The Nice Thing About Strangers
Creative Non-Fiction Short Stories. :) Travel, Oldsters, Love, and Compassion.
Just See Me. This is Enough.
The boy and his little sister rush ahead. They hide at the end of the moving sidewalk, waiting for their father. Mom is already waiting nearby. She isn’t happy that Dad is trailing so far behind, so she greets him with a glance and an eye roll. This has Dad’s attention. So when his kids jump out, growling and roaring, he doesn’t even feign fear. Instead, the brother and sister growl at each other and play, commiserating over what a great joke it might have been.
Mom starts toward the gate, and the little sister hustles to join her. Her brother waits for Dad. The boy wears a red backpack with cars and checkered flags, and gets saddled tugging his little sister’s pink and purple rolling suitcase. He’s hungry.
“I know I said we would, but there’s no McDonalds,” Dad is already tired.
“There’s not a McDonalds in all of Chicago?”
“No, just, not in this concourse.”
The boy pauses, nods, “What a CON-course.” He laughs to himself as his exhausted father blinks, adjusts the two suitcases he will pull along, gazes ahead at his wife and daughter. Only then does he notice the joke. He looks down to his son with a wink. This is all it takes. The boy is relieved, revived, ready to follow.
-O’Hare Airport, Chicago, Illinois.
Vienna, Austria.
The Nice Thing About Strangers 
To our horror, Stringer and I did come across McDonald’s in Vienna.
😦
They have different fare there. I’ve never had a chicken burger with curry before! 🙂 I don’t go there often, but I know some people like to know what they will experience on the road. Many relatives found it a comfort to find a McDonald’s, so I can see that. Plus, why should we keep all the french fries to ourselves. 😀
And yet you look so slim, Paige! 😀
Like I said, I don’t go there often. 🙂 I don’t fare much better at the ceaseless Vienna bakeries either! I know my limits. It’s a good thing that I do a lot of walking when I travel…
We used to, too …
No McDonald’s oh what a horror
🙂 When I was elementary school age, after thinking there was something to anticipate, it would have been a bummer for me as well!
There is so much in a single word!
Great photo, great story!