Love in the Air

I have no idea about transatlantic flights; Nor what US passport control is like, so bear with me if I've screwed up, they're not important to the story.

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Half an hour into the flight and I was bored. I'd seen the film on offer and had long ago found that I couldn't read whilst flying. I began to look around at the other passengers. My eye was drawn to a red-headed girl sitting on her own a row in front and on the other side. She too seemed to be bored and was looking out of the window distractedly. The flight attendant was walking by and I called her over.

"Excuse me, but do you know if that girl is with anyone? She looks as bored as me, and I wonder if she'd like to talk."

The flight attendant looked from me to the girl and back again, obviously weighing up what she knew about us both. She smiled.

"You're in luck. She's travelling on her own to visit some friends." I must have looked a bit surprised. "A bit like you in fact. Do you want me to ask her if it's all right for you to talk to her?"

"Yes please." I nodded. "If it's not too much trouble." The flight attendant moved across to the girl and bent down to talk to her. The red-head looked around at me and nodded. She beckoned me over.

I eased into the seat next to her, murmuring my thanks to the flight attendant.

"Hi! My names Rob, Robert, and I thought you looked as fed up as me, and might like to talk."

"Hello. I'm Madeleine, and you are right, I'm bored stiff."

"That's the problem with these long flights. My problem is I can't read or write or even sleep without feeling sick. Ironic really, because I love planes but hate flying." She laughed sweetly.

"I can't say I have either problem, but stupidly I left the book I was reading in my luggage, leaving me with nothing to do."

"Is this your first long haul flight then?"

"Yes. Some old friends of mine invited me across to stay for a while and I leapt at the chance. Three weeks in the US."

"I'm going to visit my grandparents. Second trip in three years. I'll be there three weeks too."

"What a coincidence! What flight are you getting home?" I had to get my ticket out to check. Madeleine looked down as I read it. "That's the flight I'm on too! Strange forces are afoot." We both laughed.

After that we just talked, what books do you read, what's your favourite film, what makes you laugh, what music do you like? Things like that. We didn't really read the same sort of books, but we had read some of the same things. Our movie tastes were different too, but again we liked some the same. Our sense of humour was similar, but our music tastes only coincided at the heavy end of pop and the power ballad end of rock, me being the rock, Maddy the pop. None of this seemed to matter as we chatted. Madeleine was easy company, easy to talk to. I found myself telling her things I'd never told anyone else. Perhaps she was a good listener, or more probably I was subconsciously thinking I'd not see her again, except maybe on the flight home.

We were half an hour from landing when Maddy wrote on a piece of paper and handed it to me.

"What's this?" I asked.

"The phone number of my friends place, where I'll be staying. I was thinking..." She paused, suddenly unsure of what she was doing. "I was thinking that you might phone me once or twice, while we're here, if you get bored?"

I looked into her green eyes and saw her uncertainty. I smiled and took the proffered note.

"I will phone you every day if you like." I took out a napkin and wrote my grandparents number on it, passing it to Maddy when I'd finished. "That's in case you want to phone me back." I grinned at her and her face cleared of the sudden cloud that had crossed it, breaking into a smile herself.

The plane had landed and we were all collecting our bits and pieces ready to disembark. I slipped into the aisle behind Maddy and followed her to the battleground that is luggage retrieval. Because I had come over here before, I'd realised that my usual tiny case was not big enough for a three week stay and had used the medium-sized one this trip. I spotted it soon enough and grabbed it. Madeleine had got a large case, but seemed to be waiting for another one. I stood beside her until it appeared. She breathed a sigh of relief as she picked it up.

"There's always a horrible moment when you think they've lost your case, isn't there?" She said.

I nodded in agreement.

"Sometimes it's worse than that. A couple of years ago I went to Portugal, waited for my case that never came."

"Oh no! What did you do?" Maddy exclaimed.

I smiled at the memory.

"It turned out that I'd checked in so early that my case had made the journey ahead of me. I found it in the lost luggage!" We walked slowly towards the customs desk and joined the queue. It took ages as always but eventually we got to the front of the queue.

"You two together?" The official asked. We shook our heads, looking at each other and giggling. "Sorry, but the way you were talking made me think you were. Who's first?"

"After you Maddy." I said. She giggled again. The official rolled his eyes.

Once she was through, Madeleine waited for me. The Customs official looked at where I was staying.

"You could be eligible for a US passport bud."

"I could? But that would mean I wouldn't have been able to talk to Maddy for so long." He looked around at her and smiled.

"I guess you're right. Have a nice stay."

"Thanks."

I walked with Maddy towards the arrivals door. She spotted her friends at around the same time I picked out my folks.

"Well, see you in three weeks then Maddy."

"Yes." She paused. "You will call me, won't you?"

"Of course. Tomorrow too early?"

"Depends on what time."

"Oh, after breakfast at least."

She laughed and we parted.

