Gems on the Plane

Gems on the Plane

Sitting in the window seat of the plane. It was cloudy. If it wasn’t cloudy, I’d still fly, I just wouldn’t be by the window.

While I waited to get above the clouds I’d put on my earphones. I don’t listen to music, or books whatever, they’re usually not attached to anything, I just don’t want anybody trying to talk to me. I like listening to the other people talking.

People talk a lot on a plane. After the seatbelt light goes off, you can wander around and pick up all kinds of information. With my earphones on they think I can’t hear them anyway, so they talk freely. Yet today, I didn’t even need to walk around.

It started with the guy in the aisle seat. He pulled out a cigarette and was searching his pockets, seeming to be about to light it. The woman in the middle freaked out, “You can’t smoke on the plane!”

“I wasn’t going to, I just needed to find something in my pocket. I just carry this to remind me how hard it was to quit!

“So, you really quit this time?”

“Of course! I promised!” he said. I was ready to tune them out when he added, “Did you get the stuff back in your purse?”

“Harold!” the woman whispered loudly, nodding her head toward me.

“She can’t hear me, she’s got earphones on!” I held my head still, as if I hadn’t heard a thing. But I was determined to find out what was in that purse… it had to be light, and likely very expensive.

I got off the plane quite a bit richer that day. Antique jewelry is really hard to trace, especially when the thief, me, has absolutely no connection to the original owner, nor the first thieves…