The Voyage to the Terminal

Kate stood, bewildered, as a parade of overpriced airport shops filtered past her. She was bewildered because although it seemed that she could find in her immediate vicinity everything from plushies to bath salts, Terminal 2B was nowhere in sight or even in mind. She had a sneaking suspicion that Terminal 2B did not, in fact, exist, or if it did, it was in some other airport entirely. She stepped off the moving sidewalk when the automated voice told her to and looked around. She had been searching for more than an hour. She wasn’t in a rush because she still had another hour before her plane left, but it would just be so terribly nice to know where that plane was. However at this point she was quite out of ideas. Her first course of action had been to ask airline employees, but when their advice found her in an area with a very adamant sign telling her that unless she had security clearance level 3, “DO NOT PROCEED!”, she abandoned the technique. She then tried asking her fellow passengers, in the hopes that one would say brightly, “I’ve just come from there! It’s quite simple to find, really,” and all would be well. Unfortunately most of the people she asked were victims of either peanut-induced lethargic fatigue or Starbucks-induced overactive incoherence. She spotted the edge of a Starbucks around a corner and decided to join the ranks of the latter. She pulled up a plastic cushioned chair and sat down with her double mocha latte. She sipped at it for a moment when she began to hear something strange. It wasn’t the sounds themselves that were strange. They were just very out of place. Perhaps she was simply mistaken, and was thinking of something else. Because why would someone – and it had to be some sort of passenger because it wasn’t the airline sound system – be playing the theme from Star Wars?

She had her answer a moment later when a procession turned the corner. It was led by a man (presumably a man, but it was hard to tell) in a flowing black robe and black mask. He looked suspiciously like a nerdy Star Wars fan dressed up as Darth Vader. This impression was reinforced by the rest of the group, which was full of Leias, Lukes, Hans, and even a Jabba the Hut. One of the Lukes was holding the source of the music, a big black boxy stereo. They were just walking along peacefully when a Leia spotted the coffee.

“Starbucks!” she squealed, and dashed to get in line. Kate thought that they probably didn’t have espresso in the Empire, but chose not to point this out. Soon the sitting area was full of the Star Wars paraders. One of them, a young man, asked if he could sit across from Kate, as all the other seats were filled. She nodded.

“Why Emperor Palpatine?” she asked curiously. Wasn’t the Emperor supposed to be old? This guy was probably about twenty-six, but his face looked about ten.

He grimaced slightly. “Everyone else got all the good Luke and Han costumes, and the Jabba suit gives me hives,” he explained. Kate accepted this with another nod.

“So what brings you to this marvel of architectural achievement?” she asked, using her coffee to indicate the airport around them. She knew she should never start conversations with fanatics, but she couldn’t help herself. It was the caffeine.

“We’re all going to Los Angeles to try to get in to the premier of Episode III. We’re a club,” he said, a little defensively. Kate thought she could actually hear him pronounce the Roman numerals.

“Isn’t that like four months away?” she asked.

“That’s why we’ve got to go now. If we don’t get there soon all the other clubs will get the tickets! I heard that the Omaha chapter has been there for a week!”

Suddenly an insight flashed itself across her coffee-muddled brain. They were going to Los Angeles. She was going to Los Angeles.

“By any chance are you taking the flight out of Terminal 2B?”

“Why, yes,” he said. He looked surprised and a little scared. Kate realized she had leapt somewhat towards him and demurely sat back down.

“Do you happen to know where it is?” she asked hopefully.

“Oh, sure. We did the same thing last time for Episode II. You can follow us but you’ll have to fit in.”

Ten minutes later, when everyone had finished their coffee, Kate found herself strolling along in a furry spare Chewbacca outfit. Despite the suit’s general heaviness and its hindrance of her ability to breathe she was quite happy. They say there’s safety in numbers, and when navigating the strange, unmapped territory of the American airport, that’s certainly the truth.

The End