10

As the last of the passengers left the plane, the flight crew prepared for the next shift.

“God Kim, what a day,” said Cheryl to another flight attendant, “can you believe how rude that guy was?”

“No kidding,” said Kim as she cleaned up the galley and quickly checked the bathroom, “I’m glad he spent most of the flight in this bathroom.”

“Amen to that,” said Cheryl.

“Funny thing,” said Kim, “I never saw him leave the plane.”

“Me neither,” said Cheryl, “but the bathroom’s empty and his luggage is gone, so good riddance.”

Outside on the tarmac, the ground crews were busy unloading the luggage and refitting the plane.

“What’s up with that honey wagon?” thought Carlos, as he drove towards the plane. Carlos was a maintenance supervisor responsible for the timely preparation and turn around of all incoming planes. Lately the maintenance crew had been getting heat from the airline because of delays in departure times. And now, the honey wagon, responsible for removing the contents of the plane’s septic tank, was still connected to the plane. Carlos screeched to a halt beside the honey wagon.

“What’s going on?” he said, “you guys are holding up the plane.”

Walter and Spence looked over at Carlos.

“Can’t help it man,” said Walter, “we hooked up to the plane, opened the valve and nothing. She’s plugged right up.”

Carlos walked over to the plane and checked the connection to the septic tank. “How could it be plugged?” he said, “it’s an eight inch line.”

“Maybe someone ate your wife’s cooking,” laughed Walter between high fives with his partner Spence. Carlos smiled and flipped off Walter.

“Just for that, you’re on the honey wagon for the rest of the week,” replied Walter as he ran up the ramp into the airplane.

“It’s always something,” thought Carlos as he walked down the aisle to the bathroom. Opening the door he stepped inside and lifted the lid of the toilet. Flushing the toilet he looked down and into the septic tank. Blue water swirled from the toilet and drained into the tank.

“Nothing here,” thought Carlos as he continued to hold down the handle to keep the port hole open to the septic tank.

Carlos watched the open port hole as the blue water in the septic tank carried bits of toilet paper, sanitary products and pieces of excrement past his view point.

“Lovely,” thought Carlos and then a face slowly floated up from the blue soup. The unblinking blue stained eyes looked directly at Carlos who immediately proceeded to add his lunch to the mixture.

Meanwhile in the airport terminal, Mr. Chalk was walking out of the exit doors carrying a small leather satchel.

“Hey Mister,” yelled a security guard pointing at the departing Mr. Chalk, but he was gone. The security guard reached for the send button on his collar attached microphone.

“Main, this is Area Four,” he said.

“Go ahead Four,” came the reply.

“I have unsecured luggage at Carousel Two.”

“Ten-four,” came the reply, “sending backup.” Almost immediately, two security personnel approached Carousel Twelve.

“Hi Bill,” said one of the guards, “watcha got?”

“As I was watching the Carousel, I saw this guy walk up with two bags and place them right here,” he said pointing at the bags at their feet. “He opened one of the bags and took out a small leather satchel. He closed the bag, tucked the satchel under his arm and walked away. He left through that exit leaving the bags behind. I yelled at him to stop, but when I went outside he was gone.”

“He probably just forgot to pick them up,” said one of the guards kneeling down beside the bags. “Look, he’s got his name tags and phone number on both bags,” he said.

“It shouldn’t be hard to track down this…” he read the tag, “Mr. Symens.”