“No, I value our friendship but sometimes I like to have a change of scenery. It’s nothing personal. Now, since you won’t see me for a while, I invite you to have a seat here and we can watch a movie together,” I offered.
Tiko, the little nisser or elf as some may call them, snuggled up to my right side. They seemed like children to me although I know he’s older than Hobs One of the elves once told me he was a couple of hundred years older than my three-foot gnome friend.
We each reached into the popcorn bowl. At first the movie the Titanic came on the screen, but something about the waves near the ship bothered me. Scrolling down the menu, I found a good movie I knew they would like, called Over the Rainbow.
—-
The next morning I woke up at four o’clock. I packed my toothbrush and hairbrush into my large purse to use as my carry-on bag with an extra change of underwear just in case my luggage and I separated at the airports. I fed Mickie, ate some toast with jelly, and downed a cup of coffee. I was rinsing out my cup when I heard someone knock on the back door. Trisha and Larry were there waiting on the porch.
“Are you ready?” she asked when I opened the door.
“You bet,” I replied, hurrying outside under my yard light over the porch with my purse strap slung over my shoulder and my rolling suitcase. I wanted to close the door without a sound so Mickie wouldn’t realize I was gone, but I knew it won’t take him long to locate me.
“Is this all you’re taking?” Larry asked, pointing to my small luggage. He’s a large man with huge biceps which he needs in his line of work of a bail bondsman.
“Do I need more?”
“No, you’re fine. What about your dog?” he asked as Mickie popped out of the doggy door.
“He’s staying here. René will take care of him,” I said. “My neighbors know that I will be gone and look in on him.”
“And, I’ve asked our oldest, Peter, to check on him,” Trisha added.
“Stay,” I commanded toward my dog and we headed for the yard gate.
Of course, he didn’t stay. He hopped down the porch steps to run after me. I handed Larry my purse and suitcase as he and his wife closed the gate ahead of me so I can say goodbye to my little jumping dog.
“Now, you stay. René will come by and check on you,” I explained to my dog as if he could understand while I backed out through the gate. I proceeded to lock the latch with the dangling padlock and waved him goodbye. Of course, he started whining.
“He makes me feel miserable,” I told my friends as I hurried through the snow path they had made between our houses and climbed into her car. Larry finished loading the trunk with our luggage and shut the lid.
“Don’t look at Mickie,” Trisha said. “He’ll be fine.”
“I suppose. Let’s go, Larry, before I have a flood of tears in your back seat.”
I turned away from looking at my house while Larry backed up the long driveway into the snowplowed street. The ride to the airport in Idaho Falls from Firth is about thirty to forty-five minutes after the rush hour. But at five o’clock in the morning, we shouldn’t have delays. Our flight didn’t take off until eight o’clock but we wanted to have time to unload our luggage and to eat something after we checked in our bags and cleared security.
My suitcase was the right size that can be loaded into the overhead compartment of the plane while Trisha and Larry checked in their larger luggage at the service desk. Once in line for the security check, we only had to wait about ten minutes, as there weren’t too many people flying out at this hour. Locating our gate in the small airport, we sat down near the food kiosk.
While we waited, I unpeeled a granola bar from my purse and did a word puzzle. For a brief moment, I left my bags with my friends, the Paiges, and walked up and down the short concourse which reflects the Idaho Falls population size of 56,000.
—-
Trisha turned to her husband who was scrolling through his phone after I left my chair.
“Larry, will you promise me to always support Susan no matter what happens?” she asked.
“Sure, why wouldn’t I?”
“Well, sometimes she gets herself into a predicament that seems unbelievable to the average person. Just go with the flow when she says anything odd. Trust me.”
“Okay, hon, whatever you say,” he said and returned to his phone to read the latest news.
—-
When I returned, we decided to grab a prepackaged sandwich at the only open fast-food franchise and had some breakfast.
My friend studied her tickets and commented, “According to my timetable, the flight should take two hours to Phoenix, a two-hour layover, and it’s a seven-hour flight to Hawaii. Come on Susan, Larry, let’s get up and walk some more.”
We strolled for another ten minutes and took the stairs up to the second floor where our gate was located. After we sat down in the row of six seats near our exit gate number two, Larry rose and walked over to the airline desk and retrieved three green luggage tags for our small totes we’ll carry on the plane.
“The stewardess over there said there will be curbside assistance for any carry-ons or purses if you want. There’s no extra charge.”
“I think I’ll do that,” I said, “and just leave my smaller bag with me under the seat.”
Larry gave me another baggage tag for the curbside service. As I was attaching the paper tag through the handle of my suitcase, the announcement overhead let us know that we would be boarding after the handicap people are loaded.
One by one we presented our boarding passes at the service
