I Found My Calling at the Airport

This next story isn’t quite as action packed as the last one.  Don’t get me wrong, it’s still entertaining, but its purpose is more to explain “where it all began”.  At a very young age I fell in love with traveling.  As the years went by it turned in to an addiction.  That and the fact that I have never (and I mean EVER) gone to the airport and NOT had something bizarre happen means that a good portion of my stories involve traveling.  This next story just goes to show that this is not a recent phenomenon; it’s something I’ve been dealing with my entire life.

My mom has always traveled for work and every chance she had she would let me tag along with her; clearly she is to blame for my addiction.  During one such trip she and I were flying out of Chicago’s Midway airport.  I believe I was only about 11 or 12 years old, I mean this was way back when Midway was only two hallways with one security line; so it had to be forever ago.  Anyway, her and I were on our way to the gate when we passed a ringing payphone (this was pre cell phone days so it was still widely accepted to use payphones).  The ringing stopped me in my tracks.   It couldn’t have been a coincidence that the phone started ringing RIGHT as I walked by, so I felt I owed it to the person on the other line to answer. Without alerting my mom of the change in plans I walked over and answered the phone.

 ("me" on the phone)

Me:  Hello?
Person on the phone (we will call her Betty):  Hello?? Kathy??
Me: Um no.  This is Caitlin.
Betty:  Well is Kathy there?
Me:  No.  Well I don’t think so.  I was just walking by this phone when it rang.  So I answered it.
Betty:  Well I’m looking for Kathy and Joe.  Would you be able to tell me if they are there?
Me:  You know you called a payphone at Midway airport, right?
Betty:  Yeah.  Kathy said to call this number back.

Even though I informed her that her friends were nowhere to be found, Betty continued to describe them to me.  I felt bad and figured I’d already come this far, it wouldn’t hurt to quickly check the nearby gates. At this point my mom’s patience was running out.  With a confused look on her face she walked over to me and asked, “WHAT are you doing?!?” 

What did it look like I was doing?!?  Clearly I was looking for Kathy (about 40 yrs old, medium height, brown hair, pink t-shirt) and Joe (younger guy, 6 foot, blonde hair, black Star Wars t-shirt).  After realizing I wasn’t kidding, my mom reminded me we had a flight to catch and I didn’t really have time to be assisting the random woman who called an airport payphone.

So I let Betty know that she was out of luck and I really had to go.  I suggested having them paged; which she interpreted as me paging them while she held.  So I explained how the paging process works and no, I don’t know the phone number to the airlines but I bet the yellow pages could tell you.  Finally I hung up and my mom and I continued towards our gate. 

As we were discussing and laughing about the whole phone incident we passed something that made me, once again, stop in my tracks.  A 40-something woman with brown hair, medium height and a pink t-shirt was saying goodbye to a 6-ft tall man in a black Star Wars t-shirt that was boarding the plane (this was also back when you could go to the gates even if you weren’t flying).  I went over and tapped her on the shoulder, “Excuse me, are you Kathy?”  She looked at me very confused and answered, “Yes.  Do I know you?”

“No.  But I answered a phone a while ago and Betty is looking for you.  I don’t know if it’s important or not,” I proudly announced.  This news delighted her.  She started screaming down the jetway at Joe to get him to turn back.  He walked back out with a terrified look on his face.  “Joe, this is the girl who answered the phone!  She’s the one who talked to Betty!!” she shrieked.  He was clearly not impressed.  He gave me a thumbs up and headed back towards the plane.  Kathy let me know that she was able to get a hold of Betty but thanked me for trying to help.  Pleased with my good deed, I ran back and caught up to my mom.  All she could do was shake her head and say, “only you.  Can’t take you anywhere.”

If only she knew then how true that statement was!