Maria picked her head up off the small airport coffee shop table and took a glance at her surroundings. There were a few people sauntering by in the terminal... probably waiting for the same plane, but for the most part they were alone. Her plane had been delayed three times now and she was starting to wonder if she shouldn't just grab a hotel room and call it a night. She looked down at her watch, it was already midnight. She would have called Howie... she longed to hear his voice again, but she knew he'd be in bed asleep... that's where she would be if she were home. It was something they'd learned quickly when Olivia was born... late nights no longer existed. Early bedtimes and early sunrises were the new fashion. She smiled thinking of Olivia curled up sleeping in her bed... of Cash in his crib on his tummy with his hiney stuck way up in the air. She loved to watch her children sleep...
Her husband's voice shook her from her thoughts as she caught her self singing along with the song she hadn't noticed until now was playing through the airport's speakers. It was comforting... she loved this song. She glanced around once more and couldn't help but think how strange the day had been. She'd gone through three airports now and hadn't been noticed or recognized by a single person. It was nice though. Sometimes being the wife of a Backstreet Boy wasn't easy... sometimes it was a downright media frenzy, but she took the good and the bad and she loved her husband regardless of the paparazzi that came along with him. It was strange not having people walking up and wanting autographs... strange not having people want to shake her hand and say hello. Truthfully, right now she missed it. In her lonliness she longed for someone to speak to her. For someone to sit down across the table and say hello or ask where she was headed to. Someone other than the waitress at the coffee shop would be nice.
She fidgeted in her seat and tried hard to keep her eyes open. She would definitely sleep through the last leg of her flight to Hawaii. She reached down in her carryon bag and pulled out a card... the postcard she'd bought about an hour before. She flipped it over and glanced happily at the front. She'd found it in the airport gift shop... she'd been in there five times now out of sheer boredom, but she was glad she'd gone back because she'd found the postcard on her final trip. It was perfect. There was a picture of the ocean on the front with the words "It's Heaven!... Wish You Were Here." Nothing in that moment could have been more true. She'd never found herself missing her family so much. Not on any of the long trips she'd taken before... this time just felt different.
She pulled out a pen and flipped the postcard back over. What to write? She wanted it to be perfect and simple... something along the lines of "I miss you and love you and I really do wish you were here with me," but for whatever reason when she started to write, she couldn't stop. Her thoughts ran freely as her pen scritched back and forth along the paper and before she knew it she'd written a near novel there on the back of the card. She sighed when she finished and looked down to read it. "Howie will have a good laugh over this one" she thought as she smiled and tucked it back into her bag.
She stood and examined the large screen above her head. Flight 2137 to Honolulu International was finally running on time and scheduled to depart in 45 minutes. She had a little bit of time to run to the airport post office and drop her postcard in the box... that way Howie and the kids would recieve it before they left for Tampa. She smiled in spite of herself. She really was looking forward to this trip to Hawaii, she just did't understand the nagging feeling about saying goodbye this time.
