being belched onto the conveyor as we walked up and quickly left the airport before much more of this tragic comedy could hold us up. People are very stressed, inattentive and not really prone to thinking for themselves at the airport.
I know this because the stories she told of her entire adventure pretty much backed up the idea. Someone should do a study.
