Red lipstick, Seattle

Red lipstick, Seattle

I have taken a few flights in my day. Whether it be the way your chest gets pushed to the back of the seat during the takeoff or the view of life from above, I enjoy time in the sky. It brings the child out in me. I marvel at the cities; patches of tall weeds in a short grass field. Once you have tasted the world from above, you will long to return.

I stand and pull up the handle of my suitcase. The lady repeats the call over the speakers and I double check my boarding pass and head to the queue. The aeroplane is a rather small one. Thirty-nine windows down the side to be exact. I step over the crease between the tunnel and the plane and return the flight attendant’s greeting. I begin down the aisle and observe the passengers. Some are tuned into electronics, some are reading, and others are looking back at me.

I heave my suitcase up to a compartment and find my row. I have the window seat. There is a woman in the middle seat probably somewhere in her mid-twenties. She looks up at me and my eye is caught by her bright red lipstick. A rather beautiful woman indeed. I say hello and excuse myself to my seat. She stokes her blonde hair out of her face and smiles at me as she tucks her legs to the side for me to get through.

Her name is Veronica. By the time the plane taxied to the runway I discovered a lot about my seatmate for the next three hours to Seattle. She is from Italy, travelling for a job interview. I was planning on reading my book to pass the flight but Veronica enjoys talking and I admit, I enjoy listening to her.

I have always thought about having someone spill your life to who you do not know. You can tell them anything and they will not be able to do anything. No one else you know has ever heard of this person. They are a completely isolated soul.

I like to think of myself as a bag of tricks sometimes. I like to believe I can work at a person enough to get them to tell me what I want. Veronica does not seem to mind; we continue to talk and whether she thinks the same way I do, she does not mind releasing herself to an unknown. We are currently 80,000 feet above Tennessee according to the pilot.

I like to think of myself as a bag of tricks, however sometimes I am the one being attacked and preyed upon. Veronica has sucked it out of me. I have told her about my life and what keeps me up late at night. Veronica seems to be a person I have always known. A friend that I can trust.  But the way she encaptivated me and my heart is not what amazed me that day.

Veronica has a powerful voice. Her tone and fever bring her words to life. I asked her what means the most to her in life. She knows a guy who is her ex-boyfriend. She had dated Jacob for a little over a year. After they broke up Jacob refused to move on and was hurt by her. He struggled to let her go and continued to talk to her although Veronica had moved on. His world was a mess while Veronica tried to forget about it.

The world moved on; Jacob moved on. But now the belief that people were meant for each other became rekindled again. Veronica found herself wanting Jacob again. He was the thing that meant the most to her in life. But he had moved on. Veronica was destroyed by this. In her words, Jacob had her heart on a string and the puppet show was just starting. She was unable to explain it; she was fine after the break up but now, a number of months later, she couldn’t explain why he meant so much to her. Veronica found herself more attached to this man now than when they were together. She wanted him badly. She could not take the pain; the nights were filled with tears and sad music.

The beverage cart came around. I requested a bottle of water. The weather outside below us had turned cloudy. It was a beautiful site to see. The sun still shines bright above the clouds no matter how dark the world below. The top of puffy clouds create an endless landscape of rolling hills. The orange tint of sunrise that had strewn through the windows at takeoff was now bright white. I yawned; my ears popped.

Now Veronica and Jacob were at a point where they were still friends. Jacob was unaware that Veronica was over the top for him. Veronica had begun to continually contact him and she believed the connection was still there. She decided one day that she was going to take a risk. Now according to her, she is not a person who likes to take risks when it comes to love. However, she did not want to regret not trying. So, one night she built up the confidence.  Her body was shaking; she was not used to this.

She called Jacob on the phone. He picked up. She asked him if he was busy on Thursday night. He said he didn’t have anything planned. Her voice shaking, she asked him if he wanted to go on a date with her. He turned into a deer in headlights through the phone. He stumbled over his words, unable to form an answer. He got himself together and said no. Not the straight up no, no, this was the buttered-up no. The no sorry I don’t think I can. The shaky way you deny someone when you don’t know what to say. They awkwardly ended the call.

Veronica sat there with phone still in hand. She was prepared for this, even expected it, but there she sat, unknowing what to do now. She returned to watching the television. She did not want to think about what just happened.

The next day she began to piece together what had happened. She was sad, but she knew that she tried. She did not regret asking. She broke out of her shell and went for it. She has nothing to lose; she put that phone down knowing she put her best effort out there.

Now I’ve heard stories of love and regretting not putting yourself out there, but it had not affected me like Veronica’s story. Maybe the way she told it, maybe the way I felt like I understood what she felt, maybe it was the way she got rejected in the end. But Veronica’s story was a single large wave on a calm lake. It crashed up on the sand and disturbed the landscape. For some reason, that day, my heart was touched, on that plane.

The fasten seatbelts sing flicked on with the familiar ding. The pilot came over the speaker and informed us we were approaching the airport. We broke through the low clouds and the land with its intertwining rivers was visible. The ground slowly moved its way up to the plane. It zoomed by and turned to a light grey colour, the cement. The terminal came into view in the background. The wheels hit the runway with a thud and the cement ground immediately began to slow its rate of pass. A squeal came from the brakes as the plane zoomed to a halt. The captain came over the speaker again to inform us of the current time and weather. We taxied off to our gate.

I found my bag in the compartment and exited the plane. As I got out of the tunnel I saw the blonde hair of Veronica already headed off to the right. I watched her walk off. Then I turned to the left and went to catch a cab to the hotel.