The waiting

02/05/2022 Nilson Lattari

He is there, alone, among people waiting for the planes to land. Beside him there is a bouquet, with three red roses, on a seat. Someone else waiting for someone.
His eyes seem anxious. The cap’s brim is up. It’s like another eye trying to see beyond to figure out where passengers arrive from. People around him are staring at the arrival gate. Suddenly, a question scares him and the man and his roses bouquet, now twisted in his hands, realize that they were at the wrong gate. The man’s face boosts his body and then he runs straight ahead and his legs obey that moment of surprise and the information service warns the new point of arrival and turns on a red light to celebrate the imminent moment.
He runs down the airport corridor avoiding people who walk slowly and are carrying out their heavy luggage, going outdoors or coming to the airport.
Now, he is paralysed in front of another gate and he seems totally anxious. His breath gets heavy but his white perfect smile illuminates his black skin, simple clothes and used sports shoes and, curiously, cause envy to the people around him.
He waits for a love after long conversations through a computer screen. A love surrounded by mysteries and promises. He seems a painter in front of a white screen waiting for the drawing of an image so often fancied by an illuminated monitor.
There were words, conversations, and images connected to a computer screen. And an imaginary and virtual life tied to each other. It will be the first vision of a body that he has never touched. And now he is there waiting for his love to walk throughout the corridor where people around him are embracing their friends and relatives who are arriving.
Then, she appears walking into the hall and her eyes are looking around like someone who is lost and is trying to find opened arms like a safe harbour or a sailor who travelled down through an unknown sea.
The image on the screen comes true, and finally two bodies meet and they are surprised to find out whether they are taller or not than they assumed. They exchanged few words. They know the sound of each other’s voices and they speak at the same time to overcome that moment and their anxieties with a long kiss. They are two bodies touching and their hands and arms are excited waiting for future discoveries.
The roses get forgotten in their hands.