Inspiration Words: LA and Terracotta
“Where is the international terminal?” Ellie asked someone with a nametag, hoping they could direct her to the right area.
“Go outside and turn left.”
That sounds simple enough, Ellie thought as she thanked Jill with the nametag and dragged her suitcases toward the outside door. Once outside, the hot summer air sucked her breath away, but a few moments later, a breeze drifted through the concrete columns. Ellie studied her ticket before looking at the rows of numbered pillars. Gate B12, but everything around her still said A.
Why is no one else out here? Doesn’t anyone else need to get to the international terminal? And why isn’t my gate on any of the entrances? Ellie tried to stand tall as she dragged her two fifty-pound suitcases behind her. She wanted to look like she knew where she was going, even though she had no idea. A worker emptied the trash cans, ignoring Ellie as she stared in indecision. Keep going or turn back? This area looked like she was heading toward the parking garage, but she decided to try it anyway.
Several minutes later, she finally found the entrance to terminal B and headed inside. She smiled as she noticed she was now surrounded by people. Apparently, everyone else had managed to find the international terminal as well. She followed the signs toward the departure area, checked her giant bags, and soon found herself sitting in a semi-uncomfortable chair at her gate. For the first time since arriving in LA, she took a deep breath and realized she was preparing for the final flight before her new life.
Xi’an (see-ahn). That’s what the destination on her ticket said. See-ahn. Ellie repeated the sounds slowly in her head, just as she remembered her grandma saying them. Is that right? I hope I can say it properly, so people understand me.
She reached into the pocket of her loose pants and grabbed the small form of a Terracotta Soldier. What has this little man gotten me into? She thought. She felt the rounded knot of hair at the top of his head and the lines on his body showing where his uniform was. While she stared at the screen above the airport desk, waiting for the “Now boarding” signal to show she should get in line, she thought about the first time she had held this little warrior in the palm of her hand.
“China is a big place with a long history—5,000 years, as I’ve been told.” Grandma smiled as she pressed a small soldier into the hand of each of her five grandkids. Ellie’s four cousins had run off to start a war with the small soldiers, but Ellie wanted to hear more about China and her grandma’s most recent trip to that country.
“What was it like, Gramma?”
“Well, it’s different now than it used to be. You know the first time I went was for an agricultural tour with your grandpa before you were born.”
“How is it different? And what’s an agricultural tour?”
“An agricultural tour means people can go to another place to see how other people farm. I got to learn a lot about farming when I visited. Things have changed a lot since then, though– well, for one thing, they found this little man and a lot of his friends. When I was there back in the 60s, they hadn’t even found him yet. He was there, but hidden on a farm, buried like a secret under the ground.
“Are Chinese people nice? Did you try Chinese food?”
“One question at a time now, little Ellie. Chinese people are just like other people; some of them are nice, and some of them are not as nice. As for the food, it was spiiiicy! Now go play with your cousins before your little soldier gets jealous!”
Ellie did join in the games with her cousins, but she also kept thinking about that country so far away. She wondered if all Chinese people looked like the Terracotta Soldier she held in her small hand. She wondered if she would like Chinese spicy food. She wondered about everything. She wondered if the kids there ever wanted to come here. But she couldn’t imagine anyone wanting to leave a place as interesting as China to come to America. Ellie glanced at her cousins and brother as they played on the grass in the backyard. Playing war was not as interesting as hearing more of Grandma’s stories.
Gripping the soldier in her hand, Ellie went back inside and found her mom and Grandma sitting on the couch in the living room. Ellie’s mom had the most beautiful material she had ever seen on her lap. The material was dark forest green with golden dragons and phoenixes dancing all over the fabric. She reached out her hand to touch it, but her mom stopped her.
“Go wash your hands first, sweetie.”
Ellie ran to the bathroom and back. Grandma was telling a story about riding in a cart to a small shop where she had bought the fabric. Ellie touched the smooth silk. “What are you going to make?” She asked her mom.
“I haven’t decided yet, but I’m thinking about making some pillows.” Ellie’s mom smiled at her. “Maybe if there’s a little extra, you can make a small pillow for your doll.” Ellie could hardly contain her excitement as she gazed at the beautiful fabric.
Ellie thought back to the years when she had longed to go to China. She had made the pillow, but constant use left the fabric faded and worn. As a child, Ellie had wanted to go to China to see and experience everything—the food, the sites, and the lifestyle. But as she got older, Ellie realized her dream to go to China was more about the people. She wanted to meet the people that her grandma had talked to. Even though she couldn’t speak much Chinese, she wanted to know what those people were like.
People were starting to line up at the gate, and Ellie hurried to join them. Even though the “Now boarding” sign hadn’t yet shown up, and she was pretty sure it would take a while for hundreds of people to get on the flight, she wanted to be ready.
An hour later, Ellie sat in her seat with a middle-aged American woman on one side and a Chinese man with glasses on the other side. A screen on the chair in front of her advertised The Avengers, and she clicked around on the screen to see what movies they had, but mostly she couldn’t stop thinking about how the world would look when she stepped off this plane. It would be afternoon when they arrived, and she would meet her new co-workers at the university where she would be teaching.
Once again, Ellie found herself wondering about everything from the language to the food to the weather. She had asked endless questions over email to one of the other American co-teachers who was living there, but she still felt completely unprepared. She tried to talk to the Chinese man beside her, but after his eyes wrinkled in confusion behind his glasses, he stammered, “My . . . English is poor.”
“Oh, ok, no problem. I hope you have a nice flight!”
