Whatever Travels: Collecting Stories

When last we talked, our main characters were sitting quietly in an airport waiting approximately 9 hours for their flight and I suggested there would likely be at least one more story before we got home, and boy was I right!

First story, which I thought might be the best I’d get, but I was wrong: A couple came and sat near us at the gate, and Clare heard one of them joke that they could write a novel before they board. Clare laughed and asked if they were also on the WestJet flight. They said yes, and they all laughed about waiting at airports. Four hours before our plane was to board, that couple boarded a WestJet plane going to Calgary, at the same gate. They had not written their novel, and neither had we!

Finally we boarded our plane and settled into our seat with two other women. Once in the air Clare pulled out her iPad, hooked up her earbuds and started watching the movie she previously downloaded for the flight - “Come From Away”. For those who know what this musical is about, think about it for a moment, because I happen to know that Clare did not think about this at all when she decided it would be a good thing to watch ON A PLANE!

For those who don’t know, Come From Away is about the towns in Newfoundland that doubled in population for five days after 38 planes were forced to land in Gander on September 11, 2001. Yeah, she chose to watch THAT! Let me tell you, you get a whole new appreciation of the song “28 hours” (about the passengers who were stuck on the planes for over a day while security checks were done etc) when you are sitting squished in a tiny can flying through the air!

But wait, this story gets better… about an hour into the movie, Clare’s seat mate tapped her and asked if she had headphones. Clare pulled out her earbuds and looked at them, puzzled. Turns out, the earbuds battery had died, and everyone around was being entertained by the music of this wonderful play. Clare was clueless because the volume had barely changed and the iPad had just switched to speaker from earbuds. They had waited about 10 minutes before saying something, so who knows how many people in the surrounding seats were enjoying the music as well. Yeah, we were THAT passenger! I climbed under the seat and promptly disowned Clare.

We finally landed, flew through customs and got to White Van, oops I mean Red Car in record time, and lucked in with a driver already there picking up someone else (not what usually happens). We were on the highway within half an hour of landing! No more stories.

Finally home.

Whatever!

Don’t worry, I haven’t forgotten… I promised pictures of Disney…