Chain Of Events

A flight is cancelled. It leads to this story:

On Wednesday afternoon, late afternoon, Sarah arrived at the airport. Her Uber driver, who was strikingly kind, got out of the parked car and lifted her luggage out of the trunk so that she wouldn’t have to. She smiled and thanked him. As she walked away, she wondered if this was only because he wanted a better rating from her, or maybe if there truly was just goodness in the world. She figured the first thought was the most likely, but she chose to believe the second. Perhaps naive, but this optimistic outlook was a source of warmth, so she let herself believe in the goodness. 

As she walked through the turnstile glass doors she lifted her phone to make a call. Before it could ring out she had to pause or else she might have walked into the information screen posted in the center lobby, which showed all the outbound flights scheduled to leave Dayton, Ohio that day. As she scanned the screen to find her destination, Newark, NJ; she was startled to hear her mother’s voice on the phone. Sarah was the one who called, but she got sidetracked as it rung and was caught off-guard when her mother replied with a loud, “Hello!?”

“Oh hi, sorry Mom. How are you?”

Her mother continued, “Good darling, how was your day?”

“Normal. The exam was easy, and I was already packed so I had nothing else to do really. I just walked into the airport. I just wanted to call to let you know that everything is,” she paused to double check the screen, “on time. Looks like the flight is all set.”

“Oh, wonderful! Good, so I’ll be picking you up. We’re actually just about to head out the door, your father’s car needs something fixed. We’re going to just leave it there overnight so Roger can take care of it first thing in the morning, so I have to drive down with Dad so we can drop it off.” Her mother released a sigh of annoyance through the phone, which Sarah immediately related to. She knew how bothersome of a task this would be. It was as simple as driving ten minutes down the road to their mechanic, and driving back with her father in the passenger seat, but it made for twenty minutes of undesired hassle.

“Sounds good. I just wanted to check in and let you know. I’m here pretty early so I’ll make my way through security and probably read at the gate to pass the time.” Sarah said. She heard the sigh her mother gave, but also knew it wasn’t necessary to acknowledge it for her mother to recognize that she understood.

“Okay, well I hope you have a safe flight. I’ll see you later.”

“Perfect, love you.”

“Love you too.”

As she hung up Pam turned to Sarah’s father, “Are you ready?”

Anthony replied, “Yup, let’s go.” While walking out he yelled upstairs, so that their son would hear, “Hey Josh! We’re heading out! See you soon!” Josh replied, but did so quietly enough so that they wouldn’t hear him. He didn’t want to open the door for further conversation. He was secretly waiting for them to vacate the premises. He was looking forward to that small window of twenty-odd minutes with the house to himself.

The reason was so that he could record a video of himself playing the guitar, in private. He had been practicing for weeks, and just purchased a simple standing tripod to hold his smartphone, and was eager to put it to use. Despite a natural talent, Josh was shy about being witnessed playing  guitar, and felt much more at ease playing when there was no one around. This was his shot. He didn’t need much time; he was planning on doing a quick cover to his favorite throwback song, and was confident that he had already mastered the part well enough to record it in one take. He would have just enough time while his parents were away.

As he watched their cars pull away from the driveway, adrenaline flooded through his bloodstream. With this burst of excitement he leapt away from the window, and rushed down the stairs to the basement. He grabbed his acoustic 6-string and positioned himself in center view from his phone’s lense, which was strategically placed at a perfect angle for a full view of his performance, and after a silent countdown he struck the first chord. The rest of the song flowed out of fingers as he jammed out, which left Josh with a sublime video by the time his parents were back. He was giddy with joy, and it was a special type of joy. The kind of joy which can only come from loving something intangible, something that can’t physically love you back. But the music did reciprocate Josh’s love, and that was a beautiful thing.

Later that night, while still feeling a high from the thrill, Josh decided to post the video to his Instagram. Because why the hell not! he had thought to himself. When he woke up the next morning and checked his phone, to his complete astonishment, he had over 100 ‘likes’! This was HUGE, compared to his average of 40 likes per post. He told himself this was something he didn’t care about, which was a lie. Just like everyone else, he craved the approval and attention of his peers, even if it came in the form of a very impersonal tap on a heart shaped figure on a glass hand-held screen. The significance of those ‘likes’, was enough to make him happy. And as he scrolled through the comments and list of people who had ‘liked’ it, what was far more important to him became apparent.

Jessica Parker had ‘liked’ it. The same Jessica Parker whom he had a crush on during their senior semester of college, despite the fact she was a popular sorority girl and ignored him in class. The same Jessica Parker who, thanks to one drunk evening that same year and a very lucky encounter at a party, he had possession of her number.

Those holy ten digits allowed for him to communicate with her. Or at least attempt to.

And attempt he did. Feeling empowered and particularly courageous thanks to her ‘liking’ his post, he willed himself to send a daring text:

“Hi.”

The lovely Jessica Parker got the text, and once she saw who it was from, she paused. She knew Josh well enough to know he was a good kid, and was always sweet to her. But not well enough if it were any other given day, a random text from him would come across as slightly creepy. However, on this particular day, upon seeing his name appear with a simple, “Hi”, she merely smiled. The image of his video playing guitar flashed before her eyes, and Jessica remembered that she had thought he was cute. Not even cute, really good looking in the video she recalled. He was always really nice to me in class, she thought, and I knew right away he liked me, but always kept his distance. Ahh what the hell, I’ll give him a chance.

“Hey!” she texted back, “How have you been?”

“I’m doing fine, it’s been forever!” Josh nervously typed, wanting to sound nonchalant and cool. They had some polite back and forth chit-chat, but what was specifically said didn’t amount to anything important.

