I could
feel the plane slowly losing altitude and then I heard the ding. The fasten seat-belt signs came on. The pilot made the announcement that we were 20 minutes out and had been cleared for landing.
The flight
attendants came through and made sure our tray tables were up and that our seat backs were all the way forward.
From this
point on we were to stay in our seats.
I remember
the moment the pilot said 20 minutes out because it was the exact same time I
knew I had to go to the bathroom. I began mentally calculating the 20 minutes needed to land the plane,
then whatever taxi time was needed to get too the gate. After the plane came to a complete stop we
would hear everyone unbuckle their seat-belts.
The aisle
people would stand first and get their carry-on from the overhead
compartment. Then they would just stand
there. Everyone would have to wait until
the outside worker maneuvered the rolling gateway up to the plane and then he
would open the door.
Eventually
I would be able to see heads at the front of the line file out, but each row
would wait for the middle and window seat people to scoot over, stand up and
then retrieve their carry on.
This was
going to be a very long process and that’s if nothing went wrong anywhere along
the line.
Assuming I
made it that long I still had to go single-file off the plane, traveling only as
fast as the slowest person in front of me, and then I would have to scurry to
locate the closest restroom to that particular gate in the airport.
All of this
was running through my head when I felt the plane touch down. I closed my eyes and held on to my armrests
as the pilot gave it full flaps and applied the brakes. Just for a second I felt a glimmer of hope
knowing that 20 minutes had ticked off the clock, although the moment I closed
my eyes a vision popped into my head.
It was a short, yellow,
self-standing sign that read,
Closed for Cleaning.
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