Chicago to anywhere.

She was going a million miles an hour, I was just sitting still admiring the way her hair flowed so profoundly with every flawlessly graceful move she made. Her ferocious eyes shot me through the heart and in that instant my world changed forever. I was hooked, not in a Dustin Hoffman sort of way, but in an inexplicable sort of way that electrified the cobwebs deep within my decrepit heart. From the very tippy-top of my cap through the electrified soles of my shoes, I knew my existence would never be the same.

It was a sensation far more undefinable than any I’ve experienced since or any I should ever be so fortunate as to stumble into again, with all my infinite luck. This woman was it. The real deal. And now she was sitting next to me, our elbows touching on the same arm rest, on a flight from Chicago to anywhere. I didn't know what to say. I didn't know what to do. I was completely frozen with a mixture of joy, excitement, exilleration, whatever that is you feel when you're completly and utterly enamored while also terrified that at any second all of the wrong words would fall out of my mouth, just as they had done trillions of times before.

Not long after the wheels had left the ground at O’Hare, she pulled a small black notebook from her pack and began sketching large beautiful eyes that seemed to contain the entirety of the universe within every stroke of her pen. Her 'Hello Kitty' pouch of pens radiated like a pot of gold at the end of the most brilliant rainbow of every color and seemed to be winking at me from her tray table. Now, somewhat confused and still rather groggy from the night before, I dove into an audiobook about investing and began to rest my eyes.

Now, this would be an important time for me to tell you that she was sitting by the window, I was in the middle seat and there was a Godzilla sized human in the isle seat to my right. All of this was well and good because I found myself at one point in the flight passed out, drooling down the front of my shirt only to awake to find Godzilla patiently standing in the isle while this absolutely flawless artist woman to my left was attempting to stealthily climb over my long chicken legs cautiously trying not to wake me. She was wearing this black skirt with two white lines across the bottom edge, it may have well been the most exhilarating miliseconds of my life to be living in this very moment… My heart was now racing circles around my lungs and I felt as though every fiber of my mind would melt. She apologized as she tinker belled her way over me and up the isle. Godzilla sat back down next to me and said: “You know that woman has been drawing you since we left Chicago, right? You’re going to do something about it.”

Responding with my typical indecisively confused answer of “I don't know, are you sure?”... Godzilla instantly grabbed me by my throat and let out an earth shaking roar directly into my eye sockets as everyone on the plane heard my marbles drop to the floor and roll to the back of the plane. I stood up, dusted myself off as I made my way back to the lavatory. The sign read ‘occupied' and in a brief moment of turbulence, my body fell into the door. The thud had made it sound as if I was trying to knock on the door. Surprised, she cracked open the door with a huge smile on her face, grabbed me by the shirt and pulled me in. It all happened so fast. I didn't even have the time to gratifyingly overthink the situation and just kissed her back and it was the best moment of my life as my brain ignited like the opening image of Akira.

Everything went blank, the next thing I know a stewardess was shaking me to wake me up, the plane was empty, everyone was gone. Panicked, I leaped from my sweat soaked seat, checking my now empty pockets, scanning the overhead bins and using my hands to check under my seat… but there was nothing was on the plane. Most alarming to all of my senses was that the woman of my dreams was gone, my briefcase gone, everything gone.

Time seemed to shutter down to the speed of the thickest molasses on earth as the pilot, co-pilot, and crew all exited the plane. Suddenly, that Godzilla of a human who had been sitting to my right appeared in the galley preparing himself a hearty meal. He had an impossible expression on this face and never in a trillion years would I have guessed what he would say to me next. He held a plate of food in one hand and the woman of my dreams' notebook in the other.

“Here, she said this was meant for you.” Franticly I leaped, searching to know anything more about her, I rabidly flipped through the pages of the beautifully decorated moleskin notebook. It was coated cover to cover with ink of every color with the most brilliant drawings of anyone I’d ever seen. The drawings were all of me. Some borderline grotesque depicting me drooling asleep in my seat, but each one more brilliant than the last. Then on the last page it read “if you ever want to see your briefcase with the $20k in it again, come find me in Miami. This is for your own good.”