Ten.Two Thousand & Seventy-Nine
4:19 a.m. local time. I can’t sleep.
Where are my bags? Do I need to go to baggage claim, then to Clear, then to my actual terminal?
Delayed. More time to think.
I get up to throw my trash away and see that the entire cup of coffee has fallen to the floor. A man offers me his napkins to help clean up the seat. “I guess I’ll go try this again,” I say.
He tries to pay me back for the spilt coffee. “I think it fell when I sat down. I’ve been feeling awful since you left.” I refuse the money, tell him the apology is enough.
Finally leaving Texas.
Leather vest over a gray t-shirt and a Vietnam Veteran hat. The middle seat between us stays empty. He keeps passing me packets of Biscoff like an old lady digging out peppermints from the bottom of her purse to give to the children in her pew. It’s a sweet and kind of funny gesture. I eat them all.
Back to my blue skies and gold hills and oaks. I can’t seem to fall asleep though I feel like I haven’t slept in days.
I'm almost cold in the shade. All the smiles on his face.
I need one more day.
