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Saturday, March 27, 2010

Airport 1

Alone again. Mac was surrounded by a myriad of people at Hartsfield-Jackson airport. There was this giant flow of humanity toward exit gates. It washed past him as he stood like a stone in the midst of a fast flowing river. Frozen eyes desperately holding on to a flickering glimpse of Harrison as he moved toward his boarding flight.

“Love you,” Mac had said as they embraced just moments before.

“Love you more,” had been Harrison’s gentle yet sad response.

“Love you most,” they said together. This had been an almost daily ritual since Harrison was just little, a secret code between father and son, a mantra they shared to remind one another of their love for one another. They were made of the same stuff these two although Mac hoped everyday that there would be some vital departures from the mix that Harrison would make. Mac did not want his younger son to lead the same unauthentic life he had forced on himself.

Embracing for longer than usual each was trying to store up man-hug points. Neither knew how long it would be before they saw each other. Deep down both suspected it would be a whole lot longer than the planned eight months of separation but that thought remained unspoken for a couple of months yet.

They broke away and Mac reached up to kiss the cheek of his younger offspring. Tears welled in both pairs of eyes. Harrison reached to the ground for his hand luggage and moved toward the security gate. He had vowed to himself that he would not look back, it would have been too hard to see his dad standing there crying.

Mac’s heart broke. Sorrow larger than the sea filled him. It was a sorrow as overwhelming as when Clay had left Atlanta only months before. Although he didn’t know it until now, Mac’s heart was still raw with that pain. Back then Mac had cried for hours, broken.