Odysseys of a Parallel Universe 5

Only a 1-hour flight from Nicosia to Lod International Airport- Tel Aviv, Israel. 

Then, another hour + I was through customs: no problem with Israel either just stamping a piece of paper into my passport or allowing me in with just $10! 

Mike, another Canadian I’d met in Cyprus, had agreed to vouch for me if there would have been. 

And here I was in Israel 2 days early with money to spare! I paid for a bus-ride to the Yarkon Youth Hostel, and still had a few dollars left!

I took a couple days walking around Tel Aviv: the markets + beaches, but I didn’t spend anything until the last day, when I believed my friend would arrive with more money. I splurged for supper + almost spent it all! I still had enough to stay the night at the hostel and get the airport bus the next day.  

Christmas Eve, Thursday, December 24, finally came and I hung around the city till late afternoon.

I didn’t know when he would arrive, but I assumed it would be the evening Olympic Airways flight, so with only a few shekels left, I boarded the bus for the airport. 

I got there in plenty of time and found my waiting spot right in the front of the Arrivals door from Immigration + Customs. A steady flow of arrived passengers streamed through those doors throughout that evening.

It was Hannukah also, and it seemed like half of New York’s Jews were arriving in Lod that evening to celebrate the festival with their Israeli relatives. Planeload after planeload landed and unloaded more and more. Ongoing tearful reunions took place before my eyes, so wonderful  I anticipated our own reunion + empathized with each one.

But as the evening wore on, and he still had not come, I eventually could no longer bear to watch.

Hours went by.

We who waited outside had only a narrow window to peer inside the terminal. I could see passengers arriving: sometimes their luggage appeared first and I searched with increasing desperation for the Canadian flag on my friend’s packsack. 

I waited the entire evening: no packsack and no friend.

Finally, no further passengers exited the terminal and it became evident no more planes were arriving, especially from Athens. That would be all for the night.

But just when it all seemed lost, a backpack just like his, with what appeared to be a Canadian flag just like his, suddenly appeared and lay there on the floor, leaning against the counter.

My hopes had been answered: I was overjoyed!

But it lay there + lay there; an agonizingly long time passed till suddenly a young guy with blonde hair, who resembled my friend ridiculously alike, came into view, picked it up and walked out  towards me and…it wasn’t him! 

My exuberant joy quickly turned into shock + disappointment!