Flight Delayed

"I have a life here, you know," my husband said the morning he was to return home from visiting family. The words sent a chill through me and kept me wondering all day whether he would even get on the plane to return to his home here with his wife and two daughters.

I spent the day cleaning and fretting, causing me to miss a scheduled doctor's appointment. My husband's flight was departing Charlottetown at 5:45pm Eastern Standard Time. Every time the phone rang I worried that he might be calling to say he wasn't going to be on it.
Before I left for the airport I checked the airport website for arrival times and was surprised to see so many flights delayed, including my husband's. His arrival time was originally scheduled for 8:05pm. The screen read that it was delayed to 8:12pm. Not a big difference so I left as I had planned.

As I drove down Highway 10 out of sunny Orangeville, I could see a darkening sky off in the distance. I was still jittery and panicked slightly when I spied a bolt of lightning in the purple sky. I didn't like driving on the highway, the Toronto airport is confusing and I don't go there often so I was not too confident in what I was doing. The onset of a storm made things worse. As I drove a song came on the radio... "Jesus Take The Wheel" by Carrie Underwood. I breathed a heavy sigh and listened to every word of that song as I tried to relax and leave everything in God's hands. My husband always felt sad when he left his family - I knew that - but he always came home to me.

I continued to see bolts of lightning off in the distance. Half-way to the airport the rain came pouring down. I turned on my wiper blades to full speed. I could barely see where I was going. I would drive through some clearings and then more rain. At one point it seemed like an airplane had just dumped a load of water on me as I drove through into clearer roads. When I reached the airport I became more nervous. I didn't know where I was going and I couldn't see where I was going. I drove slowly leaning over the steering wheel squinting through the downpour.

I finally made it into the parking garage. As usual there were very few spaces available but there were four levels of parking so I would just follow the signs upwards until I found a space. But I had trouble seeing the signs and the arrows on the pavement. Why was it so dark in there? Why didn't they have brighter lights on? Fortunately I found a spot on the second level, parked and made my way towards the elevators.

When I reached the set of four elevators I noticed one set of elevator doors was open half-way. The lights above the doors indicated that none of the elevators were moving. I only had to go down one level so I took the stairs, but I wondered how we were going to get my husband's luggage up the stairs if the elevators weren't working.

The rain continued to pelt down as I crossed the roadway from the parking garage to the terminal. There were officers directing me across which I don't remember seeing before, but thought nothing of it. I entered the terminal and looked up at the name over the door so I knew which door I had come in - Section F. The sign in front of me pointed to arrivals on the left and I headed down that way. As I arrived at the gates I looked up at the big computer screens to see if my husband's flight was delayed any further. It was 7:45. I could not see Charlottetown on the screens, but then a couple of the monitors were blank. I looked at the digital ticker on the wall. It took me a good five minutes to realize that none of these flights were Canadian. I was in the wrong place. I looked around and saw a sign for arrivals with a Canadian flag next to it and started towards the other end of the terminal. I passed my Section F door, the car rental desk and some escalators that weren't running. A couple with a cartload of luggage stopped and stared wondering what they were going to do next.

When I got to Section B I saw that the monitors over the gate doors weren't just blank, they weren't even on. I walked a little further noticing that businesses selling food and souvenirs were closed and in darkness. It was then I realized I was in darkness except for dim emergency lighting probably run by a generator. The storm had caused some power outages. I found another set of screens that were working and sought out my husband's flight. It was delayed to 8:12. I sat down at an empty table staring at a big round clock. It wasn't yet 8 o'clock.