Several years have passed since I flew; Usually when we travel, we drive wherever we’re going, but driving from northern Nevada to Austin, Texas, and then south to Houston in mid-June, didn’t seem all that appealing to John or me. So I decided to fly alone.
After boarding three different planes and two layovers; one in Salt Lake and then a second longer in Dallas, I have become reacquainted with the art of flying. The actual feel of flying hasn’t changed: people rushing, rushing, in some cases rushing to their next flight only to find the plane hasn’t boarded yet, the worst kind of stress. Men, women and children of a variety of races, languages, clothing – a microcosm of the world – trying to get from one part of their world to another as quickly as possible; their faces reveal expressions ranging from anxiety, frustration, boredom to impatience as they wait and wait and wait.
The airlines have made some significant changes in an attempt, I guess, to streamline their processes and cut costs. Among those that became immediately apparent to me are the now strict weight limits for careless passengers who mindlessly add one and then five more books along with other non-essential and rather heavy items resulting in an “excess fee”. “. A $100.00 surcharge for the offending three pound excess works exactly like a speeding ticket: I know I’ll stay under the fifty pound ceiling the next time I fly.
Gone are the people who struggled to fit too large a suitcase into too small an overhead bin with the not-so-patient butler assisting in futile attempts to make the impossible happen as the minutes ticked by. The rules are clear and are followed. The few people with oversized luggage are spotted and then detained by airline staff before they board the plane; efficiently, the large piece of luggage is carried quickly, so that the boarding process moves a few hundred people to the planes in twenty minutes or less.
The ubiquity of mobile devices with free Wi-Fi in airports and on airplanes enables instant communication for everyone from anywhere. People writing, texting, and talking on smartphones about the latest corporate catastrophe, like the man behind me at the Dallas Fort Worth airport, extensively sharing his heartbreak over the unexpected resignation of a key player to a listener. who is supposed to feel the same. .
I am on board my third plane as of 6:30 this morning as I complete this post. A quick and unscientific survey of the hundreds of people seen during this long day revealed that only two others had an actual book to read. Many passengers use their mobile devices to avoid the gaze of a stranger, with carefully placed headphones.
The young woman sitting next to me on the last leg of this journey is one of only three people I have ever seen with a book, a real book, and she expresses gratitude when I hand her the novel I had finished.
“Do you like fiction?”
Smiling, she replied, “Yes I do, I travel all the time and I’m always looking for books to pass the time. Is it good?”
Smiling back, I replied, “Okay, time will pass.”
Captain Samantha Martinez is a member of the Texas Drug Enforcement Task Force Joint Operations OIC, a coalition of many agencies working together to stop the cartels’ stranglehold on the global economy. She loves her work because she knows that she is making a difference.
He listened as I explained that a character in my next book is a member of a Texas coalition drug task force I thought I made up, and he said yes when I asked if I could use his name in the novel and he handed me his card. introduction as we exit the plane together and head to the baggage claim area.
One of the unexpected gifts of spending an eternity on airplanes was meeting a young woman like Captain Martinez; working to make this world a better place: God bless you, Samantha. And thank you so much for letting me use your name for one of my characters in my next book.