"Who was that nice girl you were talking to?" My Nan asked.

"A girl I met on the plane Nan." A sudden thought struck me. "I said I'd call her while we were here, that will be all right won't it?"

She smiled benevolently at me and ruffled my hair as she had done for years.

"Of course you can Robert. It's nice to see two people in love."

"I wouldn't say that Nan." I blushed. Again she just smiled as the three of us made our way out of the airport.

The phone rang and rang and rang. I was obviously calling too early. Suddenly they picked up.

"Hairl low." A cheerful if somewhat out of breath male voice said.

"Errrr, could I speak to Maddy please?" I asked, my confidence vanishing like frost in sunlight.

"Mads, it's that guy you said might be calling." I heard him call out. "She'll be here in a second or so bud."

"I hope I haven't interrupted anything?" I said as politely as I could.

"Naw! She's just been trying to prove she could swim faster than me."

"Can she?"

"I still got her beat over a short distance. Here's Madeleine for y'all."

"Robert! It is you, I'm so glad. Ignore Nigel's terrible accent, he's not really a yank." She sounded out of breath.

"I thought I might be calling too early and it seems that you've been up and exercising for ages!"

"I wouldn't say ages Rob."

"But exercise, on holiday! It's so un-English Maddy." She laughed. I could picture her face as she did. I shook my head. This was ridiculous, I hardly knew her. We talked for a while, just banalities about where we were, the weather, and then I rang off. Maddy said she'd call tomorrow.

That was how it went for eight days, I called Maddy, she called me, we talked about nothing at all, we rang off. Into the second week of our holidays and Maddy was sounding... Not bored, but jaded. Everything was different and she needed something familiar to cheer her up. At least that was what she told me when she asked if we could meet. I borrowed my grandparent's car and headed off to the city, carefully following a map. Maddy was where she said she'd be. I pulled up and opened the door.

"Hello Maddy, jump in!" She slipped into the car.

"Hello Rob, thanks for coming."

"Hey, why not? I can only photograph so many trees. What's the plan?"

"Well, my friends live here all the time and everything seems natural for them, I just felt the need to be a bit 'touristy'."

"I know what you mean; to me and you it's a whole new country, to the people who live here, it's just where they live." I looked at the gleam in her eyes and knew I'd hit a chord. "So, what do tourists in the US do?"

We decided to alternate our ideas. Madeleine went first and we ended up having breakfast at a diner. I spotted a place where you could face a baseball pitching machine and thought I'd like a go. Maddy wasn't sure, but I persuaded her to face a few pitches too. The afternoon was taken up with a visit to the zoo. We wanted to go to a baseball game, but the home team were out of town, so we looked for a hockey game instead. Maddy had only ever seen British Ice Hockey before, but I had watched the NHL on TV for some time, so I knew what to expect. Or so I thought. The atmosphere at the game was phenomenal, and it was really exciting to watch.

Madeleine hung onto my arm as we wended our way back to the car, a contented look on her face.

"I've been thinking." She announced.

"Oh yes?" I replied cautiously.

"Could we hire a car from the airport and then tour the countryside for the rest of our time here?"

I paused before answering; I knew my Nan and Gramps wouldn't mind me going off before the end of my holiday, but this was a girl I had only met less than a fortnight ago. So what! I thought.

"All right, you get a car and then pick me up, I'll organise a sightseeing route. How's that sound?"

"It sounds perfect!" She looked at me, her eyes shining once more. "I'll call you tomorrow and you can tell me where to pick you up."

Madeleine honked on the horn of the hire car as she pulled up. I rushed out with my luggage and threw it into the trunk next to Maddy's two cases. My Nan and Gramps waved us off: My Nan's parting word's being 'Two youngsters in love.' I still wasn't sure what she was hinting at.

"Which way now?" Maddy asked as I jumped in beside her.

"First star on the left and straight on till morning!" I said.

She looked at me and laughed.

"Peter Pan?" She said.

"Actually I was thinking of 'Star Trek'." I said. "Head for the highway."

My plan was to circle the city at a distance over the next nine days, spend the last night near the airport, and then we could catch the plane home. I hadn't given much thought to where we might be staying. The first four days passed without much incident or drama. We cruised around, looked at scenery, took photos and then found a motel as it got dark, taking a room each. The fifth evening we had a problem, only one room available! It had separate beds though, so we took it, just being careful about each others privacy. The morning after, as we got back on the road, Maddy asked whether we needed separate rooms.

"Why do you ask?" I said, a little surprised.

"Because one room, even with two beds, is cheaper."

"Good point. We'll do that then."

That worked right up until the last night. The night before we were to catch the flight home after dropping off the hire car. The only motel with a vacancy only had one room, but it had only one bed! I was about to suggest I slept in the car when Maddy said we'd take the room and pulled me towards it. She must have seen the surprise on my face.

"What's the problem Rob?"

