An Airport Catastrophe

“Malia hurry up! We are going to miss our flight if you move any slower!” exclaimed Laney.

“Okay I’m coming, gosh.” Said Malia, rolling her eyes.

They grabbed their highly decorated and overly packed suitcases. Heading towards the international terminal, they turned around and waived a farewell to their parents. Both of their families had come to see them off.

They quickly went and checked in and made sure they had their boarding passes ready to whip out at a moments notice. As first-time flyers, they were nothing but elated and thrilled. Like a dog being let off the leash.

“Oh, my goodness Laney, look at these cute little postcards!” exclaimed Malia.

She looked at her a little funny. “Malia, what do you even plan to do with those?”

“What do you mean? I’m going to send them to people.”

“You haven’t even been to any of those places.” Laney stated.

“And?”

“Oh, just never mind Malia, you’re a little odd sometimes. But I still love you.”

“Love you too bestie.” Said Malia with the biggest grin.

They purchased a small surplus of postcards, pens, and stickers from the airport gift shop, and then walked to where they had to board for their layover in Iceland. Everything was going perfectly. A little too perfect.

“Boarding pass please?” asked the flight attendant.

“Here you go mam.” Said Malia excitedly.

Laney handed her boarding pass over as well. They then made their merry way to their seats, hitting and knocking into many people along the way.

“Excuse me. Sorry. My apologies.” Said both girls over and over.

After making it past many disgruntled passengers, they quickly took their seats and got comfortable. As comfortable as one can get on an eleven-hour flight, in economy class seats.

Malia was sound asleep, dreaming that she was already on a boat in the Adriatic Ocean. Suddenly the boat started rocking. She held on tight to the railing of the boat but was still knocked over and on her way down, she remembered she had absolutely no clue how to swim. No, she thought, this cannot be how I die.

“Malia, are you okay?” Laney asked her.

In that moment, Malia realized her seat was being aggressively kicked by the five-year-old in the seat behind her. Now, her dream made sense. She leaned over to whisper in her sisters’ ear.

“This kid is kicking my seat, what do I do?” asked Malia.

“Kick him back.” Laney whispered with a smirk.

“Laney! You know I can’t do that.”

Malia felt too bad to say anything. So, she suffered through at least eight hours of seat kicking. This was just the beginning of her troubles. Well, of their troubles.

The flight had landed safely, and Laney and Malia made there way to go and try to find something tasty to eat.

“I’m so happy that I can finally freely move my legs. I don’t know if I’m much of a plane person like I was hoping to be.” Said Laney.

“Ah I absolutely loved it. Not even that kid kicking my seat could ruin it. Knowing we were up in the air like that, it felt like magic.” Said Malia with a glimmer in her eyes.

“Um okay crazy pants. Do you want to go lay on that bench over there, until we need to go? We have a few hours.”

“Yes, let’s do that. It will be great to stretch my legs before sitting on the plane again. I cannot believe we are going to be in Italy soon, can you?”

“It does feel a little like a dream. We worked so hard for this. All those horrible part time jobs. So worth it.”

Malia and Laney fell asleep almost the instant their heads touched the solid wood bench. It was at least three hours before one of them woke up again. Laney thought she heard something next to her ear and she opened her eyes and sat up instantly.

She looked around and when she looked to her left and woke up Malia, shaking her as hard as she could.

“What are you doing, is it time to go?” Malia asked, yawning.

“Malia our stuff is gone.”

“What do you mean it’s gone?”

Like it’s just gone. All of it. I don’t know what happened.”

“What do we do?” Malia asked.

As she asked this, Laney saw a man out of the corner of her eye, and she knew where their things were. She slowly turned to Malia and told her what she saw.

Without saying anything, they started walking towards the man that had their suitcases. Halfway there, Malia stopped.

“Are you sure we shouldn’t just tell someone who works here and have them get our stuff?” questioned Malia.

“No time, we have forty minutes to get to our next flight.” Laney stated as she continued quickly walking towards the thief.

They were about to confront him when he suddenly turned around and realized who they were.

“Excuse me sir but you have our…” The man took off running faster than either of the girls had ever ran in their life.

“Okay well now w…” Malia stopped talking. Laney was already running after the lunatic. Malia did not know what else to do so she started running after Laney. What is happening, she thought to herself.

Laney did not understand how someone rolling around two suitcases could have so much speed. The man was ducking around corners like nobody’s business. She was tired but managing to keep up with him. She was determined.

Malia was far behind but still trying her hardest to stay with them. She looked at her phone and saw that they had about twenty minutes till take off. They can not get stuck in Iceland, she thought.

Laney chased the man through a hallway and was about to give up, when out of nowhere the man tripped and fell. She heard herself laughing hysterically. She felt so relieved.

When she got closer to the man, she noticed that he had also taken her bracelet that Malia had given to her. It fell from his pant pocket and onto the floor. How did she miss that? Malia would’ve killed her if she knew.

Malia Finally found Laney, standing by and looking down at the man.

“Is he dead? Malia asked.

“No absolutely not, he hit his head when he tripped. I think he’s just knocked out.”

“Oh, thank goodness, I could never be friends with a murder.”

Laney just shook her head and chuckled. They took their suitcases back and ran to their flight. They had barely five minutes to get there and get the heck out of Iceland.

They arrived at their gate, huffing and puffing.

“Laney and Malia?” the woman asked.

“Yes, that is us, sorry. We had some trouble getting here.” Laney stated.

“Okay, boarding passes please.” Laney and Malia reached for their passes only to find a wadded-up piece of paper. Oh no, they both thought.

They looked out the window to see the man, waving around their boarding passes and passports at them. Italy was going to have to wait.