Los Angeles International Airport

Los Angeles International Airport is the departure point for Henry Chinaski’s improvised trip to Galveston to visit Joanna Dover, and the setting where his plan is nearly overtaken by his drinking and a dangerous drive. The airport sequence compresses a long night of drinking into a race against a scheduled flight: Chinaski arrives with minutes to spare, loses his reading glasses, buys his ticket in cash, and reaches security and Gate 42. The place functions less as a destination than as a narrow passage between his Los Angeles life and the visit he has decided to make.

Departure for Galveston

After speaking by telephone with Joanna Dover, Chinaski arranges to fly from Los Angeles International Airport on flight 707, scheduled to leave at 12:15 p.m. He tells Joanna the flight details, and she agrees to meet him. The plan gives the airport scene a clear purpose: he is going to see her, but the decision unfolds amid an already disrupted night and morning rather than as a carefully prepared journey.

At 11:15 a.m., Chinaski realizes that the airport is an hour away. He is dressed but has no stockings, carries no baggage, and has put only his reading glasses in his shirt pocket. The sparse preparations make the trip feel almost improvised. He leaves without luggage and drives the Volkswagen himself, although his condition makes the drive hazardous.

A dangerous approach

On the way, Chinaski has trouble steering. The car repeatedly crosses the double yellow line into oncoming traffic, and other drivers honk as he pulls back. He reaches the airport after running red lights and stop signs and driving far over the speed limit. The rush is not simply a matter of being late: his attempt to make the flight places other road users at risk before he even enters the terminal.

With about fifteen minutes remaining, Chinaski cannot find a parking space. He takes a spot beside an elevator despite a no-parking sign, choosing speed over the restriction. As he locks the car, his reading glasses fall from his pocket and break on the pavement. The small loss punctuates the larger disorder of the journey: he has arrived, but even the few things he brought are not secure.

Ticket, security, and the gate

Chinaski runs down a stairway and across the street to the airline reservations desk. Hot and sweating, he asks for a reservation under his name; the clerk writes the ticket, which he pays for in cash. The clerk then tells him that he has read Chinaski’s books, briefly bringing the writer’s public identity into the middle of this hurried, private departure.

At security, the buzzer sounds because Chinaski has too much change, seven keys, and a pocketknife. He places them on the inspection plate and passes through again. The narrative counts down the remaining time until he has five minutes left and is at Gate 42. The airport’s successive obstacles—parking, ticketing, screening—give the episode its forward momentum, while the shrinking margin makes each ordinary procedure part of the suspense.

Narrative significance

The airport sequence contrasts the formal order of air travel with Chinaski’s chaotic approach to it. A booked flight, a named reservation, a ticket paid in cash, security screening, and a numbered gate all promise an orderly passage; his reckless driving, inadequate preparation, lost glasses, and last-minute arrival strain that order at every step. The airport therefore marks the point at which a private decision to visit Joanna becomes a concrete journey, without erasing the instability that has shaped the decision.

Elsewhere, Chinaski describes drinking as something he turns to whether events are bad, good, or absent, while his work on his first novel is also associated with nightly heavy drinking. The airport episode gives that recurring pattern an immediate practical consequence: drinking accompanies a trip that demands alertness and careful judgment. His arrival at Gate 42 establishes how close he comes to missing the flight, but the supplied account does not state the flight’s later outcome or what happens after he reaches the gate.