Their hands, clasped in farewell, refuse to let go. They both try with little success to hide their emotions. Many of the two young men’s dreams have been fulfilled and many more have yet to happen, which makes this goodbye difficult. Together they have cleared paths, surmounting obstacles that stood obstinately in their way. One of these obstacles has just been successfully overcome.
In the end, almost at the same time, the hands part, giving way to a swift embrace. Then a brief farewell to hide the emotion they both feel.
“I’ll be waiting for you, Fúser.”
“We’ll get together again, Mial.”
Mial sits on the wall between the runway and loading area, full of horses on their way to Miami. He watches Fúser grow smaller and smaller as he makes his way toward the huge cargo plane. It had been impossible to tell just how huge it was until now, measured against the tiny figure of his friend, who starts to climb up the ramp where the racehorses had been hoisted minutes before. Halfway, he turns his head and waves his right hand in farewell.
In response, Mial leaps to his feet, all his feigned indifference disappearing in an instant. He waves his arms and, defying the distance that muffles his voice, shouts, “Bye, Fúser. I’ll be waiting for you, Pelao. Study hard, Ernesto. Chau, chau.”
The noise of the closing hatches is immediately followed by the roar of the engines. A minute or two later the plane passes over Mial’s head. In a movement by now second nature to him, he drops down onto the lawn beside the wall of Maiquetía airport. He takes a notebook carefully covered in red paper out of a battered knapsack, rests his back against the wall and begins to read.