Finding my window seat and putting my carryon in the overhead compartment, I settled back to stretch my legs. At 6’4” tall, I always try to get a seat with more legroom.  

It was raining outside, and I could see the airport tarmac workers walking around in yellow rain jackets below me getting the plane flight ready. I wondered what their lives were like. Would they go home to beautiful chaos with wives, or husbands and children and laughter?  

Or would they go home to an empty, but well furnished with modern life, apartment with a perfect dog that doesn’t shed or bark or poo in the floor.  

People watching can be fascinating. Writing their books in your mind.  

The plane was packed with people except the seat next to me. I considered myself lucky to have the only open seat left and I’d have a better flight without the need to have conversation with a stranger that I’d never see again. Although, it would be nice to just make stuff up and tell them because they’d never know that I wasn’t a molecular scientist alone on holiday.  

The flight attendants getting ready to shut the door and ready for takeoff when one of them was looking in the jet bridge and started laughing and said ‘run!’ to the runner who was about to miss their plane. Both the runner and the attendant were laughing. 

As the runner got closer to the door,  

I could hear the laugh before I saw the person.  

And I knew that laugh.  

As I sat there, an old friend of mine poked his smiling head thru the plane entrance and glanced down the aisle. I hadn’t seen that face for a few years. I’d tried to find him, but he wasn’t good at human connections other than me, and it was always a dead end.  

 It was obvious that the only seat left was next to me and that would be his seat.  

I didn’t say a word because I knew he’d have to sit there, and I sat quietly waiting for him to be surprised as to who his travel mate would be today.  

Coming down the aisle looking at people’s heads, seat and row numbers he got closer to me but I stayed quiet. 

When he found his seat number and saw me sitting there smiling, he stopped dead-still and stood in the aisle.  

And then he smiled the biggest smile I’d ever seen on him. It was nearly as big as my smile. He looked good, looked the same. Sandy brown hair and a nicely trimmed mustache. Dressed in a white Oxford cloth button down shirt, tucked neatly into tan khaki pleated pants with a brown belt, he looked exactly like the last time I’d seen him. 

Still fit. He had fallen out of a swing when he was a little boy, and the swing came back and hit him in the back of the head and damaged his olfactory nerve.  He had said to me when I asked why he didn’t eat like the rest of us ‘well, since I can’t taste anyway, I might as well eat healthy’.  

His wide and infectious smile, that included his eyes, was still there.  

Normally, we’d have had ourselves a nice man-hug. You know the kind where you wrap arms around shoulders and pat on backs when you haven’t seen someone in awhile, or they’re leaving after a good visit.  

But this situation, nearly ready for takeoff, wouldn’t allow for those greetings. So, he smiled and sat down next to his friend.  

‘DUDE! Where have you been? I’ve been trying for years to find you! It’s like you just vanished?’ I said.  

‘Sorry man, life just got heavy I guess, and I went away for a while. Spent some time in London. Not doing anything, really, just living off of my savings and thinking. Met a nice lady there, Amanda, and we hit it off well but eventually it fell apart. So, I guess I got all my thinking done and I’m headed home now.’ he said and laughed.  

As the plane took off into soupy skies, out of my window I could see the rain splatting on the glass and as we ascended above the storm, the sun came out and that felt appropriate for this reconnection.  

‘Hey man, do you remember you and I just burning up gas and riding around listening to ‘Eddie and the Cruisers’? We nearly wore that cassette out.’ and we both laughed.  

‘I do remember that. Do you remember how mad your wife got at us for my tagging along on your first wedding anniversary date to see ‘Ghostbusters’?  

I laughed and replied ‘well, she wasn’t mad too long. Besides, she always liked you. Matter of fact she was asking about you the other day. She’ll be excited to see you again. I know I’m excited to see you again. We’ve got so much to catch up on dude.’. 

‘Yeah, we do. How are the kids? Last time I saw them, your son had just been born. I held him awhile and rocked him. He was so little.’ 

‘That’s been a minute, he’s not little anymore. Both of our kids are doing great’.  

‘I want kids one day’ he said. ‘I was hoping that would work out with Amanda, but, well…it just didn’t’.  

‘Man, I’m sorry. But I’m sure she was a great gal’.  

‘Yeah, she really was. ANYWAY…(looking around to see if anybody was looking), he reached into his khaki pocket and pulled out a small gray and white bone pocketknife. ‘Look what I did’, smiled and laughed a devious little laugh like a little boy who’d snuck a frog in his pants pocket into church. 

‘HOW’d you get that thru TSA!?’ 

He slid it back into his pocket and settled back in and said, ‘I got skills’, and he winked a sly wink. 

We caught up on life for the next while and made plans for when we got back home of things we would do together. Coffee every Thursday morning was on the top of the list.  

A little while before our landing, I excused myself to the restroom and scooted by his legs and into the aisle.  

‘Man, it’s so good to see you again. You just have no idea how good it feels’.  

He said, ‘oh yeah, well…I know you missed me’, we laughed, and I went to the restroom.  

Finishing up, I made my way back down to our seat excited to see my buddy again.  

As I got closer, I could see that the seat he was in was empty. 

Perplexed as to where he could have went on an airplane with just one restroom, I sat down. I stopped the attendant and asked where the man next to me might have went.  

She looked confused as she said ‘sir, that was the only empty seat on the plane. It’s been empty the entire flight’. And her face indicated that she doubted my mental state as she walked off.  

And, she wasn’t the only one that questioned it as I deboarded the plane. I had just had a conversation with him. He was there. We laughed. He showed me a knife. We made plans. I was lost and confused as we filed into the airport.  

But mostly I was sad and disappointed. And felt alone. I wanted to call him and tell him about the strangest thing that just happened on an airplane, but I couldn’t. We hadn’t exchanged numbers yet and now; it appeared that he was gone.  

Again. 

After getting some coffee for the road, I made my way out to the parking lot to my car. I was excited but troubled thinking about getting home and telling my wife about the visit with a good friend that apparently never happened.  

Rolling my luggage up towards the rear of my SUV, I stuck my hand into my pocket to get my keys out and remotely open the hatch.  

Pulling my keys out, something fell on the ground form my pocket. I stopped walking and bent down to pick it up.  

In the middle of the filled parking lot, I stood with my mind at a complete standstill, unable to process things as if all my mental circuits had all suddenly stopped working all at once.  

I was holding his gray and white bone pocketknife.