Linda

I’m sitting in front of gate D 71 in Vancouver, waiting for the late plane to show up. I’ve had lunch, kind of figured out what's going to happen once I reach Hong Kong when a woman walks up to me. She is a late 60’s, little old Chinese woman dressed in khaki capris, white shirt, tan jacket, with a blue fishing hat and red scarf. She excitedly asks me if this is the gate to Hong Kong. I nod politely. It’s hard to hear her quiet, some what choppy English over the voice on the loud speaker who is anxiously calling for some passengers for a flight to Seoul. I lean closer to her. She is explaining to me how she has not been back to Hong Kong in fifty five years. Linda had been a single mom in Hong Kong before moving to Canada. She claims it was the best decision she ever made. She got a job, flat out refusing to live off of welfare. Linda informed me that in China it is disgraceful to live off welfare, ‘it cheats the government out of money and is just not something people do in China’. So she moved to Canada and got a good job to support her and her son. Her son is waiting for her in Hong Kong, he has been to China many times but this is Linda’s first time back. She is very excited to see her uncle who is picking her up from the airport. He is 80 years old. She is afraid with the three hour delay, her uncle will be asleep, in which case her 60 year old cousin will pick her up. She pauses and asks me if I have ever been to China. I tell her no, and that I was just passing through to Bangkok. Interested, Linda asks what I will be doing in Thailand. My answer, to teach English. Her face lights up. “It is very different for young women to grow up in America then in China. In China a young woman like yourself would not be living on her own, and would definitely not be going to another country for 6 months to teach English. I think this way is better.”  The conversations dies and Linda pulls out a map, muttering about how she does not remember her way around the city. A few minutes later she turns to me and asks if I have had any potato chips. I shake my head, informing her I had already eaten. She tells me that she has some potato chips if I get hungry.

 Conversations dies again. Linda flips through a magazine for a few minutes before she slowly starts packing up her bag. She gets up and teeters towards the door. “I am going to go to computer station and email my son, make sure he know I will be late.” Linda says.

 A while later I look up from my computer and Linda is shuffling away from the men's room, with a confused shake of her head she tried to enter the family bathroom. When that did not work she goes back to the men's room before a helpful teen points her in the right direction. She comes back out, wispy hair peeking out from the edge of her hat. Sitting down next to me, she informs me that she was not able to get on the Internet to email her son. Instead she bought a phone card to call him, but was not sure of the time difference and did not want to wake him up if he was sleeping. 

Poor Linda sits next to me, tensed up and nervous. She excuses herself, asking if I would watch her bag while she is gone before high tailing it to the restroom. When she comes back, she has a smile for me. “When I fly I get so nervous I throw up.” Poor thing, that was me this morning. She takes out a yellow stretching band to keep her hands and mind busy while we wait for the plane to come, shouldn't be too much longer.  The plane pulls in and after it de-boards six or seven policemen rush onto it, not what you would call comforting. While we wait Linda scoots over and points to Kelly who is playing on her ipad. “That computer is so small.” Linda whispers. I smiled. “It’s an ipad Linda.” I whisper back. We have a discussion about the ipad, she wanted to know how it worked. Kelly looks up and spins her ipad around to show Linda how to navigate on it. Linda is intrigued. She asks us where she can buy one, wanting to know if she should get it on the black market. Kelly and I immediately tell her no, but to go to the Apple store instead. Kelly looks up the nearest store to Linda’s cousin’s house and shows her where it is. The policemen get off the plane and we start to board. Kelly and I loose Linda in the shuffle. That was the last time I saw Linda.