Chapter 8

Lindie hadn’t said anything to me but when we were leaving the beach and packing our stuff into the car, she put on her watch. If anything was an indication about what she was thinking that simple action told me she was concerned we might be late to the airport.

We were on the interstate in an instant and speeding toward the Stewart City Regional Airport. Lindie was real quiet and I could see the wheels turning inside her head. I just didn’t know what it was they were turning for.

As I’ve said a few times, I’m a guy. I hope I’m not queuing in on that too frequently. But in this situation, the love of his life, my life, has just come back, hopefully in a permanent fashion. So what’s a guy, me, to do. I tagged the speed limit and added just under ten to insure we were not going to be by anyone’s measure, late.

Now I know what you’re thinking. I hit a speed trap, got pulled over and we were delayed hours. Nope, nothing like that. Lady Luck was with us and the Troopers were stopping speeders in the other direction. Me, says I, to my self, on the way back, rather than adding ten, subtract a couple. I don’t want to be stopped as an introduction to Lindie’s sister.

I didn’t say anything to Lindie as she fidgeted. As every mile marker passed by on the side of the road she glanced at her watch. At about the halfway point, she started to relax. We were way ahead of schedule.

The trip to the airport was a success. We arrived as I had calculated, a half-hour early and that included parking the car and getting into the terminal.

Of course there were problems we had not figured on. Lindie wanted to go up to the gate and we were stopped at the security checkpoint. They didn’t want anyone to go beyond that location unless they were a ticketed passenger.

Sometimes Lady Luck kills you, like what happens after you’re three hundred ahead at the slots and you just can’t stop until you’ve not only lost that but a hundred more. Futility smacks you in the face a dozen times before you stop putting lost money after more lost money into them.

And then there are other times, Lady Luck smiles at you, like today. Standing back from the checkpoint was someone I knew. Jack Binlow. He was dressed in a uniform looking suit and ‘Saint’s Be Praised’, he had a nice shiny badge hanging on his pocket. He sure looked like a supervisor.

He had not only been in my grade but had been in several of my classes all through high school to graduation. OK, I hadn’t thought of him as a playmate, but like everyone in the class, he was a friend. I wasn’t sure he would remember me and doubted he’d remember Lindie. After all, she’d skipped town just before high school.

Lindie hadn’t seen him standing there off to the side as she was trying to talk the agent into letting us go to the gate. Just then Lady Luck started to pull the strings and the agent called over Jack because she was not getting anywhere with us.

When Lindie has set her mind on something, she wants it and it’s hard to change her mind. I do have to agree with her in this situation, an eleven year old, unaccompanied minor should be able to be met at the gate. Regulations or not, it just makes sense.

So Jack was all serious like and lets the agent explain. Then a light goes on and his face lights up. “Belinda!” he exclaims.

“Jack?” she replies, puts her hand on his shoulder pleading, “Can you help?” Then she leans into him.

Now, Jack really didn’t look at me. He didn’t acknowledge me at all. It was sort of like I wasn’t there. I’m not sure why, but I can guess he must have had a thing for her and well, that showed.

Right then, this whole thing could have gone either way. Lindie was near tears and she just said, “Please!”

“This child is your... ?” he asked.

I piped up “Sister!” before Lindie could form a word or anything.

Jack looked like he was surprised at my outburst, but nodded his head. He thought for a second and then said, “OK,” to Lindie. Continuing to look directly at her he added, “I’ll have to accompany you to the gate just to follow regulations.”

Now, I was wondering if that was an actual regulation or was he just twisting things, trying to get into a favorable place in her heart. Now, I knew that’s just where his name went but it didn’t bother me because he moved into that place in my scheme of appreciation too.

So go along he did. What was funny was there was no mention or hardly any recognition of me. I hesitated for a second as Lindie followed Jack through the scanner and then those two walked off.

I had no idea if I was permitted, just being a bystander, but the agent smiled at me and waved me though. I was afraid that something would beep when I was scanned, but it didn’t.

Yeah! Lady Luck had struck again!

It took a couple of fast steps, and then I was walking just a little behind them. After I was well past the scanner, I realized that it didn’t go off when Jack went through. With all the metal he was carrying the scanner must have briefly been turned off. Go Figure?

I thought, sometimes friends appear in the strangest places. It was nice that it happened in this time of need. I don’t know how Lindie would have handled it if she had been denied the trip to the gate.

Anyway, as we neared the gate, Lindie and Jack were chatting up a storm. They were talking their stuff, sharing who did this and who did that. Who was married and was not. And on and on.

OK, even though I pretty much knew all the details, I just didn’t want to interrupt their conversation with my input. So, even before they stopped a few feet from the actual gate area, I had shifted over to the window to watch the toy planes.

Now what boy, OK Guy, doesn’t want to watch the planes pull in and out, takeoff and land. Yeah, another Guy Thing! To be honest, I’d zoned out on their banter and it was either doze off or watch the toy planes on the other side of the window.

When I saw a plane approaching the Jetway for our gate, I meandered over to the chatting pair and said I thought the plane had arrived. Well it was that moment I realized, as I had thought or hedged on, Jack had no intention of letting me do the ‘Gate Walk.’

I had two faces turn toward me. Lindie’s was all smiles and Jack’s was one of “Ooops!” He must have thought, “Oh well?” It was too late anyway. I figured I’d play it cool and just let things happen and hope an international incident wasn’t provoked by my being in the wrong place at the right time.

I moved back a few steps and let them look longingly at the Jetway door. Finally travelers started bustling out. Some wandered without any seeming purpose, others were on the luggage dash to be first at the ‘Baggage Pickup’ conveyor belt in what they figured was the best place to be to get your goodies.

We all have played that game one time or another. I didn’t know if Michelle had brought anything other than a carry on something or other or if we would have to play that uniquely airport waiting game.

The plane was a smaller commuter plane and I guess it held about fifty people. It seemed to me that particular plane was like the Volkswagen you see at the circus. You know, the one where after the shortest and tallest clowns you have ever seen manage to extract themselves from the tiny bug, only for fifty more clowns to emerge and then they all run around.

Well, it was at the point where all of the clowns had emerged from the Jetway and no one else was in sight. With the door open, we could see the entire run, down to the point where the little rotating end was. It was twisted to the left and there was not a soul to be seen.

Lindie looked over at me and looked as if she was ready to burst into tears. I was sure she was thinking her sister had been swept away by the aviation devil, never to be seen again.

It was at just the moment I realized none of the flight crew had exited the plane that I had my heart stop. I don’t know if I actually made a sound, but it felt like I had gasped. Just rounding the end of the Jetway, with a Flight Attendant in tow, was Lindie, age 11.