Airport Lounge - The Crew and the Unscheduled Splash

Three friends, one airport lounge, and a group of college students carrying enough technology to run air traffic control. They had taken over the outlets, spread backpacks across three rows of seats, and were comparing schedules, dorm assignments and everything they had forgotten to pack.

The Delay

Leo watched them for a minute. "Remember that?"

Henry looked over. "Unfortunately."

August was checking the board again. The flight had already been delayed once, then twice. Nobody had mentioned the notebook since the train, and August had not brought it up either. A few minutes later the screen changed a third time. Four more hours.

Without skipping a beat, August was on his feet. "Hotel across the skybridge has a pool," he said. "We're dressed for it, and we'll be dry before boarding."

Leo stared at him. "You already knew there was a pool?"

August picked up his bag and did not answer, which was answer enough. Henry was already standing.

A few minutes later three seats in the lounge were empty. Leo was in the water before either of the others had put their bags down. Henry found drinks and, somewhere in the process, the name of the bartender's hometown. August found towels, confirmed the departure time and worked out exactly when they needed to leave to get back through the skybridge without rushing.

For a while the airport disappeared entirely. Then Leo looked back through the glass toward the terminal, where a group of students was crossing the skybridge with backpacks over their shoulders. Back to school, he said, and asked the other two whether they remembered their last day before it.

"Which one?"

"The one you actually remember."

Henry assumed Leo's had involved a bad decision and was told it had involved several excellent ones that were misunderstood at the time. Then Henry said his had involved a pool, and Leo said so had his, and they both looked at August, who hesitated slightly longer than either of them expected before admitting that so had his. Apparently all three of them had spent their last day before school by a pool. None of them had done it the same way.

Leo

There had not been much of a plan, because there rarely was. It started with a few friends and kept getting bigger. Someone brought speakers, someone else brought food, and people appeared who nobody remembered inviting. At some point a giant pink flamingo arrived, unclaimed and undisputed, and Leo took it and did not give it up.

By late afternoon he was stretched across it in sunglasses, talking to people he had met an hour earlier like they had known each other for years. Every time somebody mentioned school starting in the morning he changed the subject. There were still people arriving, still music playing, still daylight left. Tomorrow could wait until tomorrow.

August

August had a plan, naturally. Everything for the morning had been handled before he left the house. Bag packed, books checked, clothes laid out, alarm set, backup alarm set. Then he went to the pool.

Not indefinitely. There was a window, enough time to swim and see everyone and get the last afternoon out of the day without turning the next morning into chaos. By evening he was home and the bag came open one more time. Notebook, calculator, pencils, schedule, everything where it belonged. He checked the alarm again, then the weather, then the alarm once more.

August called it being prepared. Everyone else called it August.

Henry

Henry remembered the pool too, and he remembered being called inside halfway through it. Somebody's mother first, then somebody's grandmother, and by the time the call was finished the light had gone and everyone was out of the water.

He was not sorry to have taken it. He was sorry to be standing there afterward in yesterday's shirt, with nothing on that would have got him through the evening.

School started the next morning. Summer was basically over. Henry did not see much point in rushing either of those facts.

BACK AT THE AIRPORT

Leo pointed out that all three of them had spent the last day before school in a pool and were now sitting in one because their flight was delayed. He proposed the word tradition. August offered coincidence. Nobody bothered to argue about it.

Across the glass, more students moved through the terminal, different schools and different cities and probably the same mix of excitement, dread and luggage that should never have been allowed as a carry on. August checked the time again and Leo caught him at it.

"We have hours."

"We have one hour and forty eight minutes."

"It has a backup battery," Henry said.

August looked at him. "It does."

They headed back across the skybridge and their shorts were dry by the time they reached the lounge. Henry found an open outlet, looked at it for a second, and sat down somewhere else. August checked the board. Same gate, on time, finally.

The students were gathering their bags nearby, and Leo watched them for a moment and asked whether the three of them had been that bad. Henry considered it and said worse.

The Crew headed for the gate in the same clothes they had worn through the airport and into the pool. Nobody looked particularly concerned about changing. Just before they reached the line August's phone buzzed. He looked at the screen, smiled and slipped it back into his pocket.

Leo noticed. "What are you planning now?"

August kept walking.

#BEYONDtheBEACH

To be continued.

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