Happy Anniversary Part 1

The story is far from ending . . .

But every great story has a begining that must be told . . . . .

Tony sighed as he stood in line. All this trip for nothing. He came down here with the sole purpose of convincing his ex-wife to come back with him. However, she had not come down here to start a new life; she had come down here to be with another man. The doctor rubbed his face, anxious to get back home. His practice would be waiting for him and it would be enough to lose himself in his job. But would the pain ever go away? “NO!” someone screamed, interrupting his thoughts.

Tony turned and looked over toward a young man talking to the ticket clerk in the next line over toward his right. He was in a business suit and looked very upset. “I want you to listen to me, okay.” Jack said, “ Because I'm asking you a favor, Crissy. I'm standing in front of you in the same suit that I'm wearing to my father's funeral and I'm asking you a favor. In 16 hours I need to land at LAX, and I need that coffin to clear customs because there's going to be a hearse waiting there. And I need that hearse to take me and that coffin to a cemetery. Why? Why, Crissy, can't I just bring him to a funeral home and make all the arrangements? Why can't I really take my time with it? Because I need it to be done. I need it to be over. I just . . . . I need to bury my father.”

“Sweet Jesus,” Tony muttered under his breath, as she stepped forward. Depressed as he was, he never realized that other people’s problems could be worse. As the line started to move forward, the doctor silently hoped the other man would be able to take his father home.


“Yeah, baby,” Ramon said over the phone as he walked along the massive hallway of Oceanic Air, “I like that color on you. You gonna wear it for me when I get home?”

John continued to follow his friend, hauling both his bags and Ramon’s. He was started to get winded, especially hauling both bow cases. Ramon made a kissing sound as he closed his cellphone. “Sheila is going to wear a purple teddy for me when I get home.” He chuckled.

“Who?” John asked.

“Sheila,” the Spaniard told him.

“Who is Sheila?”

“My girlfriend, dufus,” the Spanish archer laughed.

“What?” the American archer paused, “What the hell happen to Ana-Bella?”

“Hermano, that punta is so last week-“

Before the Spanish Olympian could finish his sentence, a young girl accidentally pumped into him. Mia paused for a second as she regained control of her suitcase. “Oh, I’m sorry,” she smiled.

“Yeah, I’m sure you are,” Ramon said, making sure nothing splashed or touched his sport coat.

“Excuse me?” she raised an eyebrow.

“Eyes front next time, little girl or maybe that’s too difficult for you.”

“JERK!” Mia said, stomping off.

John then pulled up the suitcase and stopped next to his friend. “What the hell was that all about?” he demanded.

“Stupid little girl needs to look where she’s going and not stare at the floor when she walks, “Ramon said, putting on his sunglasses.

“Ramon, I can’t believe you were rude to that girl. It was just a simple bump!”

The Spaniard laughed as he gently patted John on the cheek. “Don’t let it worry you, Hermano. Now come on, so we don’t want to miss our flight.”

John watched his friend walk away, whistling a Spanish tune. He then turned toward the girl walking in the other direction toward the bathroom area. He felt bad for her and wanted to go apologize for his friends’ abrupt behavior. The archer then took a deep sigh and started to walk toward his friend. He thought in the end, what did it matter? He would never see the young girl again.

Jack rested at the bar, lost in his thoughts. He gently rubbed his face, and stared at his drink. It was early in the day to be drinking but he really didn’t care about society rules at the moment. He noticed movement to his right and a young Latina woman sat down on the stool over by him. “Tequila and tonic with wedge of lemon.” She told the bartender.

The man with the mustache behind the bar made her drink and gave it to her. She took it and quickly gulped it down. Jack smirked slightly, not expecting the Latina to be such a heavy drinker. She gently wiped her mouth with the napkin and then looked over toward the doctor. They exchanged polite glances. “Why were you yelling?” she asked him.

“Hmm?” Jack said to her.

“The girl, the check-in counter? You were yelling at her.”

“I'm sorry, do I know you?” the doctor raised an eyebrow.

“I'm on your flight. LA?” she replied, holding up her ticket, “ So your dad died, huh?”

“I thought you didn't hear what I was yelling about.”

“I was being polite.”

Jack smiled; already respecting her for her kindness. “Yeah, my dad died,” he finally confessed.

“How?”

“Heart attack.”

“Not a drinker, huh?” she said, noticing his hardly touched glass.

