SofSW: The SW Basics (4/6)

The arrow pointed this way, I’m sure of it. But this is a long corridor and there have been at least open doorways leading to the right from here. Should I have taken one of them? What if I’m headed the wrong way? This corridor ends soon and there’s a sign saying “Security Check”. I’m still on the right track. I climb the stairs as the escalator seems to be out of order. There’s a red light, you see. That’s a sign that the escalator won’t work, or it would only go in the opposite direction. Some escalators can go up or down at a moment’s notice. They have a blue sign with an inviting arrow showing the currently available direction. I’ve sometimes wondered what happens if people enter the escalator at exactly the same time from both directions. Will the one wanting to come up win, which made more sense than the other direction? But there is also the third option, instead of choosing up or down, the escalator can decide not to move at all. I’ve seen escalators in America with signs saying “use stairs when escalator not moving”. My first thought was that isn’t a stopped escalator a staircase, but in the promised land of lawsuits it can be too dangerous to be climbing on a stopped escalator, which suddenly surges into action.

I’m glad I don’t have my suitcase to drag up these stairs anymore. There’s a uniformed man sitting on a chair at the top of the stairs. He’s reading a leaflet, looking bored. Behind him on the wall is a sign. From this distance I can barely make out what it says: “Be sure not have any fluids in your bag. Mass isn’t mental. For your security.” For greater security the man looks up from his leaflet as I am about to pass him and asks if I’m carrying any liquids. I shake my head and head towards the security check queues I see through the glass wall.

There are twelve security gates, but seven of them are not in use. Red signs above them show that the gates are closed. Five gates show green light and there’s a lot of action. Uniformed officials accept bags on to the line moving through the X-ray machine. One official is staring at the monitor trying visually to locate suspicious shapes of metal or other visible materials. A man and a woman stand ready on the other side of the metal detector holding handheld detectors. I don’t normally have to be searched because I don’t beep, but I’ve seen days when everybody beeps, just in case. Such days can’t happen too often, otherwise the officials and the travelers would lose their trust in these devices. I think the sensitivity of the metal detectors is randomly adjusted all the time so that at least all bigger metal effects are detected, but sometimes you’ll beep if you have liver pâté on your morning toast.

I’ve seen people get into trouble for pens that contain liquid ink. Do I have any of those? What if they stop me and search my bag? I don’t want to explain anything. I need to get to a quiet place and follow my thoughts. Otherwise I’ll lose my train of thought, possibly forever. Immature ideas are like beautiful butterflies, if you want to keep them, you’ll have to catch them to moment you realize they are there. Good ideas are rare too. Why can’t I just put my bag and jacket on the belt and walk through the metal detector unbeeping and be left alone? I have put every last metallic object in my jacket pockets, so I wouldn’t beep. I’ll even remove my belt to be sure. Oops, my notepad and a pen are still in my back pocket. I’d better put them in the jacket pocket. That was close! Have I forgotten anything else?

Gases have been always banned from airplanes, and since end of 2001, liquids are banned too. Metallic objects are detected and checked, and the rest of the hand luggage is X-rayed. Even solids are checked. There’s some security holes left in the system, though. There’s at least one huge one, the human body. Diseases are a threat in a world where people can move from one place to another quickly and without worrying about the distance. Epidemics have no boundaries anymore. In the medieval cities, the town wall could protect the people inside or outside. It formed an obstacle for the spreading of black plague. Nowadays, you might be infected in Africa and be in North America before you know it. Epidemics could spread like this very widely, even without evil intent. But if you add some planning into the picture, you’ll realize how antiquated the security systems at airports really are.

It’s my turn now. I put my bag on the line and open it to reveal the laptop I’m carrying. Earlier you had to turn the laptop on, now it is no longer necessary. I take off my coat and place it in the empty tray the official moves next to the tray containing my open bag with the laptop. He asks me to empty my pant pockets for any metals and I shake my head and walk through the large arch of the metal detector. Every fiber of my body is tense and aim at the middle of the detector, there’s less chance of beeping if you don’t hit the sides of the device. No beep. I let out a sigh of relief but not too obviously to not raise suspicions. My bag has gone through the X-ray scanner, I close the bag and take my jacket, which hasn’t caused anything out of the ordinary either. With all my things I head for my gate.

There’s a café here. Should I eat something? If I eat now, the meal on the plane will be wasted. I decide to wait, although I am feeling slightly hungry. A beer might relieve my tension and ease my hunger too. No, better not, even one beer can mess my thinking. I won’t know if I’m on the right track, because with beer almost anything seems like a good idea. Not all my ideas are good, I know that much. This time I fight off the temptation, a double temptation to be exact. I won’t eat anything yet and I won’t drink any alcohol. Should I buy a drink still to ease the hunger? I could have a Coke or some juice. The queue of people with trays full of sandwiches, pints of beer and cups of coffee makes the decision for me. I head for the gate and hope that there are not too many people there. Best would be to find just a few sleepers, because you’ll never find a completely empty waiting area. There’s always somebody waiting, at the dentist’s, in police offices, in the car registration office, you’ll never find a supermarket with nobody queueing. A couple of people sleeping this early in the morning would mean that they are totally exhausted from jet lag and wouldn’t be able to disturb me anytime soon. I hope for sleepers, because it can’t be empty.
What if my gate’s full of people? Will I find a quieter gate?