Airport

Expanding air in her ears woke her up when they were descending into Miami. The middle aged woman with graying hair and red glasses that had been sitting next to her was also sleeping, but didn't seem to find the changes in air pressure as unpleasant as Hailey did. "Oh god I'm in Miami," Hailey thought hazily. She fixed her eyes into the seat in front of her, letting herself for the first time get excited about being in the tropics. January had been a frozen mess. She rubbed her hands against her jeans while yawning repetitively, popping her jaw in and out. Her face felt greasy like it did after forgetting to turn down the heat in her dorm room before bed. "And I just want to thank you for giving me the best day of my life". She pulled out her iPod, saw that the battery was almost done for, and turned it off.

As they descended more, Hailey could see a large swath of yellow lights, pin points that showed none of the texture that northern cities displayed to night time flights. The plane landed successfully, even though she always held her breath. She wasn't afraid of flying, she flew in planes all the time, and only once had she felt that she was going to die. That plane had been flying over the Atlantic ocean, turning around to get on the appropriate pathway for JFK. And there was a nor'easter in process, sending wind in obliterating and complex patterns. But they'd landed that time. Everyone had clapped afterward. It had been one of those flights.

But taking off and landing are when she's on her guard. Not that she could do anything. She didn't know how to fly a plane and she didn't carry a parachute with her, though sometimes she thought that might be a good idea. But she couldn't not worry about it. When they finally pulled into the gate, she let out a large sigh. The middle aged woman had begun talking on her cell phone to someone in Spanish. She caught up on every couple of words, but didn't feel like she should be listening in on someone else's conversation. When she stood up to leave, she looked behind her, noticing how tired everyone else looked. She was excited. Optimistic. Her flight to the Caymans, as announced alongside about twenty other flights, was leaving from Gate forty-six in a little less than an hour. Once she got to the top of the ramp and into the airport terminal, she took off in the direction she guessed would get her there.

While she passed people in various degrees of rushing, she thought about Jess. She thought about Jess sitting in their room, uncapable of going to class. Uncapable of eating. Hailey reached into her bag, extending her arm behind her while still walking, to pick up her cell phone. She turned it on. Zoe had left her a text message. "Have you landed :)"

Hailey thought about what she'd be doing had she still been in her dorm room at this time tonight. She would be watching television on her laptop, maybe with Zoe, maybe alone. She'd feel comfortably trapped in her room.

She neared a sushi stand somewhere between gates thirty-two and thirty-seven. She thought about television. She bought some sushi. She didn't know which one to select at first, but eventually decided on the one with the types of wraps she'd never seen before. An entire shrimp laid out on a bed of rice, tied together with a little seaweed. It came in a clear package with a wonderfully exotic background highlighting how cool and different sushi was. It came with chopsticks and two small, ketchup sized containers of wasabi and soy sauce. It was twelve dollars. But it looked like real sushi. She'd have to tell Zoe about this if she called.

Sitting down at her gate while people filled in from the pathway to sit down and wait, she carefully balanced the box on her legs and mixed in a dangerous amount of wasabi into the soy sauce. She loved wasabi. She loved the funny face she had to force back whenever she ate it. It was similar to the faces she made taking a shot of vodka without a chaser. But wasabi tasted better.