Strangers on a plane

At 17, the munificent open-handed 30 year old, adjacent to her on that flight, seemed comfortably archaic. She was traveling alone for the first time with a myriad of emotions pent up inside as she transitioned from one culture to another, home to a foreign land, friends to strangers, childhood to adulthood, her mind and body entangled in that web of lies she had been disillusioning herself with. This disenchantment was foreign to her nature and yet she continued to indulge in it, finding herself in a well-situated exaltation that was undefinable. At 30, he was neither old nor young anymore. It was what he thought a very die able viable age. He was an associate professor at a, what he thought to be distinguished, university almost tenured after tumultuous number of years running behind conferences and published papers of both sides of his brain. He was also, to embellish and give credit to his personal life, almost engaged with the consistent thought of marriage proposal to his almost fiancé of 5 years. As a third party spectator to this theatrical scene, I felt they were both suffering but honestly speaking I did not want to see a pain which I could not help. But in my heart there was the egocentric desire to see how they were taking it. 

Her docile nature subjected her to a constant purchase of Starbucks mocha cookie crumble, the sweetness of which, she deliberately confirmed not infrequently. Whether or not you will be able to relate to the complete knowledge of her domestic calamity, you will find humor in her using warmers for her cold mocha that leisurely read: "No experience is ever wasted. Everything has meaning." 

She seemed to anxiously wait for an answer in the dark night in the airplane, calling up all her strength of mind not to bolt out of her subconscious. She thrusted confidences in her new friend in flight, partly because she had no choice and partly because she had the hearts for him. With his expletives and indignation, he continued to confuse rather than inform her about his life goals and aspirations. 

As  their cognitive state transitioned from persona non grata to an ally, they traveled onward in time and space, pretending to maintain an unaltered condition, preserving home-confected peace between them. Who am I to adjudicate their relationship as they amicably co-exist, passively enamored by each other's mere disembodied spirit, enjoying proximity to a world they would never live in.