chick lit · fiction · Humor · The Traveler · Women’s literature · Writing

The Traveler – Prequel / I

Amy

I stared blankly at the large screen, its words flashing directly above my head. Even the ambience of normal airport noise couldn’t distract me from gawking, nor could common decency intervene to close my gaping hole of a mouth. I blinked four times to clear my vision, hoping to be jolted from this inconvenient day-mare. Nope, it didn’t work. The stupid thing still read “Flight 221 to Heathrow— Cancelled.”

“You have got to be kidding me!” I scream-whined out of frustration. “Grr….” There were several older, very obviously American tourist ladies congregating nearby, all donned in matching Campbell plaid vests, white shirts with lace cravats and some kind of touristy kilt-like skirt for women—again in Campbell plaid—looking at me as if I had been raised in a barnyard. Well, I did just growl out of frustration, I’ll give ’em that, but I was not decked out in a medium-weight wool. In July. In New York. I smiled apologetically (because they looked so cheerful and silly), and waved, ensuring them I was not about to attack. They turned slowly back to their maps and itineraries, though by their wary glances it seemed likely they were still not quite sure if I was harmless or not. Right about then I felt like I had been reared in a barn and not given any coping skills with which to manage this crisis, rather than the unremarkable, pleasant upbringing that l experienced in actuality. It must’ve been the heat and that promotion to Account Manager, effective immediately, that was getting to me. “Okay, let’s not freak out, Maisie. You can totally deal with this minor setback. This has happened to you before and it got sorted out rather easily. Piece of cake.” I tugged at my suit to straighten it, pivoted on my heel, and, with confidence, stomped straight to the ticket counter–then back again when I realized I had forgotten my trusty carry-on bag, which was packed with such impressive efficiency that I didn’t need a suitcase (not that l’m bragging very much). I was very proud of my ability to travel lightly, even with my camera equipment and occasional costumes I usually only required one additional checked bag. I smiled smugly to myself as I hoisted the strap over my shoulder and proceeded to the ticket counter for real this time.

The skill of packing efficiently didn’t arrive overnight, that’s for sure. I had acquired a lot of practice improving upon my technique as an assistant photographer and costume historian who traveled extensively, photographing period costumes for magazines, books, private collectors and any other organization that was willing to pay the big bucks to my employer, renowned worldwide. Talk about an awesome job–and now that I’d gotten the promotion I’d strived for three years to achieve, I felt even more enthusiastic about the future…and the past.

So now began the true test. With the promotion came complete responsibility for this plumb new assignment in England that we’d bid on and won. In addition to having another person to help on assignments–the flighty but surprisingly efficient Julie, who wouldn’t be catching up with me for three more days, the promotion meant I was placed in charge of the whole job, start to finish. So, sorry for being frazzled, but I didn’t want to blow it before even leaving the U.S.

I was traveling to Bath (or “Baaath” as the English call it), to a small costume museum that, in a few weeks, was having a grand opening for the public to come in and view the collection. I was hired, or rather my employer was hired, and I was sent, to catalogue each piece before being displayed and to verify the years and styles of certain pieces that seemed to stump everyone else. I questioned my boss about the authenticity of a historic costume museum just opening now, in the 21st century, but he assured me that most of the pieces were acquired through private collectors over decades, if not centuries. It seems that the owners of the museum, an esteemed, pedigreed family of the area, had finally acquired a large enough collection to open it to the public, which was their intention all along. In fact, I was anticipating the initial meeting of these seemingly benevolent folks at the museum very much. The problem was that it was scheduled for 10 a.m. local time and so…

Damn it if this flight was going to be cancelled on me now!

I had a crucial meeting to attend to, and I was nothing if not punctual.

I shook off my slight frown along with my thoughts and stared at the wisp of a girl in front of me as she barely cleared the top of the ticket counter. I wondered if she was old enough to be employed. She wore an expectant, annoyed expression, as if she had said something brilliant and was waiting for me to respond.

I almost had to look down on her; at five foot eight, I was nearly towering over the poor thing. “Hi, how are you? Yeah, my flight’s been cancelled and I need to get to England. ASAP.”

