As I sat in the Departure Lounge I contemplated my fellow passengers. There were middle-aged men, snappily dressed in business suits talking importantly on their mobile phones. I guessed that they were bound for either first or business class. At the other end of the scale, a large lady was clutching an equally large parcel tied up with string which seemed as though it had been wrapped in a hurry. She seemed to be sweating with a look of dread on her face. She looked more like a patient at the doctors, waiting for terrible news of a pending operation. Several small children ran around noisily while anxious parents tried to restrain them like mother hens with disruptive chicks.
I began to realise that we had been here for several hours and we still had not been called to board our flight. It was the first indication of something going wrong. I noticed an air of restlessness amongst my fellow passengers. The plane should have left more than an hour ago. I decided to give Dad a ring.“What do you mean you’re still at the airport?” Dad sounded slightly irritated. “It’s not my fault, there must be a problem but nobody’s said anything to us yet”. I got the impression that Dad thought the plane had somehow left without me and that through my incompetence I had not realised. Just to make sure I struck up a conversation with the man sat next to me. “Are you waiting for the Tobago flight?” ”Yeah man.” he said in an unmistakable West Indian accent. “ I heard a rumour they’ve got problems with the plane”.
Four hours later and I was still sitting in the same spot. We had all just been told that due to a mechanical fault with the plane we would not be flying at all that day, but instead we would be bussed to a local hotel for the night. Travelling on my own suddenly did not sound quite so appealing. Had it really been such a good idea for me to have spent the entire summer convincing my parents that I was quite capable of flying without supervision. I thought I better phone home again. This time Dad sounded more anxious than irritated. “Phone me when you get to the hotel”, he instructed,.” ”I’ll come over with your warm clothes”. I suddenly realised that my shorts and t-shirt were hardly suitable for the freezing weather outside.
As I joined the queue for the hotel shuttle bus I realised it had got dark again. I had not seen any daylight at all today. The rain was still lashing down and my bare legs were soon absolutely soaked. ‘When people are this cold, don’t they turn blue?’ I asked myself. People passing me in the opposite direction looked at me sympathetically. They probably thought I was a first time visitor who had not been told it was cold this time of year in England. I had visions of spending the whole time in Tobago ( if I ever got there!) tucked up in bed with the flu.
As soon as I arrived at the hotel I phoned home as earlier requested. Within an hour Mum and Dad were in my room. They had even had time to persuade the Airline to put them up with me for the night. Even I had to admit that parents occasionally had their uses.
Eventually a restless night ended when my mobile phone alarm, set for 6.00am, woke me with its shrill tone. I would have time for a quick bath before the coach came to take everyone back to the airport at 7.00. Dad looked as though he had not slept at all, the bags under his eyes even more noticeable than usual. Mum was still asleep. Before I had a chance to wake her, a fresh setback. The telephone in the room rang and by the look on my father’s face I knew the news was bad.” The plane is still out of action, and they’ve no idea when a replacement is going to be found”. This time I had visions of spending the next four weeks in the hotel. Mum slept on. There was no need to wake her now.
Eventually we were told that they had found a Jumbo Jet in Madrid that could be used and that it was heading, empty, to Heathrow as quickly as possible. When it landed in Heathrow’s teaming rain it was dark once more. Would I ever see daylight again? Still at least it had now landed (the plane from Spain is mainly in the rain!) We were rushed back to the departure lounge before the fog that had been hanging around all afternoon closed in and caused us even more delay. I had a last sight of my parents waving furiously at the coach. Was it a tear my mother was wiping from her eye? My father had both arms raised and I could just make out that all his fingers were crossed.
How to spend thirty-six hours doing absolutely nothing but getting wet, and never seeing daylight. I could write a book about that. But anyway… here I was actually on the plane!
I found myself sitting next to a middle-aged bearded man with big grey glasses. Luckily there were only two seats together, and I was positioned next to the window. But there would be nothing to look at. Suddenly I realised the whole flight would be in darkness as we were flying west. Not again! Would I ever see the sun? I put on my headphones (Eminem), which instantly relaxed me and eased the tension. I slowly reached down to open my rucksack, being careful not to touch the leg of my travelling companion. I did not want to give him any reason to speak to me.
The safety -talk turned out to be a lot more interesting than it usually is, probably because it was all in Spanish. It seemed that not only was the plane from Spain, but the entire crew as well! Looking around everybody seemed as bemused as I was. I changed the mini-disk to Enrique Inglesias to try and give me some inspiration. I wondered what we would be given to eat. Tacos and Salsa perhaps?
The journey seemed very long, but I eventually dozed off into my dreams
I dreamt of rain and fog and dark. Then, out of nowhere I felt a tap on my shoulder. I murmured something and opened my eyes, only to look right back into the stewardess’ eyes. She kindly asked me to fasten my seatbelt. So someone does speak English after all!
As I peered out of my window, my eyes still sore from sleeping, I realised it had actually begun to get light. I could see the wonderful blue seas and skies of the Caribbean. I felt a sense of happiness wash over me. Despite the terrible delays, for the first time I realised it would all be worth the wait.
