The Ticket

Maria quickly rushed down the steps of her porch, she was completely late for her bus ride to the airport, her supervisor had signed her up for a business meeting all the way in Georgia and this was the last plane of the day.

She froze and quickly bounded back up the steps as she realized she'd forgotten her speech cards, and basically every other necessity she needed.

When she reemerged outside, she was now accompanied by a dark navy suitcase, which her sister had lent her for the long trip.

Maria flew across the sidewalk, prepared to run the short distance to the bus stop two blocks away from her house, many onlookers shot her strange looks as items constantly fell out of her overflowing suitcase, which she later had to double back for.

Okay, so clearly, not a great start.

By the time Maria had arrived at the bus stop, the bus itself had nearly left without her. Luckily, after chasing and screaming after it for a few minutes, she finally caught the driver's attention and got him to pull over.

"Thanks," Maria said, gasping for air and quickly climbing onto the bus before the driver realized he had enough passengers to worry about already.

Maria rushed through the crowded airport, swiftly dodging around the many other bustling people who were missing their plane. The airport wasn't usually this crowded on non-holidays, which made it ever the more strange that it was so jam packed on such a slow, sluggish Wednesday.

"Excuse me, pardon me." Maria said as she unintentionally knocked down or tripped people with her large suitcase, which she'd been dragging along with her the entire way.

The airport was pretty big, and she often had to double back and change directions.

Suddenly Maria heard quiet sobbing somewhere behind her.

She stopped and briskly scanned the crowd of people who swirled around her, after a few minutes of searching, her eyes landed on a middle-aged woman with a red shawl wrapped around her head, she had smooth tan skin and was around the same height as Maria.

"Hello.. Is something wrong?" Maria asked, approaching the woman gently.

The woman looked up, her rich brown eyes meeting Maria's innocent gaze.

"I lost my ticket and cannot find my gate," she sobbed, wiping away her tears. Her voice was covered with a thick accent that Maria couldn't quite put her finger on.

Maria bit her bottom lip, not knowing what to do. Her plane was about to leave, there was no way she'd be able to search the entire airport for a ticket and make it to her lecture on time.

She looked at the deck of speech cards in her hand, the title of her lecture wrung out in her mind.

"How others are suffering and what we can do to help."

"Where did you leave it?"

***

Searching was difficult, after crossing all the places where the woman said she'd roamed, Maria finally went up to one of the staff members collecting tickets for a currently leaving plane ride.

"Maybe someone's already found the ticket," the collector said. "It's only able to be used by the person it's assigned to, so it's probably turned in by now."

"Where can we receive it?"

"Hmm, I'd say the check in counter, that's where I've seen most people lose their things."

Maria nodded. "Thanks."

Ignoring the fact that she only had ten minutes to arrive at her flight, Maria guided the woman over to the check in counter, where they found a short, stubby man with long hair that fell around his shoulders waving around a ticket and calling out the name 'Margaret Everdeen'

The woman (apparently Margaret) quickly rushed up to him and tried to explain that the ticket was hers. While it was obvious the man couldn't understand much of what she was saying, he understood the situation by her gestures and handed over the slip of paper that had cost Maria so much trouble.

Margaret smiled and bowed at Maria, she tried to say something, and luckily she did so just clearly enough for Maria to make out what she was saying.

"Thank you, child. I hope you have a safe trip."

Then she quickly rushed to make it to her gate before her plane left without her. Maria sighed, disappointed yet satisfied with what she'd done.

Maria never had the heart to tell Margaret that her own flight had already left.

She'd missed it.

***

Dear Maria,

I have heard from many organizations that you missed your lecture, admittedly they were not pleased... until I explained the situation you had been in. After hearing your story they agreed to have the lecture scheduled for next month. And thanks to your actions, many of them have decided to work with you already!

Admittedly I am surprised, no one could have expected these turn of events. While you did miss your lecture, it seems that you presented your point in a different way, proving that you are the right person to work with such influential organizations. I am very pleased to say that this journey was a success, whether you finished it or not.

I see big things ahead, I hope you can see them too.

~ You're Supervisor, (and Friend)

Eleanor