“No,” he confessed again.

The woman saw the subject was depressing him so she decided to change it to something more interesting. “So,” she smiled, “No ring because you're single or because you don't like wearing one?”

Jack smirked again. “You asking me if I'm married?” he smiled.

“Are you married?” she smiled back.

“No. No, not any more.” He said, then motioned to the bartender, “Can we get another tequila and tonic, please?”

“I didn’t think you were listening.” She giggled.

“So, what’s your name?” he finally asked.

“Ana-Lucia.” She said, shaking his hand.

“So, tell me, Ana-Lucia, what are you doing drinking tequila and tonics at ten to noon?”

“I hate flying. And they stuck me all the way in the back of the plane where the wheels come down right under your damn feet. So where are you sitting?”

Jack held up his ticket, “23B.” he told her.

“42F. Wanna trade?”

Before Jack could any anything, her phone went off. She gently un-clicked in her cellphone and answered it. “Hey, .. yeah. I'm in Sydney. . . . . Hold on.” She looked back toward him, “Uh . Sorry . .”

“Jack,” he finally introduced himself.

“Jack, I've got to talk. We'll have the next drink on the plane, okay?”

“42f,” he reminded her.

“42F, right,” she said, as she started to walk away, then turned back, “Oh, Jack?”

He turned toward his new friend.

“The worse part is over,” she confessed, as she started to walk away.

Jack shook his head. He could hear her talking on the phone as she slowly walked out of the bar. He overheard he telling someone that she was looking for a man called Embry but didn’t find him. The doctor’s thoughts were interrupted by a loud burp. He turned toward his left and saw a very large man at the bar, drinking heavily. He could tell by the abundance of glasses around him. Henry Poteet looked over at Jack as started to pile bills onto the counter to pay for his drink. “She’s wrong, you know?” the fat man commented, “It can always get worse.”

“Gee thanks,” Jack replied as the large man left the bar.

Down by the cafeteria, Jin was reading his news paper. He had just gotten through buying his tickets, despite the poor man yelling to the gate agent. His wife Sun then come back over with the tray and food. Jin looked up at her selections. “What took so long?” he asked in his native Korean language.

“I'm really hungry now.” Sun told him,” There were a lot of people in line. There really wasn't much to choose from, so I just got some simple things for us.”

The woman then placed a napkin in Jin’s lap. She then started to cut the sandwich in half for them. At a nearby table, an amber haired woman named Gina shook her head at the display. “If you ever catch me doing anything like that for you, shoot me.” She told her husband Jeff sitting next to her.

“Don't knock it.” Her husband told her, “Their divorce rate's 20 times lower than ours.”

Sun overheard them but said nothing. After she sliced the sandwich in half, she tried to hand it to Jin but accidentally spilled his drink into his lap. The Korean man jumped up, and yelled in disgust. Sun tried to get another napkin to help clean him off. “Sun, please,” Jin stopped her, speaking in her own language, “ Where . .where is the bathroom?”

Sun pointed toward the right and the man turned, walking toward. She sat back down and tried to dab up the rest of the liquid from the table. “My god, it's Memoirs of a Geisha come to life.” Gina then said.

“Volume.” Jeff reminded her.

Sun was feeling mortified from what they were saying. Gina just shrugged her husband’s warning. “Relax, they don't speak English.” She told him.

“But some of us do,” Brendon mentioned behind her.

Gina shockingly turned and saw the young Asian man looking at her. He calmly sipped on his bottle and crunched his sandwich wrapper with his other hand. The woman then turned around and gave her husband the evil eye of why she didn’t warn her about the man sitting next to her. He raised an eyebrow, informing her HE DID. Brendon threw his wrapper and bottled water into the trash. He then walked over to Sun and bowed toward her. “Ignore their insults,” he spoke in Korean.

Sun’s eyes lit up, cause she saw how Brendon took up for her. “You . .are Korean?” she smiled in her native tongue.

“No, I’m Japanese.” He smiled, “My best friend in college was Korean. We taught each other our home language.”

“Thank you for taking up for us.”

“No one deserves to be spoken down to,” Brendon bowed again, “Enjoy your flight.”

“Goodbye.” Sun smiled as the young Asian man walked away.

She smiled, thinking the world might be a better place, now that she knew people like him existed. Even through ridicule from ignorant people, kindness could still be found. She hoped that she would seem him in flight, introduce him to her husband and tell him what he did.

