I'm diving back into the Freewriting life with this response to @mariannewest's latest prompt, airport. 😊
Today, I'm just running with a couple of images that have leapt to mind immediately: a small regional airport as it may look now, and how that same airport would have looked this time last year. What I'm seeing is ... a small regional airport which lies idle at the moment, save for a few cleaners or maintenance staff who must come in every now and then.
My eyes are drawn to a blinking light in a darkened departure lounge. It appears to be a red dot, casting a lonely beam across a hall once packed with families jetting off for their holidays. In this vision of the past airport, one child is louder than the rest: he's screaming for his teddy bear, trying to wrestle it out of his mother's bag because he can't possibly get on the flight without it. His parents have told him that flying is perfectly safe – reassured him that nothing will go wrong – but he is still terrified by the idea of this airborne journey. If he can clutch his beloved teddy bear throughout, he'll feel comforted.
This little boy is the loudest child in the departure lounge, but there are others: some nervous, as he is, and some excited about the voyage to come. A pair of sisters are chasing one another around the lounge. The younger one giggles as she ducks under some empty seats and crawls beneath her bigger sister's reach. Their father hurries over to reprimand them: they need to get back across the room, back to their family – they'll all be lining up to get on the plane any minute now.
I'm wondering how those kids who now dance across my mind's eye are doing now. They are unlikely to have travelled anywhere, but I hope they are doing okay. I hope the nervous little boy has found his way through the anxiety of recent times. I hope the high-spirited young girl is still bringing a sense of enthusiasm and play into everything she does.
Image Source: Matthew Turner/Pexels
Welcome back to freewriting. Life really has changed in these past months and I do wonder how many of our children are doing...
Thank you, @mariannewest! It really is so great to be back. ❤️ Life definitely has changed drastically – I don't envy parents who have had to try and explain the whole thing to their kids.