It Was a Sign

Prompts:

a smilie
three bags full
an empty case
an airplane
                                                              It Was A Sign

She felt as though she were driving to her own execution instead of traveling on a bus toward the airport. This was one of her worst episodes, racing pulse and sweat on her brow, her self-talk did nothing. She wondered if it might be time to change therapists. The sudden, ear splitting sound of an airplane traveling over head had sent her into a crouched position with her hands covering her head. Katie was embarrassed. Thank god no one on the bus was watching.

“Something doesn’t feel right,” She had told her husband the night before.

“Honey” he said, “You always say that.”

Maybe, she thought, but this time, it felt different  -  and there were signs.

It seemed like a year ago, but it was only last night that Katie and her children had spent a good hour agonizing over which movie to rent at the video store. Sherry was desperate for a teen romance and Jake wanted action. In the end, in a spectacular display of negotiation and bribery skills, her children had compromised and she drove them home with the feeling that all-was-right-in-the-world. Perhaps in hindsight, that was when it started.

Her Mother always said that the Gods were watching. “They’re ready to pounce, Katerina,” she’d say, “If the Gods think you’re being a little too happy. It’s their way of keeping us on our toes”.

Or on our knees, Katie had thought.

The kids made buttery popcorn, and she put out the expensive candies that she had splurged on at the video store. Everyone was in high spirits, and to top it off, just as they plunked themselves in various chairs to watch the movie, the front door opened. Her husband, Rick, had finished work early and could join them.

Crouched in front of the television, she was ready to insert the DVD and realized that all she was holding was an empty case. The DVD was missing.

She told Rick later that she felt 'it was a sign'.

“Come on Kate, that’s a little archaic," Rick said, rolling his eyes.

Was it? She thought to herself.

She had witnessed many strange things in her forty years. Her Grandmother - Yaya, as they call Grandmother’s in Greece - once killed a chicken to cure what seemed like an unstoppable nose bleed. Katie was visiting the tiny Greek village where her mother had grown up.  The rough, hard-working women had gathered around her as she sat hunched over, trying to stem the flow. It was the worst nose bleed she had ever had and the old women clucked their tongues and spit, trying to take the ‘evil eye’ from her. They concluded that she had been cursed and shouted for someone to bring a chicken and an axe.

“The clucking stopped and so did the nose bleed,” she told people, and then she would snap her fingers. “Just like that”.

Later, after the kids had renegotiated and were ready to watch a new movie, she received a phone call. Her Yaya was ill and she needed to go to her. She began racing around the house throwing random things into her suitcases and taking the items back out again. At one point, Rick had pulled her down on to the bed, put his hands on her cheeks and forced her to look into his eyes.

"You have three bags full of under wear and socks, what is with you?" He said.

Without a word, she moved off of the bed.

How could she tell him that she was sure that she was going to die?

The bus stopped in front of the International sign and she dragged her over-full suitcase into the airport terminal. There was a long, snaking line of waiting passengers, each hovering over their personal island of belongings. It looked like chaos. Perhaps this was the moment she was supposed to run away and save herself. The next day safe at home, she would be tut-tutting over the local newspaper's front page filled with pictures of the flaming wreckage of her abandoned flight.  However, she didn’t run, she waited, just like everyone else. Wishing to avoid any travel horror stories and further stress herself, she kept her distance from the other bored and distracted passengers. She inched her way forward, dragging the heavy bag behind, relieved that Rick had charmed her into condensing her three bags down to one.
It was her turn to be served next when she heard part of a conversation between an older man and woman in line behind her.

“-  hope we get off the ground before it hits - before WE get hit,” he said.

It wasn’t so much what he said, as how he said it. Inflicted with some kind of respiratory problem, he had to wait for his breath between each word. Julia felt like she and the man were waiting for it together.

Listening to him, on many levels, was agony for her.

The airline attendant waved her over without looking up. Katie’s desire to run was momentarily forgotten in the business of hauling her over-full bag over to the counter and onto the weight scale.  If the attendant says nothing about it being over-weight, it’ll be a good sign, she thought. The attendant’s eyes never left the screen. Katie willed her to remain silent about her bag. 

“I’m afraid there’s a problem -  ” Interrupted by Katie's phone, the attendant looked up.

The theme song from the movie, Zorba the Greek, erupted from her phone. It was Rick's special ring tone - this was the only time she hadn't burst out laughing at the sound of it.

"Excuse me, I..." the agitated attendant tried to get Katie's attention.

Katie held up her hand to stop the interruption.

This seemed to further aggravate the attendant.

The text read: 'False alarm, only bad gas, Yaya says she's fine, come on home, honey'. To top it off, he had ended the text with a smilie. Including a smilie wasn't something Rick typically did and she somehow found it comforting.  That lovely, all-is-right-with-world feeling, floated back down into her.  It was a sign.

"I must insist -  " The attendant stopped mid sentence, her mouth open but silent. 

Katie felt the multiple drips fall onto her hand before she saw the bright red splashes. They took on a life of their own landing on her shirt, new white shoes and speckling the gray airport floor covering.

The attendant handed her a handful of tissues and Katie brought the wad to her gushing nose.

Katie dragged her pregnant suitcase off of the scale. The fleeting feeling of relief that she had felt only moments before, was now only a dim memory. 

It was a sign.

The end