Day 5
It was cool
outside. Even so, most of the guests were still in the garden. Some danced, the
others warmed up under the heat lamps. In the meantime, table groups had
formed. I had danced enough and knew no one so well just to sit down with
someone. I didn't want to disturb Alejandro because he was busy courting an old
flame from his youth. So I went to the kitchen.
The kitchen
was a place where the family meet. I sit down at the big table. Soon someone
spoke to me and I didn't feel so alone anymore. The person I was talking to
wanted to know how long I would stay. I told him that I was flying back on
Tuesday even though I wanted to stay 10 more days.
«Then how
do you fly back? Europe is completely closed! », He said."I know," I
replied. «That's why I changed my flight. I fly to London and from there to
Zurich. »
«I just
heard that Trump has now declared England and Ireland a restricted area. »
This was
the first time that I got scared. Everything that I had displaced so far was so
obviously in front of me that I could no longer look away. I quickly looked at
my cell phone. Yes, that was true. London was also closed. From Monday. Now it
was Saturday. My existing ticket was for Tuesday. I had to act quickly. Unfortunately,
I was 3 hours by car from Los Angeles and couldn’t drive back until tomorrow.
The attempt to rebook my flight from Tuesday to Sunday failed. It didn't go
online. My English was not good enough to call the hotline. I went looking for
Alejandro. He was still with the same woman. Probably something was looming.
But I couldn't be considerate of them. I was beginning to panic. Alejandro and
I looked for a quiet place in the house. I explained the situation to him. He
called the hotline. We got into the queue - waiting time 2 hours.
«Book a new
flight while you get one, » he said. «You can cancel the existing one later. »
That was
good advice. I got a ticket to London for the next day at 6:30 p.m. There were
still flights to Zurich from London. At twice the price, of course. But I didn't
care. I wanted to do everything to get home as quickly as possible. Even if I
hadn't gotten a flight to Zurich, I would still have flown to London. When you
are over the ocean, you are almost at home. In the worst case, my husband could
fetch me by car.
«But how do
I get to LA now? » I asked Alejandro.
«I'm
driving you, » he said with absolute certainty.
«I cannot
accept that. This is your birthday party», I replied. «You can't get out of here.
It's only 10 p.m. »
«Of course,
I can. », he said.
I didn't
like that at all, but I saw no other option and accepted his offer. We quickly
said goodbye to the family and I packed my bag. At half past ten we drove in
the car towards Los Angeles. Without a rush hour, the journey only took an hour
and a half.
We said
goodbye with a fleeting hug. Corona had me completely under control again. I
felt bad because he had to leave his birthday party because of me. Apart from a
big thank you and a «I'm sorry», nothing came to my mind more wisely. He went
to Perris again to help his sisters clean up the next day. But he wanted to
come back to drive me to the airport. I declined the offer. I wanted to take
the taxi.
I quickly
packed my bags, although I could stay in the hotel until the afternoon, I
wanted to be ready. If something came up and I had to go earlier. My cell phone
was running hot. All relatives and friends wanted to know how I was doing and
whether I was stuck somewhere. That made me very nervous. The fear grew. Will i
reach my house? Or do I end up in a quarantine somewhere on the way?
The only
consolation was Alejandro's offer he made me on the way to LA.
«If the
flight is not possible, I'll drive you to Mexico by car, » he said. «So far
there has been one Corona case. From there you can still fly anywhere. »
Thank you Alejandro for this generous offer! That helped
me alot. Having a plan B is for me always very comforting. I hope I will be
able to return the favor to you someday, dear friend.
To be
continued…
Keine Kommentare:
Kommentar veröffentlichen