The next evening they walked together in the airport. Like so many other times, Arrek was saying goodbye to friend. Someone he would never be certain of seeing again. It was something that he hated, walking around with so many memories and nothing physical to go with them.
It was easy for them, he knew, they had their memories of course, but they weren't seeing the places where those memories took place. It got to the stage where Arrek couldn't walk around his university without crying at seeing somewhere where a significant event had taken place. It made him almost drop out three times.
Airports were all too familiar to him now; they were places where he was left behind. There had only been one time in his life when he had left someone else behind. That was not an experience he enjoyed.
So as he walked, memories came back. Friends lost, friends who had come back and visited him, and friends he knew would always be in his life, even though they couldn't be together most of the time.
The familiar check in area came in sight. Then he saw the security checkpoint. The place where they'd have to say goodbye. The worst part of the entire spectacle. The tears would come when he approached. They always did. Never before, always as he approached. The people he said goodbye to were all different, but the events that took place during it were always the same.
There were always tears, and now his started to come. They always came around now. Running down his cheeks, the salt stinging his lips, they came to a stop at the bottom of his chin and dripped away. Like so many of his friendships, they started strong and then slowly trickled away and eventually dissipated as they gained more distance from the place they started.
Turning towards her, his voice thick from crying, he said, "It's not goodbye, just see you later." He had said that so many times he'd lost count. Nevertheless he always meant it and knew that if he worked hard, it would come to pass. There was so much of this world to see, and now, it turned out, there was a whole galaxy too, filled with numerous species for him to meet. Then say goodbye to.
A lot of it, he knew, was his own fault. He had chosen to make friends with them, no one had forced him to, and the more he thought about it, the more he realised it was all worth it. Though he didn't have many friends in his own country, he had friends all over the world. There were over twenty different countries that he could visit and not have to pay for accommodation.
Taka nodded and they came to the checkpoint. Hugging her and giving her a kiss on the cheek, they parted. He watched as she went through the detectors and then deeper into the terminal until she was lost from his sight. More tears came and he walked away, leaving the airport as the sun was just coming down.
The sky looked as if it was on fire and the air was crisp. Taking a deep breath, he walked out of the drop off area and proceeded to walk around and find a clear view of the runway. It was a habit of his to watch the plane leave. It would be an hour so he sat down and made himself comfortable. Getting his MD out of his pocket he started to play music in the background of his thoughts. We live in a beautiful world, yeah we do, yeah we do. It was his favourite song, one he always listened to on occasions like this.
Another tradition of his was to pray that the flight would be safe and that his friend would readjust to their usual life with ease. It was difficult for him to do so, so it must have been at least twice as hard for them. Closing his eyes he prayed, his mind fluttering through all the different times he'd done it.
When he finished he sat back and looked up to see if any stars were out yet. After an hour of looking, he stopped and looked out over the runway. He could see the plane taxiing, and then it sped up, beginning to launch into the sky and back to Japan. Crawling in my skin. These wounds they will not heal. Fear is how I fall. Confusing what is real. With the amount of different music he had, there was always a song for every occasion. It was one of the strange things about life, he thought as the plane shot up into the air and out into the distance.
More tears came, and not wanting to stay any longer than he had, he went to the subway to get back into the city.