Behind the Green Veil Ch. 01

The pilots brought the plane down without incident, and the passengers in the cabin erupted into applause. I had been on many international flights yet each time I am always taken off guard when it happens, as the custom just doesn't exist on American domestic flights. It always brings a smile to my face, however, the fact that people in the rest of the world don't take landing safely for granted the way Americans do.

We grabbed our luggage and slowly filed out of the plane. All of my luggage was carry-on but she checked a large bag so I waited with her to claim her luggage before heading through the customs/immigration lines. Not surprisingly, even her luggage was chic. When we got to the security clearance area, there was one set of lines for US citizens and another set of lines for foreign nationals. Before we split up we stood there a moment contemplating whether we should say goodbye, just in case she got held up by the immigration agents. I told her that I would wait for her on the other side so we could grab that coffee -- we wouldn't even entertain the possibility that she would not make it. She smiled, and we split up to go through our separate lines.

I kept an eye on her the whole time as I moved through my line. I could see her getting nervous as she moved through, but trying to stay positive by sending me smiles every time our eyes met. Her line was shorter but moved slower. Consequently, I went through a little before she did.

The border agent asked me a few quick questions about my trip then nicely welcomed me back home before sending me on my way. I took my luggage and went over to stand near where Orkideh was just coming up to submit her documents. I saw her smile and try to appear friendly. The woman inspecting her passport and visa did not look so friendly. I saw them exchange words for almost five minutes. At one point, Orkideh shot me a look of despair to let me know that it was not going smoothly.

The agent instructed Orkideh to look into an iris scanner, and then they took her finger prints. The agent typed some things into her computer for a few minutes and then picked up the phone. Orkideh looked over at me again. There was sadness and a hint of anger on her face. She looked at her watch. I pulled out my phone to see the time. Almost an 45 minutes had passed since we de-planed, waited for her luggage and then worked our way through the lines. There was still customs to go through after immigration. That would hopefully be quick, but it looked like time was running out on us sitting together for one last cup of coffee.

What happened next really scared me. Two TSA guards came out and asked Orkideh to go with them. One grabbed her documents while the other grabbed her luggage. The one with the documents walked in front of her, leading her away. She looked over at me one last time. "I'm sorry," she mouthed silently. She pointed to her watch and then gestured with her hands that I should go. She blew me a kiss. "Bye Jackson," she mouthed. I stood there looking shocked. They walked her over to a locked door. The agent in front scanned his badge over the card reader and a little red light turned green accompanied by a loud click. He pulled the door open and the three of them disappeared inside. The door read "Authorized Personnel Only." She was gone.

I found a bench in the large corridor and took a seat. I looked at my phone to see the time. I had one hour before my connecting flight took off, and a half hour until boarding. I sat and waited for 30 minutes and the door never opened; no one went in and no one went out. I walked down the hallway to find a flight board to check the status of my plane. It was on time. I walked back toward where they had taken Orkideh and retook my seat. Ten more minutes went by as I thought to myself about the last 14 hours. Had she been lying to me about who she was? Was she really some kind of security threat? No, I trusted my impression of her.

I went back to the flight board to look and see if there were any more flights to Houston leaving that night. I didn't see any. There were five minutes left until boarding, and I had a long walk to another terminal ahead of me. I walked back toward the security area to look for Orkideh one more time. Even if we couldn't sit for coffee, I really wanted to say goodbye. I wanted to see her face one more time. I really wanted to give her a hug and smell her one more time. I checked the time once more. If I waited any longer, I would miss my flight for sure. I had no choice but to leave if I wanted to make it home.

---------------------------- End of Chapter 1 --------------------------