Stewardess at the Time of the Coronavirus
Today I flew from Berlin to Budapest on the invite of the LuppArt Artist Residency Programme. I had
such a strange feeling, having to fly at the time of Corona. Many people had gathered up at the
airport since they were checking people’s bags at a snail’s pace. As if there was no Corona pandemic,
but they were looking for a bomb. Those about to fly were treading on one another’s necks in
serpentine lines. It lasted exceedingly long; I was gasping for air under my level 3 mask. It began as an
unpleasant journey.
I bumped into Krisztina at the gate, her mother had died and that is why she came to Budapest. She
was about to cry; the news bore down on her greatly. We agreed we would get a taxi together and
said goodbye.
At last, we could board the plane. I bought a ticket at the front, in the second row. As soon as I went
through the door, my eyes were struck by the lovely gaze of one of the stewardesses. The other one
was young, slender, and tall, having the figure of a model, intelligent, with glasses and huge pupils.
Still, I was drawn to the shorter one. I quickly took my place, fortunately no one sat next to me, so I
could turn enough. When the plane started, I noticed that for a few moments my eyes met with
those of the stewardess with the charming gaze. I was pretending to just look around, up and down,
to the right and left, with the Corona-mask on my face. But it kept drawing me back, like a magnet,
this beautiful, clear gaze. Only our eyes were visible, but those were radiating to one another with
full force. The girl began to introduce the security system, standing two meters away from me. She
took her blazer off, so that her sensitive, soft figure revealed itself even more. Her slender hands
swimming in the air like snakes, she delivered her programme with ballet movements. I got more and
more perceptive of her. Suddenly, in the middle of the performance her eyes stopped on me, as if
they had left her soul and only her body kept moving and doing her job. Her gaze seemed infinite.
Our gazes met again multiple times during the flight.
As the plane was getting ready to land above Budapest, all of a sudden fantastic cloud formations
marched in front of my window. It was strikingly magical. I took a photo with my mobile phone, as if I
wanted to tell the girl, how beautiful it was. She could not see it from her seat. I looked back at her,
while she was sitting in front of the pilots’ entrance in the dim light, and she was looking at me too.
Then my eyes wandered onto the older, over nourished pilot-passenger sitting in the row opposite
mine, who kept sizing up the girl’s body, like a product. My heart was about to break, I would have
liked to build a wall in front of this lecher’s stare. Of course, I am not a young man either, but at first,
I did not want to acknowledge, that I was giving an eye to the girl. I thought this was just sympathy.
But I was seized by some sort of astronomical process, I felt as if two planets were circuiting each
other, pulling each other closer and closer. The plane landed with a calm quietness and it started on
the field towards the place where we would exit. The sky had darkened and it had started to rain, the
lights were not on in the plane, everything was swimming in a soft dimness, everyone stayed at their
places until we could exit. I looked around me, as the people were sitting ready to leave, and I
realised all of a sudden, that the girl’s eyes were shining towards me and I was looking at her too,
pondering, fixated. Everything around us got blurred. Two pairs of eyes in eternity, turning into
photographs. We fused, with faces lacking mimics, since the mask was covering that. Through our
eyes we fused magnetically, we fell through a dark hole into another universe. It was so unexpected,
it felt so nice, I did not even think about how this story could continue. I stood up and reached for my
bag in the shelf above, when a woman behind me started. I squeezed myself against the seat and let
her go. In the meantime, my eyes got stuck on the girl again, as she was looking at me with her
warm, smiling eyes, but I had to get out, because the others were advancing from behind. Greeting
her with a banal “ciao” I slipped by, very closely, but not even looking back at her, almost flying
towards the airport bus. That is when it clicked: we had not even exchanged addresses, I had not
asked her out for coffee. How could I have? The whole thing seemed so unlikely, at the same time
realistically catching. At times like that I wish there were always such harmonic moments lacking all
expectations between people. Should I start investigating about who that girl is, and attempt to get
to her? Perhaps that would ruin everything. This way a nice feeling remains in my heart forever. If
destiny wanted more, we would find each other again, for sure.
26. July 2020. Tibor Soskuti