Airport Mystique

What is it about that damp caffeinated smell that all airports around the world seem to bear? It electrifies me, drives away my sleep no matter how close to dawn or midnight the hour hand might be. You could be ordering a beer or testing a new makeup pallette at 5am and that would still be ordinary; mundane, even. And there's something about this that emancipates me and makes me feel like I'm about to embark upon an exciting adventure. 

I miss seeing men and women in suits dragging their trolleys towards security check-points wearing an air of importance. I miss seeing kids going berserk as their harrowed parents try to reign them in, away from toy stores that entice them and duty-free chocolate stalls with the choicest offerings in the land. I miss holding my husband's hand as we stroll past all of this with a new stamp on our passports, itinerary for the next day ready in my trusted old planner, bags on our backs and no cellular reception. 

We've seen the world together, but like Holly Golightly rightly sang, there's such a lot of world to see. I want to see the pyramids as the sun sets against their golden peaks. I want to climb the Andes and pet llamas in Machu Picchu. I want to swim with my son in the Maldivian waters. I want to rent a little cottage in Scotland and wait till the Loch Ness monster shows up. I want to win money in the casinos in Las Vegas and fly a chopper over the Grand Canyon. I want to taste different types of cheese with my parents in an Alpine village. 

But somehow, most of all, I want to be at an airport at some distant corner of the world where nobody knows me but my partner. 

I imagine him looking at me from afar as I walk towards him; he's holding our bags and smiling a silly smile at me. I smile back at him because it's just too contagious to ignore his dimple. "Should we get some coffee?" he asks. "There's still an hour before our next flight". 

"Fine. I wonder what they'll serve for breakfast on the plane. I hope they have croissants!" I reply. And we walk on towards the nearest cafe in the food court, holding hands, butterflies in our tummies because we're happy and excited about the journey up ahead.

I can't wait to travel again.