What was important is that it continued. Much to Jessica’s amazement, Josh was very charming, and a decent flirt for being so shy. She found herself not only happy to answer, but also excited with anticipation when little blue bubbles would fill her phone with his words. So much so that after two weeks of this playful back and forth, they agreed to on having a first date.

It wasn’t anything over the top. Just drinks at a nearby bar. Being the girl she was though, she dressed in a shirt that complicated her curves, knowing full and well from her college days that she had one hell of a body, and enjoyed flaunting it. What she didn’t expect was that Josh arrived equally handsome, dressed in all black with a fitted blazer over a deep v-neck shirt and clean pressed jeans. His uncombed rough hair was pulled back which completed a suave but natural look, one that suited Josh very well. So well that she later caught other girls at the bar doing a double take in his direction. However despite an unanticipated attraction to him, being on a first date still made Jessica slightly reserved. Knowing this, he had suggested a place very close to Jessica’s home, which he hoped would come across as polite and convenient for her. It worked, and made Jessica feel much more at ease. Since it was so close she chose to not bother driving, and instead ordered an Uber to take her there and back. 

They laughed and smiled and flirted through the entire evening, and as it came to an end they waited outside together on a bench for her driver to arrive. “I really had a good time,” Josh said, having found a confidence now within him. He saw the headlights of her driver’s car come around the corner, and decided in that instant not to try to kiss her. He wanted to badly, but knew it would be worth the wait.

Jessica sensed that he might try to kiss her, and partially wanted him to. “Yeah, this is a fun bar. I’m really happy you took me here,” she said through a genuine smile. As the car pulled up she stood, but was caught off guard when he stood simultaneously and quickly hopped in between her and the car. He turned back to face her and smiled, an equally genuine smile, having leaned down to unhinge and pull open the door.

“For you, my lady,” he said while gesturing with his other hand to politely welcome her into the back seat.

She replied, “Why thank you” and got into the car. They exchanged pleasant goodbyes, and agreed to do it again sometime soon. As her Uber crept away she thought to herself, what a guy. He’s so nice to hold the door like that. No one does that anymore. A real gentleman. I’m not sure he knows how good looking he is. Hmmmm, I wonder if that’s the kind of guy I could fall in love with…

Oddly enough, that’s exactly what happened. Six years of more talking, dating, laughing, crying, some small fights, getting over the fights, meeting parents, getting an apartment together, and a ring tied around a new puppy; Jessica and Josh had fallen in love with each other. At their wedding day their entire families and all their friends joined them in rejoicing their delight, and they took to the center stage to have their special dance, to the tune of an old throwback song they had grown up listening to. A throwback song that Josh had, at one time, made a guitar cover video of.

Smiling with all the joy one person could possibly contain, Josh turned to his beautiful new bride. She reflected his bliss, and with her eyes she told him that she would be happy with him for every day of the rest of their lives. Slowly he reached out his hand to grab hers, to lead her in their first dance as newlyweds.

But suddenly she wasn’t there.

Suddenly no one was there.

In a blink there were no guests, the music silenced, and the food disappeared. Tables had suddenly become cleared, and then the tables themselves were gone.

And suddenly, Josh too, wasn’t there.

Because none of this happened.

Because Sarah’s flight wasn’t on time, it was cancelled.

Because it was cancelled, she didn’t call her mother to tell her that she was checking in and planning on reading. Instead she called on the verge of tears, upset that she was rescheduled to a flight the next day, with no apparent explanation as to how or why. She was ready to yell, complaining that there was no bad weather and she had no idea what could have caused her plans to suddenly change.

On the other end of the phone, her mother sighed with a sense of panic. She knew her daughter well enough that when Sarah began to get upset so suddenly, it could turn into an all out tantrum. She quickly tried to hush Sarah and help her calm down.

Overhearing this, Anthony looked at his watch. Not only was he impatient, but this was his only chance to take their car to the mechanic, and he absolutely needed it to be taken care of before Friday, when he had an important meeting at work. He couldn’t afford to put it off, and he knew if he didn’t deliver the car to their mechanic that night it wouldn’t be guaranteed to be fixed first thing the next morning.

This led to him yelling upstairs for his son to take him instead, knowing that Pam would be tied up in Sarah’s unfortunate affair far longer than he cared to wait. Josh wanted to argue, but his father briskly squashed any opportunity for saying no. So, begrudgingly, Josh got into his car and followed his father to their mechanic, suffering the annoying 20 minutes of the chore.

Afterwards Josh was a little riled up. Aggravated that he missed a perfect opportunity to record a guitar cover, he went to his room and spent hours pointlessly staring at his phone. Eventually while searching through profiles of old friends on Instagram, he came across a picture of Jessica Parker. She was hot. She was beautiful. It was a #tbt picture of her wearing some tight clothing at a sorority party from the same school they had gone to. He remembered how much he liked her, and thought, screw it, I still have her number. What do I have to lose.

Then when Jessica Parker saw a text notification pop up on her phone screen saying “heyyyyyyy you”, she felt a shudder go down her spine. It was unsettling now that he would still have her number after all this time, and this unsolicited message was not welcomed. Due to the fact that she had not previously ‘liked’ a video of him, she had no cause to think of him as cute, and did not feel inclined to answer. So instead Jessica shrugged it off, and left his message on ‘read’.

Josh noticed this, but was too shy to try a second message, lacking the confidence to explain how he really felt. So in time he stopped feeling that way about her, and ultimately forgot her. Josh ended up meeting a sweet girl at his future job, and eventually married, and was ultimately content with how life had gone on.

He found happiness, but it always felt hollow. As if it simply filled a void, a vacancy left by the lack of something better.

Yet he never questioned the events of his life. He never pondered what could have been. Instead he often drowned out his thoughts in solitude, usually by listening to music. Especially throwback songs from his younger days.