The Honest Hand Shake

Last couple of years I spend lot of time traveling - seen Singapore, Japan, Germany, Italy, some Canada. It was nice, but I always get home sick - usually after four days of being away from home. Well, imagine my fifth, sixth, or fourteenth day. Most of them were business trips, therefore, site seeing was done on the weekends, otherwise, I spend working, eating and sleeping per each day, and next day was just the same day. I also don't like being in the air a lot, just personal fear of flying I have - but then after so many flights it was just like taking a bus. So here I am going to tell you a story, my side of the story, and I will leave it with you do decide what is the other side of the story, because I don't know and I will never know.

We, myself and my husband were sitting on the plane, ready for take off to Frankfurt. As always I got my window seat, where I can stick my face to the small airplane window and watch clouds for hours as long as there was sun. Behind us, I did not look, but by listening, there were three people sitting - young boy, older woman and younger woman. At first I thought that they were all related, however, they were not. The boy wasn't, he was alone traveling by himself.

It was getting dark behind the window, so I decided to open up my laptop. As I was reading I noticed that once in a while my seat would move back or forth, as the boy was leaning forward and trying to see what I was doing, and give up and come back again. Before knowing that he was not related to other two ladies, I assumed that he must be one of those disturbing kids that like to bother others. I had those before, and I tell you they would kick back of my seat and parents never did anything. Well my assumption was wrong. Since I noticed that my chair was now rocking back and forth more frequently, I decided to turn around with my friendly smile, and I did. I noticed the two ladies were very much a sleep.

I turned around and I saw this young boy, with fair skin, big eyes and light brown hair smiling at me. He pleasantly asked, what I was doing at my laptop. I said I was reading some articles. It was kind of hard to explain my business stuff to him, now knowing how young he was. The boy seemed very nice and friendly, not what I imagined. I asked him - what is your name? He answered, 'I am Christian', and he took his little hand and forwarded through a narrow opening between the window and the chair to introduce himself. I was in a really bad position to make that hand shake but it was so honest that I just twisted my arm to fit between and shake his hand. We made a connection that would only last few hours.

Christian was traveling from Canada, somewhere closer to West Coast. He offered to show me all his documentation, but I refused. I told him to keep all in place and not to loose it. He listen. He also told me that he was flying to Sofia, Bulgaria. He was going to school there, and was living with his grandmother during his school year. He traveled four times a year - for summer and Christmas holidays. He didn't want to really go back to school and be away from his mother. Father was never mentioned. He was lonely and sad. We kept talking about school stuff, his languages skills and once in a while I would point out an airplane flying by as sun started to rise above the horizon. We started to see more puffy clouds, and here is something what me and Christian had in common - being in the clouds. At some point he said, 'I want to walk in those big clouds over there', something I always dreamed of.

The plane landed. I started to pack. He was getting ready for another flight. Someone was going the take him. Christian became distant. I felt that Christian met many people like me on the airplane before, and he knew that he will never see them again, and he will never see me again. I said Good Bye as I was leaving, and he did too. My heart was broken seeing the sadness in his eyes, and now no more connection.

[TRUE STORY]