A little before six the next morning, the door to Room 504
slowly opened, and Tracy Turner stepped out.
She glanced behind her, closed the door softly, and strode calmly over
to the balcony railing. There, she
looked out over the hotel.
From her vantage point on the top floor, she could see nearly
everybody down below. Not that there
were many people this hour in the morning.
A few businessmen, suited and obviously about to go to work, sat about
at one of the breakfast tables, waiting for the food to be served. A bleary-eyed passenger, stale off a
late-night flight (fresh obviously wasn’t the correct word) was in the process
of explaining his delays to the clerk.
And standing next to the fountain, watching the water flow through the
indoor pond, was a figure that…that looked vaguely familiar to Tracy.
Slipping her left hand in her pocket, Tracy yanked out a
small pair of binoculars. She held them
up and examined the figure. They zeroed
in on a heavily-bearded face, with sharply-defined cheekbones and a slightly
crooked nose that looked like it might have been broken in a fight. The eyes were…the eyes were…
They were brown, but Tracy knew that wasn’t their natural
color. Contacts. The eyes were really blue, and the man that
stood down there was none other than…
Tracy pushed a button on the side of the binoculars. They took the man’s picture and sent it off
somewhere to be examined. Meanwhile,
Tracy stepped slowly backwards, shoved her key into door 504, and slipped
inside. She turned the deadbolt before
taking her hand off the knob.
From the bedroom, she heard a yawn. She rushed in just in time to see Sarah sit
up.
“Ahhh, good morning, Tracy!
Sleep well?”
“Not as well as you,” Tracy smirked. “Let me guess…this is the earliest you’ve
gotten up in quite some time, isn’t it?”
“Not really.” Sarah
yawned. “Piccolo camp started at eight
every morning—”
“And you were there right at 8:30, I know you!” Tracy laughed. “What you need is breakfast in bed…say, now
there’s an idea! Why don’t we get room
service?”
“Room service?” Sarah thought. “Don’t they have free breakfast downstairs?”
“Sure, they do, but we already got a free night anyway. We can afford to splurge. It’d be fun!
See, look!” Tracy picked up the room brochure and flipped through it to
the menu. “Doesn’t all this stuff look
good?”
Sarah had to admit the selections on the menu did look
good. Reluctantly, she nodded. Tracy went ahead and put in the call.
“Might as well eat well,” she said, as she dialed. “We have a long day ahead of us. Oh, room service?”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Sarah did not actually eat in bed—she was up and dressed by
the time the food arrived. The girls ate
together, but Sarah saw little of her friend as she made sure she was all
packed. Tracy had packed her stuff up
early, and she went on a little walk around the hotel after eating.
When she came back, she had that big grin on her face that
meant she had another idea. “Good news!”
she said. “I’ve got us a ride to the
airport!”
Zipping up her suitcase, Sarah stared at her friend in
confusion. “Aren’t we taking the
shuttle?”
“Shuttle? Why take the
shuttle when you can take something more fun?”
Tracy darted into the bedroom and hopped up on the bed. Grinning from ear to ear, she explained what
she’d done. Sarah listened intently, and
her jaw dropped as Tracy laid out the plan.
“We’re going to the airport…in a Coca-Cola truck?”
“Sure! Isn’t it
great?” Tracy laughed. “We didn’t get
stuck with Pepsi!”
Sarah rolled her eyes.
“Tracy, this is fun and all, but I think you’re going a little
overboard—”
“Do you really? Come
on, Sarah, admit it!” Tracy rolled over
and put her head in her hands, smiling at her friend. “You’ve always wanted to ride somewhere in
one of those, haven’t you?”
“Well, it might be fun—”
“It’d be loads of fun!”
“But did you really get the driver to say yes?”
“Oh, sure, he was a great sport about it! He’s done this before, you know. Phillies rookies use him to get around if
they’ve made a bad play the night before.”
“Well, if he says it’s alright, I suppose it’s alright—”
“Then it’s settled!”
Tracy hopped off the bed, grabbed her suitcase, and yanked the zipper
tightly shut. “The maid will be here to
pick us up in a minute, and then we’ll—”
“Maid?” Sarah was struggling to keep track of all these
developments. “What’s this about a
maid?”
“Well, I thought it might be fun to sneak downstairs. You know, like someone’s following us! The maid already agreed to this, too. In five minutes, she’ll be by with a couple
of laundry carts—”
“Whoa, whoa, whoa, hold on a minute! You don’t mean that we’re going to ride
downstairs in a couple of laundry carts?”
Tracy jumped back on the bed.
“Aaaannd, you guessed it!” she said.
“Just as perceptive as ever, my friend!”
“Laundry carts?” said Sarah.
“Laundry carts? Supposing I don’t
go?”
Tracy rolled over again and smiled back at Sarah. “Oh, you will, my friend. I know you!”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Actually, Sarah had to admit, the laundry cart idea was the
icing on the cake for this plan. The
maid arrived right on schedule, Sarah and Tracy hopped on their carts, and the
maid threw the sheets over them. Less
than five minutes later, they were slipping through a delivery door into the
back of a Coca-Cola truck. The driver
grinned before shutting the door. “You
sure they weren’t booing you at Citizens Bank Park last night?”
“Citizens Bank Park?” Sarah wondered.
“That’s the Phillies’ stadium, my friend,” Tracy explained.
