The last flight

I continued to wait even as the door has been shut and armed. Out the window I watched, into the distance, as a fighter plane maneuvered effortlessly in the sky.

The PA system crackled to life.

'This is your captain speaking. There will be a slight delay in pushback due to the Asian Aerospace exhibition going on, though I am fairly confident we'll arrive in Hong Kong ahead of schedule.'

The fighter plane did a roll and then leveled out and exited the exhibition airspace. Next to me, a seat away, the Indian man had dozed off. I took out my PDA and attempted to write, but the words do not come.

When I looked out the window again, I saw the new Airbus A380, painted in the Singapore Airlines livery, fly into view. The behemoth of an airliner began to do a series of rolls and climbs. Once, towards the end of its 10-minute performance, it climbed at a 20 degree incline for a few seconds before – like a car cresting the peak of a hill – it dropped its nose and descended. Then, like a car skidding a corner, it leveled out as it did a left bank. Given the sheer size of the A380, the performance I had just witnessed was nothing short of gracious, and impressive.

* * * * * *

'I had the talk today,' Jo revealed in the phone conversation we had sometime last week. 'I won't be staying in Hong Kong.'

'Which is what you want.'

'Yes.'

It was just as well. Not having taken a liking to the city, compounded by the fact that she was separated from her loved ones, has taken a toll somewhat on her, and returning home would be the best arrangement, even if it would mean losing the freedom she has found. Compromise, it would seem, is necessary.

And it would mean we would not have to keep up the high cost of this long-distance relationship any more. Just earlier today, as I waited to board my flight, I realized how much time I had spent at the airport in the past year. Going about one of these short sojourns to Hong Kong has become a motion so familiar that the novelty of it has worn off somewhat, even as seeing Jo and spending time alone with her in a foreign city was a rejuvenation each time.

And today, on the last flight I would be taking for her in this closing chapter in our lives, the sense of renewal was especially strong. It was as though I was taking the very first flight all over again.