Ellie turned to the woman on the other side, but she had already opened a book and didn’t look at Ellie when she tried to make eye contact. Instead, Ellie settled into her seat to think about her new life. Over the years, Ellie always begged her grandma to take her to Chinese restaurants, but Grandma usually refused. “You don’t want to eat that American Chinese food. Wait ‘till you can have the real thing, honey. It will be worth the wait.”
And now here she was, just hours from her goal. Would it be as fascinating as Grandma always said? Would it be too hot? Would her apartment be nice? Would the students listen to her during the English lessons? A couple hours later, Ellie woke up and realized she had been sleeping. Her neck was bent sideways, and she tried to stretch out the kink. She looked at the map of the plane’s progress. Already three hours, and it felt like they had just left. Only ten more hours to go!
Unable to fall asleep again, Ellie decided to watch a movie. After that, she dozed for a while. Surely, they were getting close now. Only five hours in. During the next movie, Ellie started to doze, but when she paused it to sleep, she couldn’t move her legs into a position that was comfortable. The armrests seemed to be squeezing closer together, and the person in front of her had reclined the chair. Ellie longed to be able to stretch out her legs. Good thing you aren’t tall, her brother had said. But at this point, Ellie realized that being short did not save her from the discomforts of airplane seats.
She pulled down the tray table and tried to lay her head on it, but the seat in front of her was so far back that trying to lay down caused her back to arch awkwardly. She put the tray table up and tried to finish the movie, shifting in her seat every few minutes. Up was supposed to be a great movie, why was it suddenly so boring? She gave up on the movie after a few more minutes.
Hoping to get up for a bathroom break, Ellie looked to her right, where the woman had her hands on the tray table, a mask over her eyes, and a neck pillow supporting her neck. Sleeping. She looked the other way, but the Asian man was also sleeping. Stuck.
Ellie checked the map. Only six hours in. Seven more hours. Not even halfway.
That’s it, I’m going to be on this plane for the rest of my life. Thirteen hours is an eternity. Ellie covered her face and rubbed her exhausted eyes. She shifted in her seat and felt an uncomfortable object in her pocket. By this point, her pants had twisted around, and she didn’t even know where her pocket was, but after some adjustments, she found the familiar form of the soldier. Remember the dream.
Ellie took a deep breath and stretched her feet as far as they could go, twisting her ankles under the seat in front of her. This flight will end. It won’t last forever, and then I can see the place I’ve dreamed about for so long.
Ellie tried to picture her grandma on this plane next to her. But her grandma had told her flying back then was completely different. There had been no movies—Ellie tried to imagine how she would have survived the past nine hours without movies. Even though Grandma had said the seat areas were usually bigger, and she could stretch out her legs a little more, the plane was so noisy you wouldn’t have been able to hear a movie anyway. But Grandma had said that the worst part was the smoke that snaked out from the smoking area. For the entire flight, Grandma had endured the smell. Ellie breathed deeply. Yes, she would take a slightly more cramped seat in exchange for being able to breathe.
Ellie thought back to her grandma’s adventures in China on that agricultural tour. As interesting as that sounded, Ellie was glad her adventures would revolve around teaching. Vising her grandparents’ farm was fun, but nothing compared with the joy of seeing someone understand a new concept after you’ve explained it. Teaching was for her.
“But can’t you teach here in America?” Ellie’s best friend had asked her one day when they were talking about their plans for the future.
“I could . . . but . . . I just really want to go to China.” Ellie answered.
“But, why?”
“I don’t know. Ever since Grandma gave me that Terracotta Soldier and told me about the food and the people she met, I’ve wanted to go. She said the people are so kind, and even though they seemed poor, they were content with their lives. But they still worked super long hours because they hoped to make enough money to send their kids to a bigger city with better education.”
“My parents worked super hard so I could get an education too. That’s not so different.”
“I know,” Ellie struggled to find the words. “I just . . . I want to see something different. I want to see what their lives are like. I want to see what my grandma saw. She said the things she saw changed her life, and I want to get that perspective too. I want to understand their lives, and I want to learn something new. And who knows, maybe I can share a little bit of who I am with them.”
“Well, just don’t change too much without me.”
“No promises, but you should come visit!”
“Maybe I can go with your grandma. She’s the coolest grandma I’ve ever met.”
“Yeah, no arguments there,” Ellie laughed. “She’s the best.”
Ellie felt an ache in her heart. She was following the dream her grandma had given her—a dream to see new places and to meet new people, but now her grandma was far away.
Ellie spent the last four hours of the flight trying to sleep, trying to watch movies, trying to read, trying to eat, and trying to pray. Finally, the seatbelt sign came on, and the announcement told them to stay in their seats. The descent was agonizingly long, and after touching down, they taxied for another thirty minutes. But they were close. Ellie tried to see out the window, but the sleeping woman separated her from the tiny hole that led to the beautiful world outside.
The seatbelt sign dinged, and people crowded into the aisles. Ellie maneuvered her suitcase out of the overhead bin and plodded toward the door. She tried to smile at the flight attendants, but she mostly just wanted to get off the stuffy plane. The airport looked the same as any American airport until she got inside. The terminal was swarming with people! I guess I shouldn’t be surprised. A country with a population of 1.4 billion people is bound to feel different. She headed toward the baggage claim with the rest of the people from her flight. They had arrived. She was in China, in this city she could barely pronounce. Ellie looked up to see a giant, life-size replica of the Terracotta Soldier in her pocket standing proudly in the terminal. Time for a new adventure.