travel What happened at airport security

I pride myself on knowing how to do things like Go Through Security™ properly. I have my driver’s license and my boarding pass (which I printed at home last night) in my back pocket. My coat has been inside my checked bag since I arrived at the airport. I wear slip-on shoes, and I keep the Velcro strap over the padded computer compartment inside my carryon open so I can slide the computer out.

I put my shoes in a box.

I slide the computer out of the padding.

I hold it in the crook of my arm.

I step out of my shoes.

I bend over to pick them up.

The carryon starts to slip off my shoulder.

I forget I’m wearing a new fleece top made of frictionless acrylic, and that my hands are very, very dry.

And, as if in slow motion, right in front of me, and completely outside of my control, my computer tumbles out of my arms, tumbles to the hard, hard airport floor. It bounces on one corner, and it comes to rest flat, upside down. I, and the nice older couple behind me, and the guy in front of me, make a soft oohhh noise.

The older man looks at me reassuringly. “They’re tough,” he says. I look at the computer. It’s just lying there. I half expect it to cry or blink its lights at me or something.

I pick it up. I pick my shoes up. I pick my bag up. I put everything on the pre-belt table. I look at the computer. You know what? It looks fine. FINE. I open it, and the screen lights up, and it’s FINE. I say something idiotic to the nice couple, like “Christmas almost just got a lot more expensive.”

Half an hour later I notice the left back corner is puckered in, concave where once it was convex. I cringe, remembering the immense size of the repair estimate—and the warranty-related luck and not-afraid-to-fudge-the-date Genius Bar guy—involved in getting the bottom half of the case replaced after my mishap LAST Christmas.

I look closer. The aluminum around the pucker is displaced very slightly. But the plastic edge is undisturbed, and the plastic ring around the power input (for that is what’s in that corner) is undisturbed. I could not, had I dropped it with aim and purpose and planning, chosen a better place for it to dent.

It’s dented. It’s not perfect anymore. But it’s okay.