February 17, 2005
Celebrity War II
Tom Cruise had been keeping himself occupied by visiting airports. He had developed a number of disguises over the years, so he was able to walk among the public whenever he liked, and in the weeks before the kidnapping he'd taken to flying from city to city by private jet and vanishing into the crowded terminals.
He loved the anonymity of these trips. It was a purely physical sensation, as if his flesh was being lifted off and folded away in a silvery wardrobe. At DIA he bought a cinnamon flavored pretzel ate it with hot cheese on the inter-terminal train. At George Bush International airport he stole a Hustler magazine and made quick use of it in the men's room. He spent a night in LAX curled up next to a Continental departures gate. He ate at Steak Escape. No one recognized him.
In Atlanta he trailed a soldier. They were everywhere these days, but the Atlanta airport especially was filled with them. They wandered around like living monuments in groups of two or three, lugging their long duffle bags, and everyone felt that it was their duty to make up for Vietnam so they kept stopping and applauding whenever they passed.
The soldier Tom Cruise was tailing was obviously uncomfortable with all the attention. He kept waving off the crowds, saying: "listen, I'm stationed in Germany, it's not a big deal," but this only encouraged them to clap louder, as if to say: "soldier, just because you’re in Germany doesn't mean your not helping kill the terrorists. We are all doing our part."
Cruise followed the soldier into a news stand and watched him while he flipped through a Game Spy magazine. A man wearing a t-shirt that read, "pain is just fear leaving the body” walked over and embraced him, then walked off. A child ran up and saluted. The soldier turned to Tom Cruise, and said: "This is crazy man, I haven’t even been to Iraq.”
When his flight was delayed for the second time the reluctant hero broke down and bought a sweatsuit from a gift-shop. He changed into it in the restroom, and then slinked off into the crowd. When he was gone, Cruise went into the shop and bought the samesuit. It was embroidered with sequins that read, “Hotlanta Nights.”
Tom Cruise wore the sweatsuit to bed now; it helped him sleep. He was wearing it the night he stumbled out onto the lawn to meet his captors.
