"KISS205" (Part One)

KISS205 (Part One)

Eight Hours & Thirty Minutes

A story about two strangers, Jake and Sara (“I”) who newly met on board a flight “KISS 205” heading to the same destinations. The author prefers to personalise Sara’s character and changed into “I” and Jake will remain as “Jake”. 

The journey from Gold Coast to Kuala Lumpur by BlueAsia-"KISS2015" took about eight hours and 30 minutes. The tagline that the airlines use is making everyone’s able to fly, and so, do I. I bought a seat to Kuala Lumpur in December 2016. I was then in Brisbane. It took two hours to reach the Coolangatta airport. Well, I had to say bye-bye to Queensland for the time being, till we meet again soon, Queensland. It was a heart –heartedly to leave Queensland. However, I just needed to be home soonest! 

Dear everyone, I am boarding the flight now, and you can check my flight to KL via Gold Coast (OOL) arrival time. Please if you can, be at the airport baggage conveyor belt. I got two big luggage and ten kgs of each luggage. The message also contained a snapped shot of the boarding pass. [This was the message I sent to group family WhatsApp).

As usual, my weird little character, I did not tell anyone that I was flying home on that day. “Well, if nobody turns-up, I have to lift the luggage myself” I whispered to myself.  I took for granted since my only brother is one of the managers at the KLIA. After seeing the message went through and delivered, I off my mobile phone without being confirmed that someone would be there.

The sign of boarding started blinking at the departure hall. Well, I could see many passengers were ready to board the flight. The seat I had chosen gave me a little “butterfly in the stomach.” I sat in a row close to the window, but my seat was an aisle seat. The next seat on my left was empty, and a guy was sitting at the window. My plan to sleep on the plane did not happen.  After the plane took-off, we started to say “hello” to each other. The western said, “If you want something, you have to touch it.” Hmm... We shook hands and introduced ourselves. Well, what I was trying to say here was “If we want to engage in conversation, we have to begin with some introduction...

His name is Jake, and me, of course, the sweet ever, Sara. We found a tune to ourselves and the chemistry we have, had helped us to “click” easily at our first sights. We started to pick-up some topics as reasons for our conversations. Otherwise, I could be sleeping then. After a while, I fell asleep, and so did him. We were on and off stole the forty-winks on board. The cute thing was, whenever we got up from sleep we would say “hello to each other and good morning,” “rise and shine” then we laughed to ourselves. That was the cute moment passing through our eight hours and thirty minutes in flight. He was such a different guy I had met... and he reminded me of “him” who was so far away and was not possible to be reached by a living being. 

Honestly, I felt so entertaining and enjoying the flight unlike any other flights, I had boarded previously.  Jake told me a little bit about himself, his background and a little about his past. I replied to him, “his story was like listening to a “Rambo movie,” and I have to imagine how adventurous his life was before. We both ended up giggling non-stop. I know in life sometimes things happen beyond our thoughts. We talked the whole flight from morning flight to evening. Eight hours felt so fast past us. Nowadays it’s very rare to find someone who wants to talk about things like this at the first sights. He talked a lot about his previous marriage. What he told me was that he got married a few years ago, and got divorced six months ago. He doesn’t have any children. He was quite a funny gentleman. Honestly, I like him, mean... the way he talks, smiles and the way he made jokes and the way we laughed together. I would say that we had a lot of similarities, especially stories.

Suddenly, we saw flight attendances walking with the food tray. The smell of the food made us feel so hungry, and I could see that Jake glanced at me a few times. The flight attendant came to our seats and gave us our orders. Well, we never let the time passing without something “funny” to talk about. We cheer the coke that we ordered. He added white rum to make it Bacardi. Well, he then looked and smelled like a Western guy. Yes, he is a western guy, but talking too much! Me? An Eastern “girl.” A very decent lady and only had coke on the flight. Through a glance observation about him, he was not a bad looking guy, was not a wild Aussie (how would I define “wild” here? umphhh). He spoke a little faster like a bullet train, unlike those who are in the academic world. They talk word-by-word, like someone I know, Janet (LoL). At times, Jake had to repeat his words twice, and sometimes I would just laugh it out and said it clearly. "I could not catch “the bullet train” because it ran very fast!", Jake. We ended up laughing again and again.

The eight-hours-flight was just like an hour. Well, I enjoyed this flight so much. Engaging in a conversation like this in-flight was really interesting and exciting. For an extrovert person like Jake and me. Otherwise, we might change other empty seats to avoid noise and disturbance. Jake and I, had similar commons. I could not forget his comment, “Sara, you look so sweet with your smiles.” Well, honestly, I never faked my smiles. I know, some people commented the same. Thus, I link my smile with my sincere heart. It comes from the bottom of my heart (phewwww). Other than that, that guy was also part of the motivation for me to be engaged in the chats.

Time flies very fast. This meant for people who were enjoying their times and appreciated every moment fully. In-flight Captain announced to all the passengers that the flight was going to land soon. "Oh my God," we could feel that how we wished that we could add another eight hours so that we could continue communicating and laughing. Argghh we were asking something impossible. Jake was on the route to North of Thailand for his holidays. Since the flight stopped for transit and he was going to put a night at one of the nearby hotels.

"Jake, I hope none of my family would be at the baggage claim conveyor as I have informed them earlier.” “We can have a drink at the airport after the checkout point.” I continued. He agreed to my suggestions

The walk-away to the luggage claim place from the aeroplane landed place was a bit far. Jake took the opportunity continuing our chat. It was fun! When we were about to enter the immigration checkpoint, I could see my brother was there.

"Oh my God”, I came to Jake, and whispered to him, that I saw my brother waiting for me right after the check out point.

“It looks that we can’t proceed with our ideas then,” I told Jake. He was a bit disappointed and reluctant to say yes. His face looks a little sad, in the tired face. However, nothing could change that anymore. After the immigration checks out point, we walked to the baggage conveyor belt, he held my hands, and we had the western way of saying goodbye to each other (xoxoxo).

We were so engrossed in the situation until we forgot to exchange our phone numbers. Suddenly, Jake said,

      "Hey, Sara do you have a mobile number?”, I quickly, answered, “yes, I have.” Jake continued, take down my number, but I will only communicate with you once I am back in Queensland”.

His Aussie slang made me asked him to repeat the numbers. "Arghhhhh... I hate it". The place was a bit noisy, I could not hear it well, some disturbances occurred, and his slang was the top of everything. I did not ask him to write it himself. Well, Sara, that is your weird character. I thanked him for the numbers, and I gave my number to him in return. We said goodbye to each other as my brother was approaching me. I felt a bit sad to leave him, but looking at my brother's face, it healed. I felt so happy to see my brother there.

A few days later, I was searching for my local number high and low. I could not find the sim card. Probably I have misplaced it. “Oh my God,” “Sara, what’s happening to you?”. I talked to myself. I was then thinking about Jake who might call me on my mobile. I get back to the piece of paper which was written his number, and I tried to send a message on his number, and guess what? “Oh my God,” I have written the wrong number! Jake’s slang and his typical Aussie way of talking, like a bullet train! I am done with it! I lost everything! (&%()%. The eight hours and thirty minutes are here, and you are reading it now. Enjoy the reading and feedback, please send to harlina4@gmail.com.

Hey Jake, if this story rings a bell of your mind, the above email would help you to re-connect with Sara... Cheers!

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are products of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.