Long-Distance Calls

4(0)4

"Come on," my mom said, "we have to go through the security thingamajig."

And so the adventure started. What felt like an entire hour but probably was only ten minutes of searching for the airport security. A desperate swimming through that crowd that, at one point, made my head hurt.

"Maybe we should ask someone," I said.

"Yeah, maybe we should," my mom said, looking at my father.

"I don't know where it is," my father said, "never been here."

"Jesus," my mom griped as she grabbed a hold of her luggage and reached for a young guy dressed in green whose job I guess was to put some kind of wrapping around bags.

"Excuse me, do you know where the airport security is?" My mom asked.

"Sure, you have to go that way, right ahead until you read 'Gates'. Then you turn the way it tells you to turn and you'll find it."

"Thank you," my father said. The young man smiled and extended a hand with an open palm. My father reached out to shake it.

"Did you want to get payed for that?" My mom asked, her brows furrowed.

"No," the guy smiled, "it was just a joke."

We all chuckled nervously.

After following the guy's instructions, we found ourselves in the back of a very long queue. "So that's it?" My mom asked. "We just have to follow this line?"

"I guess," my father said.

"For the love of God," my mom barked towards my father, "you go around feeling cool and cosmopolitan and shit and then you're scared to even just ask something to a stranger."

And she reached for a man in a suit, who started talking big words and fast, and all we understood was 'police'.

"I think we have to go check with the police first," my mom said.

"What?" I shouted. "That doesn't make any sense."

"Well, it is right there," my mom pointed at my left, a room that simply said 'Police'.

My father reached that door, as we all followed him, and rang the buzzer.

"Yes?"

"We have to check the bags," my father said.

"What?"

"You have to check our bags."

The door opened and we all went in. Inside, there was just a man behind a desk. "Sorry, I didn't catch what you said."

"We have to go through security," my father explained.

"Okay," the man scratched his jaw, "so why are you here?"

"They told us to go to the police first," my mom said.

The man raised a brow. "No...?"

"Well, that's what they told us," my mom said.

"Who told you that?"