Nia's Colorful War of Wits

"Nia! Nia!"

The whisper was in the middle of my dream. I had been frolicking in a meadow on a sunny day, when someone called my name. I waded through the grass toward the sound. As I approached, the dream started to fade and the voice grew louder.

"Nia!"

My eyes fluttered open. The plane was dark, but there was a light shining under the door of the bathroom. I sat up and rubbed my eyes. My head throbbed as it always did after a long plane ride. I tried to stretch, but every muscle in my body ached from sitting too long. Rubbing my neck with one hand, I reached for my purse with the other. My fingers found an energy bar, which I ate quickly before rummaging for aspirin. When I heard the bathroom door click shut, I searched for my headphones and slipped them over my ears.

A few minutes later, we began our descent into Newark Airport and I pulled myself from my seat and made my way toward the front of the plane. After take off, they had served us dinner and drinks; now everyone was asleep or reading quietly by their seats. The cabin was lit only by dim lights and small monitors on each seat displaying flight details and a map of our route across North America.

I made it to the back of the plane just before we touched down at Newark and stood watching people stir around me as we taxied to our gate. Everyone seemed very excited to be back in their own homes after a long flight, families were rushing to collect luggage while others were looking over maps or on their phones trying to figure out which exit would take them home quickest.

I leaned against one of the support poles near our seat as people filed past me toward the exit doors at the back of our plane. In front of me, one man seemed more relaxed than most of his neighbors: he had stayed seated in his window seat throughout our entire flight, ignoring his phone and instead staring out at nothing particular as if he was trying to convince himself that where he was now was not where he had been only moments earlier. He looked up just seconds before we landed, then turned suddenly toward me like he'd forgotten something important. He took several steps towards me before stopping abruptly with his mouth hanging open slightly as he stared into my face. A moment later he snapped his jaw closed and opened his eyes wide like he had seen a ghost or something crazy like that while he had been looking out his window on our trip across North America.

When he finally spoke, he sounded nervous and disgusted all at once; "Are you... Nia?" His expression changed abruptly from surprise to anger; "Why are you here?" He raised his hand as if to strike me, but stopped after noticing how hard it was for him to raise it off of his shoulder without hurting himself somehow: "Get away from me!" He appeared furious now and waved me away furiously with both hands even though I hadn't moved closer or said anything since his first question: "Go! Get away from me!" Shaking his head angrily, he stumbled forward until he bumped into one of the cabin attendants who had just left her station near one of the exit doors behind us with a big cart full of dirty dishes and glasses filled with airplane peanuts she intended to drop off at some kind of recycling machine at this end of our plane's terminal so they didn't have to be dealt with during landing or as we boarded again in another hour or so: "Excuse you," she said sharply when she ran into him accidentally because she couldn't see anyone standing next to her cart in all that darkness between rows filled with passengers sleeping peacefully in their seats facing forward except for this man stumbling awkwardly toward her even though there wasn't any place for him to go aside from bumping into someone else who wasn't moving anywhere anytime soon except maybe into another row occupied by someone else who might not appreciate waking up early because someone else decided to start getting out of their seat before everyone else got off their plane ahead of schedule because something about this early morning arrival felt different than all those other nights when planes arrived at Newark late at night after having flown thousands upon thousands of miles across North America bringing tired travelers home from days spent visiting family members or maybe a friend's wedding or an old girlfriend's deathbed or whatever else they needed to get away from while they slept on an airplane headed toward home.