World Cup Dreams

Two Tickets

My hand shakes as I stare at the two pieces of card I am holding. I hear a cough from behind, as I look up I notice the queue has moved forward. My girlfriend is now a few metres ahead, she just walked forward and did not say anything.

I turn, "sorry," I manage through a dry mouth and walk the few paces to where my girlfriend now stands.

My hand shoots into my pocket and feels the smooth leather box. I grasp it tightly, my clammy hands making the lid greasy. In all this time I have not looked away from the two tickets.

"Will you stop staring at those things?" My girlfriend asks irately.

"In a minute," I reply, not realising that it was more of a command than anything else.

"They will probably lose," she says.

'They,' I think. Us football fans always get mocked when we say ‘we’ but those who do not support a team don't understand the passion. I have follow my team through thick and thin, through good and bad, through high and low. I have cheered them on in the rain, paid over the odds for a shirt emblazoned with my hero’s name, watched countless hours of highlights and given my own tactical view a million times more. I am invested in this more than she realises.

She gives me a shake of the head as we reach the front of the queue.

"Next please," cries the heavily made up check-in clerk.

We walk slowly over the threshold, as if in slow motion I slam down the two tickets in my hand.

The girl in front of us gives a little chuckle. "Sorry about him," my girlfriend replies, taking the two tickets to the match and replacing them with passports and booking information.

I go a little red as I smile the embarrassed grin of someone who has made a silly mistake, kicking myself for something that will be forgotten in ten minutes.

A few clicks of her keyboard later and the checkout clerk says, "boarding is at 6:48 at Gate 17."

We say our thank yous and move off, my heart starts to pound. This is it, the first part of the journey complete. There is no going back now.

My girlfriend looks back at me, noticing the large grin across my face. She smiles back, happy for me. Knowing how excited I am to see my team play at the World Cup. Little does she know that this trip is more than seeing the greatest spectacle in the world, this trip will change our life forever.