This Time

/ johnlmalone

This Time

I went back to the airport. This time I would do it. This time I would push on through.

The first part was easy, driving to the Drop Off point but once you got there, you had to keep on going. That was the tricky part. That’s where I messed up.

That time, the time I dropped my daughter off, I continued through , swinging around the roundabout but that’s where it got confusing, arrows pointing in all directions, a jumble of signs and always someone up your ass pushing you to speed up, for god’s sake.

That’s when it happened. A dark, chunky , sinister sedan pulled me over. It had AFP on the side. Australian Federal Police. An officer got out, walked up to my side window and tapped on it. I was packing it. What had I done? or more importantly what did he believe I had done. This was the age of terrorism. But did I look like a terrorist?

He questioned me briefly, took my license and walked back to his car. That’s when he got talking to someone. I assumed they were doing a police check on me, on the vehicle. All the time I could see him in the rear view watching me.

Finally he sauntered up to me, handed the licence back, and said I was free to go this time, but to be careful where I drove. What the hell did that mean? Where had I wandered?

That’s when I got the fear of driving to the airport to drop someone off or pick someone up.

But this time I did it. I made it all the way. History did not repeat itself. Woo Hoo !

33 thoughts on “This Time”

  4. John, I did not even realise that this was a thing. I googled it.
    Aerodromophobia. Well maybe not exactly that, but it was the closest I could find. Four out of five doctors recommend origami as a counteracting therapy. Or maybe I just made that up. I feel your pain though and I am with you, brother.

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  7. Airports were awful pre-pandemic and worse since. My husband and I have a rule. We don’t expect a pickup when we return to the city separately. We always take a cab/Uber from the airport back home. The stress of parking and coordinating flight arrival is just not worth it. I’m glad the police waved you off!

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  11. I think there is a sinister cabal of civil engineers, could be ants, that creates airports. Then they sit and watch the CCTV footage during the Christmas party laughing their antennas off. Great story, thank you.

    Liked by 1 person

    • ahh, that picture: a little scary isn’t it? it’s the shadow of the palm tree I shelter under in summer at the side of the main road when I wait to be picked up in a cab by my mate on a Friday afternoon —

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