Baggage Reclaim by Christine Mackenzie Ross
I had left, not planning to return, but here I was, waiting to board, passport and boarding pass sticky with sweat. My presence at my father’s sickbed was demanded.
The plane rises, and the eyeball-burning heat of the Middle East fades to air-conditioned coolness. I look down for signs of life, seeing the silver, snaking Suez carrying cargo ships as small as Lego bricks. Then the smooth ripples of desert, barren but for some solitary cars on roads that curl like ribbons leading to the cities of Cairo and Alexandria.
I watch ladies begin to adjust their dress from niqab to hijab. My sisterhood of sorts, we watch each other in silent admiration but do not speak the same language. I wear an abaya in this life and remove it to reveal the colours of childhood, pink and denim blue and I feel the protection of my black cloak leaving me.
Mizzle. The word my father used for thin rain that drenches. Rain that now signals our descent, clouds the colour of bullets. I hear his farmer’s voice.
“Thou’it git wit through. It be mizzling out there”
We stream out of the belly of the plane, lumbering like pack horses, social distancing signs scorching the path that we follow. I switch on my phone and it rings.
Dad has gone.
“Here for a holiday?”
I am thrown by the immigration officer’s question.
“No, I am returning.”
“Why now?
“My father is dead.”
I dare her to question me further. She hesitates, kinder now.
“I’m sorry for your loss. Welcome home.”
I proceed towards Baggage Reclaim, where the carousel circles. Mine is the only bag remaining, and my fellow passengers have dispersed.
In it is my life, without my father, ready to be claimed.
Christine has recently swapped life in the Middle East for life in the UK, spending 10 years in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia with her family. She completed a Masters Degree whilst working for the British Embassy in Bahrain. She returns to the UK hoping to advance her publishing portfolio.
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Looking forward to reading more!
Wonderful, can’t wait to follow (and read) your success x
Short and poignant. Well done. Xxx
Loved the descriptive details and the juxtaposition of changing cultures and countries to return to the narrator’s own – now changed too – country. A story full of contrasts . Resonant and moving. Really enjoyed it and look forward to reading more by this talented author.