The Pilot

AIRPORT The taxi stopped at the gates of Zvartnots International Airport in Yerevan. Nare crept out of it like a small bird flown from its cage. Her boyfriend followed her, opening his wallet to pay the driver. Nare's dark eyes and her boyfriend's blue eyes hugged each other like two pieces of coal and two drops of the sea. ''John!'' she said in a weak voice. “I have never flown before. I wish I were able to fly with you''. '' Yes, darling!'' John whispered, sadly. “I wish I were able to place you in my travelling bag. I did my best to take you with me, but I failed. They reject most of the visa applications from unemployed and homeless people.” Nare had already tasted bitterness in her life and the world's injustice. She had no property or money. ''I have a little time before going through the passport control. Let me photograph you before I leave,'' John said to Nare with a sad smile. He took the camera out of his pocket to add more photos of his beloved woman not only to his camera but also to his heart. The taxi had already gone. John shot a few pictures of Nare's dark and deep eyes. Nare and John had been online friends before John visited her. As an eastern young lady Nare was shy and reserved. ''John, you have been here for ten days. If you stayed longer, we would light more and more candles in the churches standing for centuries in my ancient land,'' she said. Nare held John's hand so firmly as if she hoped to prevent John from going. A plane took off, speeding up higher and higher. Nare looked up to catch its sight. She had seen many flocks of cranes before. '' Why have the white feathers of the bird turned into silver?'' she asked herself. The iron crane disappeared in the sky. That wasn't John's flight. They both walked into the airport building. There were crowds of people inside the airport. John handed his passport to the airline check-in agent, who asked him a question in a very polite way. ''Your final destination, sir?'' the check-in agent said to John. '' New York'', replied John. Nare knew Air France would take John from Yerevan to Paris and from Paris to New York. John's silver crane would land in Paris for fuel then continue its flight to New York like a huge bird that could land for some water. After John's passport and airplane ticket had been checked, he turned to Nare. '' I am so sorry. I wish I were able to take you to my place,'' John said. He opened his wallet again. '' Here is some money,” he said. “Do pay the taxi driver to take you to town.'' Their hands embraced each other. The coins found themselves in Nare's cold palm. '' Good flight, John!'' she cried. John bound himself to large crowds of the passengers and slid through the departure gate. She looked around. The lit bulbs of the airport reminded her of shiny stars. ''I won't go back, no, I won't,'' Nare whispered and her dark eyes suddenly changed into bubbled black clouds. She expected John to gift her with wings. Now her hope melted like a soft snowflake. It was the very snowflake that wasn't being kissed by a sunray but a grey cloud of smoke. She lived with her uncle's family. She was poor. Her misery was mirrored on her pale but beautiful face. She used to spend most of her time sitting before her computer. She had a lot of friends all over the world. She always shared her thoughts and emotions with them. That's why she thought the cyber world was her borderless home. Her friends were so nice to her, but John was the only person who not only spread his voice via the internet but flew by air to touch her neck and to kiss her onyx eyes as well. They had been together for only ten days. Now she was watching the travelers a bit jealously. Nare's eyes climbed up, but her words got stuck in her throat. ''Here is the air that had brought John to me. The same air was taking him away,'' Nare said to herself and tried to stretch her hand towards the flying airplane in despair. Nare did not leave the airport though John had already gone to his home city. Nare kept on wandering at the airport with her secret thoughts and silent monologue. She no longer believed that her computer would open the door of the cage in which her heart's nightingale was trapped. ''Nare, nobody will offer you his vehicle,'' she kept on speaking to herself. The people were too busy to notice her quenched shape that was wandering around the airport. Suddenly her eyes met an old man. He had his passport and plane ticket in his hand. The man's wrinkled face reminded her of a grey cliff, and the tears from his eyes were likely to be rain drips sticking in the deep wrinkles of his cheeks. Nare wanted to know who he was and where he was going. “Grandfather,” called Nare in a friendly voice.           ''What's wrong? What has happened? Why are you crying?'' she whispered quietly. ''Everything is all right,'' the old man answered with a faint smile.“Iam going away. I am sick and old. Only God knows if I would be able to come back home again. My only daughter lives in Madrid. I am going there. My wife died when our daughter was ten''. The old man paused for a moment and said, '' What's your name?'' ''Nare'', she replied. ''What a good name! Where are you going, Nare?'' the old man said to her. ''Nowhere. I came here to see off my boyfriend two days ago,'' Nare replied. '' Two days ago?'' the old man asked her in surprise. ''He might have already arrived in New York,'' Nare said to him in a quiet voice. She herself got surprised that she had been in the airport for two days. These two days had passed quickly like one minute that flew from the clock's face. Now other passengers were getting ready to fly by Air France. There were so many flights, so many open gates to different parts of the world. She was lost in her thoughts, when the old man's voice called her name. ''Nare, you are much luckier than me. You are not going away. I am leaving my hut overlooking the proud mountains of my village,'' he said. ''Proud!'' Nare said to herself. ''Our mountains are proud, indeed,'' she said. Her voice wasn't heard by the old man as she spoke to her own soul. ''Grandfather, the world is too huge to be a hut,'' she said. “I don't have a hut but I have the world which is located in my computer.'' The old man didn't understand why Nare's dignity was hurt. His pain was different. He was parting with the oak tree beside his wooden fence, which was much older than him. ''What is this young lady's pain?'' the man wanted to know but he didn't say anything to Nare. He walked towards the check-in counter very slowly. ''Your final destination?'' the young lady at the check-in counter asked him without taking her eyes away from his passport and plane ticket. ''Madrid,'' the old man answered, lifting his traveling bag with his trembling hand. He looked around as if he had lost something which he wanted to find at once. He knew he wouldn't come back. He seemed to be photographing the last pictures of his country, using his eyes as a camera. ''These pictures will never disappear from his eyes,'' Nare said to herself. Leaning on his walking stick, the old man slid with a lot of memories through the departure gate and followed a great number of passengers. Nare's thoughts were with the old man during the day. John's blue eyes were two peaceful lakes tempting her from afar. She looked at the sky for another airplane. Time seemed to have stopped in her thoughts. Nobody asked her why she was there. She suddenly fell asleep on a chair in the waiting room. The bright lights erupting from a lot of bulbs didn't hurt her weary eyes. She woke up again. She didn't know what time it was. The place she found a shelter was never empty or quiet. She was thinking about nothing but flights. She felt weakness for the first time. She struggled to rise on her feet. She walked towards the airport cafe. The money John gave her for a taxi was enough for a cup of coffee and some sweets which she used to keep in her schoolbag when she was a schoolgirl. However she didn't need any sweets at the moment but a cup of bitter coffee.