A Travel Agent's Nightmare

Gayle made her way to her seat. “Okay,” she told herself, “you’ll be fine. It’s just a plane, and planes fly all the time.” A large, sweaty man in a business suit pushed himself into the middle seat. Now she was not sure she liked the window seat. A mother ushered in two children behind Gayle and the large man. Soon they would be ready for takeoff. The weather had been frightful with wiping winds and blinding snow, but the pilot assured the passengers they would be taking off soon.

After three hours on the tarmac, the flight lifted off. It was only a three hour trip, and she was thankful for that. The large, sweaty man next to her fell asleep right after takeoff and snored loudly. The children behind her fussed and kicked the back of her seat, impatient.

The flight made it to the airport in Milwaukee, where Gayle had a connecting flight. Gayle had but minutes to spare and ran through the crowded airport. She made her gate and handed over her ticket, her breath coming in short gasps. This flight turned out to be worse than the last. By Chicago, the plane was forced to make an emergency landing. There was smoke in the cockpit, but the pilot remained calm, as if it were a normal occurrence. It took six hours, but all the passengers were loaded back onto the same plane for the trip to Florida. Gayle prayer for their safety the entire trip, gripping her arm rests each time the plane hit so much as a little turbulence.

The plane finally touched down, but Gayle did not stop praying until they came to a complete stop and her aisle of seats was asked to leave the plane. She tried to ignore the stewardesses as they talked, nervously about the incident. She still had to fly home and didn’t want to think about everything that could go wrong.

Gayle was furious to find, upon arriving at the Cruise company that, due to the several delays, her ship had already left. Now she was on the other end of the country, supposedly on her dream vacation, and may never get out to sea. She had no idea what to do. A employee from the cruise company finally came to her as she sat, head in her hands, and told her she could board the ship tomorrow at their first stop in The Bahamas. The ship would send boats in at 10 am. All she had to do was take a flight to Nassau and she could board at the end of the day with the passengers who went ashore to shop. Gayle didn’t like the idea of flying again, but she had no choice if she wanted to take at least part of this cruise.

Gayle took a short flight later that day. Unable to find a room at the main hotels, she wandered off into another part of the city. She found a room but was sadly disappointed. She heard something as she flicked on the dim, bare light bulb over head. One cockroach hadn’t made it out of site. She crushed it with the heel of her shoe. She surmised that if she slept with the lights on, she’d be fine, but couldn’t bring herself toward the bed, let alone to lie in it. She sat on the edge of a wooden chair and watched the scratchy 13” TV. It was getting late, and she heard some men outside. One came crashing through her window, an accident brought on by drunken horseplay. Gayle could take no more. She’d wait for her boat down by the port.

This idea turned out to be no better. There were seedy characters of all kinds lurking behind every post, it seemed. She prayed for daylight, knowing it was not to come so quickly.

“Honey, you’re beau-i-ful!” a drunk sang out from behind her. “We should hook up. Marry, me, Sweetie!” the man lunged at her out of drunkenness. She walked endlessly around, not realizing she was in the middle of a large party. She just wanted daylight.

Ten O’clock, as promised, the boat came in with passengers from the ship. Feeling sick, Gayle boarded for the return trip. The ship was grand – with all of the amenities she promised her clients. Her stomach lurched as she got to her cabin. With three days left in the trip, she decided she should take this one to sleep. She felt terrible. The next two days were no better. She was unable to leave her cabin, or even to order room service. A doctor came to see her. He suggested food poisoning. He gave her some medication to help her sleep and she did.

Gayle had flown back home without ever seeing any of the sights. The passenger next to her was a young mother with a teething baby. His screams did nothing for Gayle’s headache. After landing she had gone immediately to the office.

“Hey, Gayle, how was your trip?”

Gayle ignored Terry. She grabbed a box and loaded her personal effects from her desk into it.

“Hey, what are you doing?” Terry wondered.

“I can’t do this, Terry,” Gayle shook her head at him. “I thought I was sending people on the vacation of a lifetime. I thought I was helping people relax. I just don’t have the heart for it anymore.”

“Wait!” Terry called out as she walked out of the office for the last time. “Wait, Gayle!” The door closed behind her.

Word Count: 926