"Maddy, I can't sleep in the same bed. Who knows what might happen?"

"You mean you might suddenly become a rabid sex maniac?" She laughed.

"I'm serious, I won't be able to sleep, I know it."

"Robert, I trust you, and I hope you trust me, so what's the problem? Half a king-size bed each is probably more room than those skinny beds we've been sleeping in." Unable to find a coherent argument I agreed, but insisted I slept above the sheets, while Maddy insisted that I have most of the duvet.

We dropped the car off and made our way to the check-in. I kept yawning.

"It looks as if I was wrong and you should have slept in the car."

"Or on the floor."

"Why couldn't you sleep?"

"I worry."

"What?"

"I worry. Last night I worried about what would happen if I started dreaming."

"Dreaming? Everyone dreams."

"What if I started dreaming about you? Called out your name or something? It could ruin everything."

She hugged me.

"You sweet nut! What a thing to worry about, to lose sleep about." She pecked me on the cheek. "But thank you for worrying about me, it was very thoughtful. At least you should be able to sleep on the plane."

I shook my head.

"I think I told you on the flight over, I can't sleep on a plane."

I awoke with a start, my head resting on Madeleine's shoulder.

"What happened?" I asked.

"Well, the man who can't sleep on aeroplanes has been snoozing with his head on my arm for the last two hours."

"Two hours! And I don't feel in the slightest sick."

"Nearly three." Maddy reached across and brushed my hair down. "Do you realise that's the longest time you've left me for over a week?"

"Sorry... I..." I started to say, and then realised that she was teasing me. In a flash I also realised what my Nan had been hinting at, I had fallen completely for this woman that I had only met three weeks ago. Was it some sort of holiday romance? Or was it for real? How did she feel about me? These and a hundred other little worries all queued up to be heard.

"Can you help me finish this crossword?" Maddy broke into my escalating thoughts.

"Sure, I'll try. What have you got?"

We spent the rest of the flight on inanities, at least until we were on the final approach into Heathrow. Maddy handed me a business card with three or four numbers on it.

"What's this?" I asked.

"So that you can call me now we're home of course. Unless you don't want to..." A look of disappointment started to cross her face.

"Sorry, I meant this business address. Of course I want to call you."

"I run a business from home, web-based, so all I have to do is direct orders." She perked up. "You never told me what you do."

"Well." I gulped, make or break. "I work for local government."

Maddy and I parted as we left the terminal, she to get a taxi home, me to walk to the long stay car park.

"Call me!" Maddy said as she got into the cab.

"Sometime tomorrow!" I called out. The drive home would usually have been boring, but my mind was all of a fervour, thinking about Madeleine and our time together.

For the next few weeks, barely a day went by without us talking, either by phone or e-mail. This time her phone was ringing and ringing, and then someone other than Maddy answered. It was a male voice. I suddenly realised that I'd never asked her if she had a boyfriend!

"Is Maddy there?" I asked nervously.

"Hold on a moment." The voice said. I heard it calling away from the phone. "Hey sis, your guy's on the phone." I breathed a huge sigh of relief.

She came on the line.

"Hi!"

"Hi yourself."

"What are you doing this weekend?" Maddy asked me.

"I was going to an airshow."

"Was?"

"Well, I'm open to suggestions."

She laughed.

"Be serious Rob."

"Okay, serious. Wanna come?"

"Yes."

"Now who's not being serious?"

"I am being serious. I'll meet you at the gate."

I still didn't believe her until I saw her waiting for me at the gates of the airshow.

"Jump in." I said. "How did you get here?"

"My little brother dropped me off."

"The one who answered the phone the other day?"

"Yes."

"He gave me a scare. I suddenly realised that you might have a boyfriend."

"I would have told you."

"I know Maddy, I never doubted you. It was the worrier in me again."

"Him again, he'll have to go you know." We both laughed.

"What made you want to come to an airshow?" I asked.

"Well, I thought a husband and wife should share interests." I hummed in agreement as I parked the car, and then nearly crashed it as I realised what she'd said. "Careful, you'll miss seeing the planes otherwise." Maddy grinned at me.

"Dad, dad, that girl over there looks lonely. Can I go talk to her?"

"Son, I don't know. I'll ask someone shall I?" The flight attendant was passing so I called her across. "My fifteen year old son would like to know if he can talk to that girl on her own over there. Could you ask her if she minds?" She smiled and went to the youngster, who looked back and nodded. My son was off as soon as he got the nod.

"Like father, like son." Madeleine leant her head on my shoulder and kissed me. I grinned and kissed her back.

"And where is our daughter?" I said, nodding at the empty seat at her side.

"She had to... well, you know."

"So why is she sat two rows ahead of us with that striking looking young man?" Maddy peered ahead.

"He is quite cute looking."

"Maddy!" We laughed. "There must be something in the air at thirty thousand feet that affects us." I said.

"And our children." Replied my beautiful red-headed wife.