Jin continues to try himself off, taking care of most of it, in the bathroom. Then a man in a Hawaiian shirt comes up and proceeds to wash his hands briefly. After he was done, he checked the paper towel dispenser but the lock wouldn’t move. He then slowly turned to Jin. “Excuse me,” he motioned, “could you hand me a paper towel there, bud? A paper towel . . . this one's broken.”

Jin smiled politely and bowed, pointing to his mouth. “OH!” the man said, “You don’t speak English. Sorry.”

The Hawaiian Shirt walked over to the paper towel dispenser and pulled one out. “Here is a paper towel,” he said . . ..in Korean.

“What?” Jin asked in his native language, assuming this man didn’t speak Korean.

“I work for Mr. Paik. Your father-in-law, . . . .and employer.” The stranger said coldly.

Jin turned to face him, filled with rage. “You've been following me?” he hissed.

“Yes. I know you're planning to run away. But you're going to take that watch to Mr. Paik's friend in California.” He warned.

Jin stared at him, feeling hatred and defeat. “ You do anything else . . .anything . .you will lose her.” Hawaiian Shirt warned, “You are not free. You never have been, and you never will be.”

The man’s eyes then flickered he was looking past Jin. The Korean man then turned around and saw Hal Mancuso looking at them both from behind a stall door. The cop stared at the man in the Hawaiian shirt for a few seconds and it was the stare that made the man quickly leave the restroom. Jin paused, not knowing what to do. Hal walked over past him toward the sink and proceed to wash his hands. After he was done, he picked out some paper towels and started to dry his hands. “I don’t speak your language,” he told Jin, “But I understand tone. If that guy tries anything you let me know.”

Jin looked at him confused. Hal then stopped and reached into his back pocket. The cop then showed the Korean man his badge. He pointed toward the badge, then he pointed toward where Hawaiian Shirt went, then he pointed to Jin and then back to himself. The Korean man felt that he was indeed offering his help. He calmly bowed toward Hal. The cop shook his head and then quietly left the restroom. Jin finally started to dry his hands. He knew the officer offered his head but how could he? Even in Australia he could not escape his father-in-law.

Seth finished writing in his journal and closed it up. He took one more look at his photo of him and Tanya. He smiled at her picture, gently rubbing his thumb across her face. It was a shame she was scared of flying but he didn’t want to force her to come. The moment she saw the waves in this country, she’ll be surfing till the cows come home. Seth then checked his watch and saw that it was time to start heading toward his flight home. He grabbed his bag and hoisted it up, as he proceeded to walk toward the escalator. A young couple then got in front of him, heading up the escalator at the same time. Seth’s eyes fell on the blonde’s beautiful legs, which wasn’t hard to not look at them. “You can try again with the gate agent.” Shannon mentioned.

“Would you let it go?” Boone informed her.

“Excuse me for not being pathetic enough to not want to sit next to some crying baby for the next 15 hours.” She hissed back.

Seth raised an eyebrow at her complaining. “Oh god, you can be a bitch.” Her blue eyed companion grunted.

“Oh, you want to play?” Shannon warned, “I can get you thrown off this flight.”

“Yeah, how are you going to do that?”

“I can do whatever I want. I could tell them-“

“Tell them what?” Boone didn’t back down, “Who's going to believe you? You're not even capable of-“

“You have no idea what I'm capable of.” She hissed at him.

When they reached the top of the escalator, the tall blonde immediately walked over to one of the airport cops that patrol the area. “Excuse me, sir?” she said, getting his attention.

“Yes, ma’am?” the cop said.

“Uh . . .some Arab guy just left his bags in the chairs downstairs and then just walked away.”

“Could you describe him please?”

“He’s an Arab,” she said, obviously, then pointed down below, “He went towards the shops.”

The cop then walked over toward the other escalator, pushing pass Seth. Shannon walked over to Boone with a smug look on her face. “How’s that?” she grinned.

Boone took a deep sigh as she walked away, toward the gate area. Seth was amazed; witnessing the whole thing. He shifted up his bag and started to walk past the blue eyed young man. “You want my advice?” Seth said in passing,” Dump her.”

Boone smirked at his comments. He began to follow Shannon and by happenstance, Seth at the same time. Dump Shannon? He wished it was that easy.