Interregnum I Part B

He waited until just before the foreigner was to pick up his bag again, and stood up to go to the desk and ask the woman there about the status of his flight. He figured by the time he had his answer, it would be about time for a mark in the notebook. Since the route between his seat and the desk passed right by the foreigner, he would get one good chance to peek. Just as he got to the desk, he caught a glimpse from the corner of his eye of his target picking up his bag.

Right on time.

In all honesty, the notebook was not Kenneth’s only motivation for this trek. He really did want to ask about his flight. He had only recently realized that he had been so wrapped up in watching the man that he hadn’t heard anything about his plane in at least an hour. The woman at the desk asked a bit too pleasantly for his flight number and, after he gave it to her, began typing furiously at her computer, plastered smile never wavering once.

“I’m sorry, sir, but it looks like your flight has been cancelled,” she said after several minutes.

“Cancelled? What do you mean ‘cancelled’?” His voice sounded significantly more upset than he actually felt. He had expected this. He rarely travelled with both luck and airplanes.

“I mean, sir, that your flight will not be departing today.”

“So what am I supposed to do?”

“Well, sir, you can exchange your ticket for another flight, but there are none leaving for Des Moines today. The earliest we can get you out is tomorrow morning.” She continued to keep up her smile even as Kenneth began to notice a slight bit of tension in her voice. “Unfortunately, you missed the grace period for a full refund.”

“Grace period?”

“Yes, sir. The airline’s policy is to allow a two hour window after a flight has been cancelled during which your ticket could have been refunded for the full purchased price.”

Of course. Luck and airplanes. “Two hours?” he asked angrily. “Did anyone plan on telling me that my plane had been cancelled over two hours ago?”

“We did, sir, make three announcements. The last one was nearly two and a half hours ago.”

Crap. Way to zone out. “Fine. I guess let me get on that flight for tomorrow morning.” Thank God it wasn’t anything urgent. “Do you happen to know of any hotels nearby? Preferably one in which I won’t be murdered or sodomized.”

The woman forced a chuckle. “Yes, sir. Would you like me to make a reservation for you?”

“Well that would be lovely,” he said, offering the phoniest smile he could muster.

After another twenty minutes waiting for her to figure out how to work her computer, the woman handed Kenneth his new ticket and wrote down the confirmation number for his reservation at a hotel a few miles from the airport. He begrudgingly thanked her, reminding himself that all of this was more his fault than hers, and turned to leave.

He felt the impact before he saw the other man standing there.

“I’m so sorry,” said Kenneth as he righted himself. “Are you . . .” His voice trailed off as he looked into the smiling face of the foreigner.

He held his bag in one hand and had his notebook tucked under the same arm. His other arm was extended to offer his hand in greeting. “It is a pleasure to finally speak with you,” said the foreigner pleasantly. His voice confirmed his status of outsider thanks to a slight accent that Kenneth couldn’t have placed if his life had depended on it. “So sorry to hear about your flight.” He never broke eye contact and his smiled didn’t waver even slightly.

Kenneth gripped his hand tentatively and spoke slowly, cautiously. “Yeah. Me too.” He found the man’s light brown, almost yellow, eyes to be very disconcerting. It didn’t help that the foreigner seemed to have evolved beyond the need to blink. “If I may ask, what do you mean ‘finally’?”

The man chuckled. “We’ve been watching each other for the last couple hours. Haven’t we?”

Crap. He knew. “What do you mean?”

The chuckle became heartier. “I mean you’ve been watching me while pretending to read your book for the past several hours and I’ve been watching everyone all day, waiting for someone to notice me.” For some reason, the ends of his sentences seemed to come up very abruptly. It was almost as if the man was calculating each word and was relieved whenever he got to the end of a thought.

“You knew I was watching you?”

“Of course. As you should know by now, when you watch people for hours on end, you start to notice things about them. You should really turn your page every once in a while when you pretend to read. It will make it much more convincing.”

Rookie mistake.

The foreigner then reached down and casually picked up Kenneth’s bag and smiled a deliberate smile rather than his natural one. “Come on. We’re going to be late.”

Kenneth’s face broadcasted his confusion. “What do you mean ‘late’?”

The foreigner turned without another word and started walking toward the exit.

“Excuse me,” Kenneth called after him, “you have my bag!”

The foreigner turned to look back at him, “Come on!”

Kenneth paused for a moment to weigh his options before muttering to himself, “To catch a cat, you hafta know where its tail is.” He always hated when his dad was right about things. “Wait up,” he called after the man, hurrying to catch up with him.