Bad Things Happen in Three’s
Waking up at 5 am any other morning would have been a struggle, but this morning was different. As the sound of my alarm rang through my ears, I projected out of my bed. My sister and I fought for space in the bathroom as we got ready for the day we had ahead of us. Throwing on our outfits we had carefully picked out the night before, we carried our already packed suitcases to the kitchen. With our parents already in the kitchen waiting for us, we handed our tightly packed suitcases to our dad to squeeze into the trunk. Today wasn’t going to be like any other day in the family. Before we rushed out the door, we constructed a quick list of procedures to take care of the puppies: ¼ scoop of dog food in each bowl in the morning and at night, a quick walk if possible, and make sure they have water. As we scattered out the door, we jumped into the mazda and we were off. Arriving at the airport, our take off location, we checked in to our flights and raced to security. With only 15 minutes until our plane began boarding, we were crunched for time. The line swerving in and around the poles, moving slower than a turtle, we finally reached the front. Removing our shoes, jackets, belts, and all jewelry, we lifted our carry-on’s to the moving belt. One-by-one we stepped through into a large see-through metal detector. Standing completely still with our arms out, it carefully scanned every inch of us. Stepping out of the detector, we made our way to the belt to gather our items and quickly redress. At this point our plane was done boarding and we knew if we wanted to make it we were going to have to sprint to our terminal. With our luggage rolling behind us and our jewelry in hand, we dashed for our terminal. My father leading the way with the tickets in his hand, we all followed closely behind. Noticing the gate was still open as we approached, we slowed down to catch our breath. We had made it in the nick of time. The attendant scanned our tickets and we boarded the plane with the gate closing right behind us. Our stressful morning had come to end, or so we thought until the flight attendant come over the intercom. “There will be a slight delay due to problems with the engine, we should be ready for take-off in 30 minutes”. We had a connecting flight in Los Angles that was due to depart 15 minutes after we landed. All we could do is sit there and hope for the best.