Beep.
The computer screen said. Beep. Again. I don’t speak beep on my best day. Standing in the baggage check at a major airport is definitely not the time to be learning new languages. What does the machine want from us?
Beep.
Demanding machines
What it wants, it seems, is BoyWonder’s travel itinerary. His vitals. Maybe a swipe of my blood for the DNA match. Say what you want about the insane levels of security at airports these days, when it’s my baby getting on that plane I’m down for it. I want full background checks as least as far back as the early 1700s. Did any of your ancestors seem sketchy? Now is the time to confess.
Take off your shoes, your socks, your earrings and spit out your gum. I have no time for risks or shenanigans. Perhaps everyone should be issued comfy white robes (sans belts) for the duration of the flight.
The last time I was at this particular airport it was 1985. I think Wilbur Wright was piloting the plane. If there was much security I don’t remember it. I was 15 years old and worried about what kind of snacks we might get on the flight. There was no beeping. If there was my mom took care of it all.
Beep.
Oh my goodness this thing again. We are just an hour and ten minutes before his flight takes off and the machine is having a fit.
Beep.
“Wait here for an attendant,” it says.
As if we have a choice? There are no fast moves in airports these days. The attendant strolls over, waves a key card over the screen and with a quick flick of finger across the keyboard, BoyWonder’s boarding pass and ticket slide out of the machine.
Travel essentials
His baggage is weighed. It is half as much baggage as he is allowed to have. The attendant finds this amusing. He’s traveling halfway around the world and he packed like a man. If he’s going to be gone for 18 days all his clothing should fit in one small bag right? It really doesn’t matter what he wears.
He has a golden tan, thick brown curls, big brown eyes and impossibly perfect teeth in a winning smile. I mean, I may be his mother, but I have it on good authority that he’s a good looking guy.
He has the key piece in his travel ensemble: his “adventure hat,” a $10 All American style ball cap, has seen plenty of travel and adventure.
In the years it has been worn by him, it has been a pillow, bug shield, fan, sunscreen, and fished out of the lake when it flew out of the boat. Suffice to say that hat has seen some things. Now it’s about to see the land down under. I have never envied a hat before.
Beep.
Saying goodbye
The attendant smiles and waves him through to the TSA checkpoint. At the sound of the beep my son smiled, hugged me and strode toward the gate beyond where I, a nontraveler, could go.
He touched base briefly when he arrived in Australia. He said it was a 20-hour flight with two children screaming and kicking the seats behind them the entire time. On the positive side, he had already made a friend. An Australian woman seated next to him on the plane showed him around the airport in Sydney.
When asked if they knew each other she smiled and said they had bonded over their mutual hatred of some children on the plane. (For the record he doesn’t hate children. He has, however, worked off the karma of his own poor behavior in a restaurant in 1999).
Travel plans
To recap, BoyWonder announced two weeks ago he would be traveling to Australia, solo. It’s 27 hours of travel, 14 hours in the future and roughly 9,280 miles from home. I am confident in saying that he has never been this far from me, ever. I am also confident in saying that I am absolutely thrilled that he is.
This is an adventure. His is an adventurous soul. He is exactly the kind of person to take his lucky hat and winning smile and hit the road (or the skies). Once he arrived he had absolutely no idea how he would get to the youth hostel from the airport. I, at any age, would have been stressed. He didn’t have a care in the world.
“I’ll figure something out,” he said.
Then he did. I mean I assume he did. That, or he’s sleeping in the airport but hasn’t bothered to tell me. Fortunately, the Adventure Hat doubles as a pillow.
