The Passenger
1/1: He walked at a slow pace through the airport with his heartbeat beating at a faster rate than his footsteps. He was used to the fast paced movement of modern living. But how can one exercise it when there’s no one around to exercise with? The airport was still the recipient of jets coming to and from all over the planet. But few people travel through the corridors to get to gates in a frantic fashion. He sat down at this gate and looked at the slow yet swift movement of the red second hand. He closed his eyes and began to drift off mentally. When his eyes were circling around, he noticed the bright sun refract- ing through the polymer plastic glass window. Every now and then, he would awaken from his euphoric daydream and people were there. But time was traveling at the same pace, as were his footsteps. In the sea of human chaos, he spotted the lighthouse of serenity, beckoning him to return to homeport. His daydreams were of simple tranquil scenes of concrete form. His subconscious was acting as a movie studio, piecing together reality and fantasy, captured on film through ambient lenses located in serene sets. Sometimes he dreams of an idyllic childhood composed of cycling through a neighborhood and heading to a private universe of running creeks and budding plant life. Or sometimes he’s thinking of the inside of the plane with the morning sun and the icebergs of the sky. But the scene he sees the most and the one that keeps him the most peaceful is in the bedroom. He is there, sheltered by covers and night but there, he’s making love to his wife. Sometimes, he feels his own lips when envisioning that to remember that ruby red wine taste of his wife’s lips. With a playful piano riff looping in his head, his sense and his body are stimu- lated by wonderful sensations. After an unknown length of time, the announcement for boarding echoed in the little gate and the passenger responded while inside his mental oasis. After following procedures with a sprinkling of decency by smil- ing at the crew in greeting, he took his seat and made himself comfortable. Through the thick plastic glass that kept the pressure bearable, the glitter of the rising sun could be seen, illuminating the office-like col- ours of the plane. This comforted him. It was his temporary cradle. 2/1: He was dreaming on the plane. The hours were late from his aerial vantage point and beckon him to be lost into a daze of colour and imagination. The components were hard (and will be hard later on) to decipher, as dreams tend to be. It was probably inspired by the shape and light reflections in the sky. But there was an added component. In the midst of silence, there is a hunger to hear a voice, especially when the nerves unsettle the body and doubt unsettles the soul. Instantly, the ambient chord is echoed throughout the chamber of the subcon- scious and with it appears the most beautiful bright and warm colours. As if the sun were reflecting the nature of the flower and that picture engulfs the view. Colours appeared with the ascent and descent of the harmonic progression underneath a storm sky. It con- tinued for an immeasurable amount of time. Who knows why this to be? Is it to retrain the eye to see again because he has been deprived of a simple beauty for far too long? Or is it God giving him a new per- ception and realization? But the colours as they appeared and disappeared gave an aesthetic aura in his mind. He hardly noticed the physical journey. 1/2: The plane was beginning its descent and arrival. He began to reawaken from a temporary dive into the surreal and subliminal. He slowly began to realize where he was when the surrounding that cradled his mind became more and more recognizable. He turned towards the window to look down at the final desti- nation and home. From then on, the landing would be the longest time he’s ever experienced. A musical sadness and reality swept over him and turned his normal scene into a collection of random events and still shots of memories and fantasies. It was as if the emotional sensations were personified into something tangible, like a photo album and he was looking through it like a child. However, he compre- hended it like an adult with the melancholic complexion and the mature understanding. He saw a family walking through a field of graves in a somber mood. He saw an accident scene where he was looking down in confusion and stress as the sirens cycled their red and blue lights and the communica- tor were speaking in a muffled radio voice stream. He saw a young child sitting on a porch with face down with tears running down his eyes. He saw an outstretched hand in the dark, illuminated only by candle- light. The landing was still taking place and he felt frailer as the jet went closer and closer to the ground. But at the same time, he felt the blood rushing through and making the whole of him warm and alive. Every now and then, he would put his hand out to the glass window and grace it. It was almost as if the window were something else to him and could feel the response in his fingertips that wanted for a time. He realized that not only he was returning home, he was returning to himself. 2/2: The plane had arrived. The enlightened passenger assumed his “normal” role, left the plane and headed out to the baggage claim and then his home. He was almost there but at the same time, he felt somewhat dis- tant. That is usually the case when it comes to experiencing something that the philosophers continually quest for and the common man is bestowed onto from time to time. From the plane to the gate, from the terminal to the baggage claim, life was continuously moving but the motion slowed down more and more with each step and with each look. But then, at the baggage claim, when the other passengers were moving at their slowest and life underwent the slowest rate of change ever charted, something amazing happened to him. It was something that his soul was aching for and his mind was sorting out all along. He saw his wife. She stood there with a smile and a radiance that caused the surroundings to dim down. Everything stopped except them and they were staring in each other. The smiles spoke for them and they drew closer and closer. For him, a wound was healed, an uncertainty was settled and peace was attained at the sight of his Om. He stood close face to face and drew even closer for a kiss. The kiss soon developed into a passionate flower and the flower developed into a shelter and finally into the place where he always wanted to go out of all places he has ever been. Truly, he was not only at home, he was at peace.
Date of First Draft: 12 December 2000
Influence: Brian Eno's Ambient 1/Music for Airports