AT THE AIRPORT

     The house seems especially empty today. Lera is gone back to Denmark, and ... I'm sad!
     She was brave to travel by herself. It's not a simple matter to manage a long flight, heavy luggage, the lack of English and the transfers between planes. It's no wonder, she felt nervous before the return journey! It didn't help that I felt crabby yesterday morning, and we kept snapping at each other!

     The initial plan was to go to the airport together with Sonny and Roberta. I wouldn't have been able to walk the required

distances on my painful feet, so Sonny had to push me in a wheel chair. Yes, it's that bad! 
     Roberta loves to tag along, even though she also has trouble walking and uses a fancy walker, which she calls Mercedes. Now she had an added reason to want to come with us: she was afraid to face Park alone, if he decided to show up, and we were all gone. Upon thinking things through, though (wow, - four "th" words in a row!), we realized that, there was no way for us to fit everything: the luggage, the wheelchair and Roberta's Mercedes - in a van with the four of us. I got my nerve together and asked Roberta to stay home. And it's a good thing that I did!
     Everything went smoothly at the airport, until we realized that we went to the International Terminal instead of the Domestic one. Now we had to go some ways to take an Airtrain to bring us to a right place. 

     Sonny said that it was not too difficult to push me, so  I was quite enjoying the thoughts of how great it was that I could just sit in the wheelchair, instead of hobbling all those hallways on my own! We came upon the place with a moving path, and decided to get on it. I was a little concerned about people stuck behind us (they couldn't pass my wheelchair), but remembered Mr. P.'s words of being kind to myself and stopped worrying. The moving path came to an end and... the wheelchair got stuck! Sonny could not push it out! My feet were on the foot-rests, I needed time to fold them up to get off the chair, and people behind us began to run in place, because they had no other way to keep from running into Sonny! Imagine, if Roberta was there too! She and Mercedes would've have to do a moonwalk, like Michael Jackson, to stay on her feet!
     I don't know, how amazed the poor fellows in the back were to see a previously disabled-looking person (myself) suddenly spring off the chair, when I finally was able to do it. I was too embarrassed to look back!

     We continued on, trying to keep up to Lera, who was pushing a luggage cart. Sonny, who watches too much Anime, had a thought and asked me if the airport was a good place to run away from zombies. We chatted about that for a while, then got scared when we came to a totally deserted place with sliding doors which stood ajar. It was an eerie feeling, like there really was a zombie attack at the airport! That's what we get for thinking about those silly things!
     
  The Airtrain took us to the right 
terminal (it took turns so fast that I
 had to hold on to a pole to keep from rolling around the wagon. Sonny forgot to set the  wheelchairs breaks). I did another "It's a miracle, I can walk!" show for the passers by: got off the chair and went to the counter to help Lera get checked in. 

Lera said, these are Danish design chairs!

     It was another couple of hours yet until boarding. Sonny, who lugged his laptop all that way, discovered that there was no internet available.

                                  He gave up and did what he does best: fell asleep. Lera and I talked and laughed, she drunk her Starbucks'

coffee which I got for her (I foolishly didn't check the prices. Taka will have my hide for spending so much money on treating
Lera. No matter, she deserves much more!). 
     When the time came for Lera to go through the security checkpoint, we were both sad. She began to cry, which set me off. Who knows, when or if we will see each other again! Even so, Lera's tears were a balm to my soul. She cares. I am not alone.