“Ticket, please,” she demanded in a surprisingly deep monotone. I handed it over dutifully. Do as you’re told and no one gets hurt, Maisie. “Flight 440 leaves in an hour for Gatwick. That’s all I have.” She looked so bored. I began to think they weren’t paying her enough to even be civil, or that perhaps she hadn’t yet been taught manners in kindergarten.

“Okay then, Sunshine, give it to me.” Two hours later I was on my way to jolly, old England. Notice I said two hours later; it seems Sunshine was a bit off on her time estimates, after all. As I nuzzled peacefully down in my seat, I sighed once and thought of the exciting journey ahead before I settled down into one of my favorite pastimes—sleeping. I passed the seven hours delightfully dozing.

Stay tuned for The Traveler – Prequel / II!

Go to where it all started: The Traveler

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Kevin at: thebeginningatlast9.wordpress.com

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Published by Amy

I love words. And animals. Photography and fedoras. Welcome. And stay awhile.

112 thoughts on “The Traveler – Prequel / I”

    2. Kevin, any interest in doing the accompanying feature image for these? I just grabbed a stock photo off the Internet for this one, but there will be more parts. Let me know if interested! 😊

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

      5. I am at your disposal. 😊What kind of image(s) do you need? I can work on some later today.
        If you want, see if my email is available in your subscriber list and you can hit me up direct if that’s easier.

        Liked by 1 person

      6. Cool, thanks. I will check it out to see if it’s on my list. I’ll reread the draft for prequel three and see where she is at the moment. She’s all over the place.😆

        Liked by 1 person

      35. lol, I’m just gonna sketch out some hieroglyphics on this cave wall while you’re doing that. ✍️
        No rush, I have to go to bed. I am not off tomorrow. I’m excited to see what you come up with. 😊

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  3. Forgot to say thanks. Thanks. I don’t want to create any spoilers, so would it be OK if I emailed you what I’m thinking about for the feature images? If that’s not OK, no worries, I’ll try to speak in code. 😄

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      7. Yes, I got those. My email is weird and that it doesn’t show me all of the pictures at once. I have to open several different messages and I don’t remember which messages I opened and it’s like an accordion. So I wanted to make sure there were no pictures hiding in the slots. Lol

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      15. If I have a chance later I’ll see what I come up with. I have a couple more nights of class this week, and then I am “officially” done. I’ll still be going, but mostly at my leisure. This week is pretty much a coast week, though.

        Liked by 1 person

      21. Yeah, the official class is then. Continuation of the same basically. March, I will just chip away a couple days a week. Figure while I am looking for work I might as well do something constructive in the down time.

        Liked by 1 person

      4. Thanks for your kindness, Marie-Gaye. It’s been so long since I’ve written the story, and I don’t know where it’s going, so I really would have to put my thinking cap on elevated to the next level of book worthiness. But I appreciate the confidence you have in me.😊

        Liked by 1 person

  5. Amy, this is good stuff! One question if you do not mind. Say you’d be publishing thia as a novel today, what genre would you classify your story as being? If answering this would be to much of a spoiler, then I’ll digress the question.

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    1. Good question, Jeff. This is sort of the problem I think I ran into when I was trying to shop my novel around. I had a few maybes, but no one really knew what genre to put it in, I think. I tend to think of this as Chick
      Lit, but really, it’s a little bit of everything. Just like my novel, Love Match. It’s a bit of a conundrum.

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      Reply

      1. Thank you, Amy for both your response and enlightenment concerning the question.
        I particulary liked “,but no one really knew what genre to put it in.” this proves the quality and uniqueness of both tell story you’ve created, and yourself as a skilled Author. So exciting and interesting, Pre-Ordering now!

        Liked by 1 person

      2. Thanks, Jeff. This piece isn’t a novel yet, but I have written novel. It is available, and that’s the one that doesn’t fit into a genre. Just like this short story here.😊

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      5. Thank you for sharing your work. I believe it is important for writers to support other writers, and what better way than to buy their book, read it, then offer your review? Absolutely a review will be coming soon.

        Liked by 1 person

      8. I thank you for your support. I just learned yesterday that something went wrong in the formatting process of my last release. There are parts scrambled and or missing.
        After reading the first four pages, sure enough, it is messed up.
        So I am working to correct that and it looks like I’ll have to release it again as Volume two in order for the corrections to take place.
        Just an FYI on that.

        Liked by 1 person

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