The truck navigated its way through the busy streets, pulling
up to the terminal a minute quicker than the shuttle had the other day. Going around to the side, the driver pulled
up the drawer and helped the girls out.
“Have a nice trip!” he said.
“Thanks a million!” Tracy replied, handing him a twenty. “Here’s a little something for all your
trouble.”
The man whistled.
“Next time you’re in Philadelphia, you just call Pete LaBrea when you
need a ride!”
“Don’t worry, I’ll remember!” Tracy grabbed her suitcase and started for the
door. “Come on, Sarah. The sooner we get through security, the
better. You never know how long those
lines are going to be…”
But the lines weren’t long, and soon, Sarah and Tracy were
walking into the same terminal they’d been in the other day. “Now, to check the departure times,” Sarah
said. “Oh, I hope my flight’s on time
today. I’m starting to miss my family…”
She noticed Tracy wasn’t listening. Her friend’s cellphone was ringing; Tracy
held up a hand. “Hello, dearest Papa?”
she said.
Whatever she heard on the other end couldn’t have been the
best news. A frown crossed her face as
she listened. “Not again!” she
said. “You’re sure it’s the same
flight?”
Uh-oh, Sarah thought to herself. I hope
Tracy’s flight wasn’t cancelled for the second day in a row.
“Well, have they shown up yet?” said Tracy. “Maybe I could just…okay…okay…yeah, sure,
but…don’t worry, we’ll make that work.
Blow mom a bunch of kisses for me if she’s not working. And I’ll see you soon! Goodbye!”
Hanging up, she smiled, but it was a smile of masked
frustration this time.
“You’ll never guess whose flight just got cancelled for the
second day in a row!”
“Not mine, I hope!”
Tracy laughed. “Mine,
of course. Mechanical failure again, and
United doesn’t have another plane around…you’d better check on yours and see if
it’s running!”
“You bet I will!” Sarah strode hurriedly towards the
departure board. “DL 557…DL 557…tell me
it’s running!”
Tracy followed behind, only vaguely conscious of the crowd
around her. She’d hit an app on her
phone and punched in two passwords.
Instantly, a flight list popped up on her phone.
“There’s the board!” said Sarah. “Now where’s the flight?”
“It might be in the third column,” Tracy muttered to herself. “Ah, yes, there it is!”
Tracy’s phone had all the flights listed too, along with
their status. Only, the status was a
link instead of a set word or phrase.
Tapping her finger on DL 557, Tracy got a pop-up that showed several
choices. ON TIME was selected, but there
was a delay option (complete with a clock) in the middle and a cancellation option
on the right.
“Oh, goodie!” Sarah stared at the board. “DL 557—right on time!”
Tracy swiped right.
“Is it really?” she murmured.
“Looks like I’m getting back to Minnesota—WHAT???!!! Cancelled?
Cancelled? Cancelled???!!!”
Tracy closed the app and put her phone away. “What’s this about cancelled?”
“My flight! They just
cancelled my flight! For the second day
in a row!”
“You’re kidding!”
Tracy stared at the board.
“Didn’t it just say ON TIME?”
“I thought it did.
Then the screen changed, and now—this is ridiculous!”
“You got that right,” grinned Tracy. “Looks like we’re in the same
predicament. My plane’s not flying
either. Dad said he’d see if he could
get me on another flight, but if he can’t…I might be a permanent resident here
before this is all said and—”
Her phone rang, and she answered instantly. “It’s him, now!” she said. “Hello, dearest Papa?”
As crowds of people hurried through the airport, in search of
their destination, Sarah watched her friend intently. Tracy seemed intently focused on
something—she scanned the crowd carefully.
“No, I didn’t bring an umbrella,” she remarked. “I think there’s a store nearby that sells
them.”
She listened some more, and then, a gleam came into her eyes.
“I can—you mean, really?
Oh, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you! This’ll be fun! Hold on a second!” She put her hand to the
phone and turned to Sarah. “Guess what?”
“What?” Sarah asked.
“Oh, wait a minute.
I’ve got an idea. Dearest papa?”
she said, going back to the phone. “You
remember Sarah, don’t you? My best
friend from back when we lived in Minnesota?
Well, she’s stuck at the airport too, and her flight just got
cancelled. She’s trying to get back to
Minnesota, and Chicago’s on the way. Do
you suppose—what? She can? Oh, boy!
This’ll be great! Thanks so much,
dad—you’re the best ever!
“Alright, it’s official!” she said, hanging up. “Great news, Sarah! My dad owns a couple private planes, and one
of them is in Philadelphia! He’s flying
here for a multi-day business trip, and he’ll need it to travel around the East
Coast. However, he’s not going in the
next couple days, so he said I could just take it back to Chicago. And better yet, he said you could come along,
and the pilot can take you back home to Minneapolis.”
“Really?” Sarah was shocked.
“No fooling?”
“Not at all!” said Tracy.
“Cymbals and catfish; it’s a good thing I ran into you here, and not
Miami or something. If Dad didn’t have
the plane here, we’d never be able to do it.
You’re coming, of course, right?”
“Sure!” said Sarah.
“With all these cancellations, I might as well. Who’s flying?”
“Oh, my dad hires a pilot for it. He’s calling him right now. Everything will be taken care of when we get
to the airport.”
“I see,” said Sarah.
“When do we leave?”
“Right now!” said Tracy.
“Come on!”
And for the second time in as many days, the
girls left Philadelphia International without getting on a plane.
I wonder what "No, I didn't bring an umbrella" means...
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