She looked at her watch for the tenth time in five minutes. Where could he be? The lobby was clearing of the travelers. He didn’t come off the plane, she panicly thought. Did he get on the plane in the first place? Was anyone there to see him off? She thought he might have fallen asleep in his seat and no one noticed. She took a deep breath and tried to calm herself down.
She leaned over the guardrail to see as far down the terminal as she could. She thought she heard something. She listened as ardently as she could. Yes, she heard voices. She leaned again and saw some movement. She was hearing a voice. A woman’s voice, then a man’s. Then she saw him.
She saw her elderly father, arm in arm, being escorted by a smiling stewardess and another woman passenger deep in conversation with him. He looked up and saw her, giving her a big, bright smile. A smile she yearned to see again since the death of her mother only a few short months ago. She finally allowed herself to exhale.