Em walked into the master bedroom, which she has been tidying up for days. This is the room she sleeps in, with a big TV on the dresser that she sometimes turns on nightly to watch. Now she was cleaning it up for her daughter J’s homecoming, for her to stay in the best room in the house.
She put on her “new” eyes to scan the familiar room, the room vacuumed and mopped, to see if she missed any corner. Her eyes were laid on the queen bed, where a newly changed white bedsheet was covered by a soft quilt, washed and sunned. The room was as nice as ninepence. She straightened the bed corners one more time to her heart's content before turning off the light. Then she plugged in the Christmas light projector, tilting the angle to the roof. Soon the dark room was illuminated with dancing white snowflakes, big and small, swirling silently across the ceiling.
Em hurried downstairs, to prepare for J’s meal. She steamed the live lobster in one stove and stewed the soup for noodles in the other. J likes the home-made noodles, and it almost becomes a routine that her first meal home would always be served with a bowl of hot noodles, with rich soup broth from fresh meat, shrimps and veggies, sprinkled with sesame oil and diced green onions.
It was almost ten, half an hour away from the plane’s landing time. Em’s husband was downstairs, ready for the pickup. Em turned off the stove, untied the apron, and put on a coat.
“What!?” blurted out her husband in the corner, his back facing Em, his head buried down in the coat, but the surprise in his voice unsubdued.
“The plane is diverted to Las Vegas!”
Em was shocked too. She was reminded of the canceled flight two years ago when J tried to come home for Christmas. All flights were canceled due to iced road conditions. J was stranded in the unprecedented icy Seattle. Luckily, a smaller airport in the area was found to be offering a flight to Las Vegas, a day afterwards at $700 (plus $100 taxi to the airport) one way, almost three times the normal price. Their Christmas that year was spent in Las Vegas after picking up J at the airport.
Communications were promptly ensured between Em, her husband and J, who had Wi-fi on the plane. With minutes J confirmed from what she heard from the captain that due to the foggy weather in the destination city, they had no choice but to land at Las Vegas.
Em’s husband turned on the real flight tracker, watching closely the moving plane on the screen. Em was checking the weather. She later learned that even if the fog cleared, the city regulation would not allow any flight after 11 pm to land. When the hope dimmed that her much-expected daughter wouldn’t be home for the night, Em sighed and sunk in the seat.
J overnighted at Las Vegas Airport hotel, the expense of which would not be vouchered, as any delay caused by weather is not covered by airlines. Her flight would be resumed at 10 am the next morning.
Then came more chaos the next day. The flight took off around 10:53 am, almost an hour late. Once it landed it, it took more than two hours to find a gate. Em and her husband waited in the Cell Parking lot for hours, impatiently as minutes ticked by. It’s workday Friday, and their lunch hours were way past. And much to Em’s chagrin, when J finally got out, Em’s husband, in backing off the car, bumped into the long pickup truck by its side.
Some pics taken in this holiday:
