Katy's non rev adventure

"Who’s hungry? Let’s try the restaurant out." We were stuck there overnight so we tried to make the best of it. "Good it’s empty we can all sit together." Over sauntered the waitress and we wondered "Isn’t she the same lady who checked us in?" Papa wanted a hot dog. "We don’t hab dat!" Ok,Chef salad for Memo. "We don’t hab dat!" Ok, while they were looking over the menu I ordered a fish sandwich. "We don’t hab dat!" Starting to realize the menu isn’t doing us any good, I said "Ok, I’ll bite. What do you have?" "Hamburger-french fry." "No bite". I now realized English was a distant second language. Ok hamburgers for some and french fries for the vegetarians in our group. That was a start. I was wondering if I should find an excuse to look in the kitchen but I chickened out. "We don’t hab dat!" still ringing in my ears I asked Katy to pass the generic bottle of Ketchup.
The next day we called reservations and they thought that the last flight to Los Angeles would be our best bet so we listed our seven names and crossed our fingers. It was a B-747 and a through flight to Newark so this wouldn’t be that bad. It worked out OK as the crowds had dissipated during the day and we got the middle five seats and two on the side. Thirty six hours later than planned isn’t so bad. In Los Angeles we lucked out and didn’t have to change our seats. We were on the plane to Newark and the doors were closed. "Phew!" Going standby can be stressful. The plane shuddered slightly and I looked out the window. A lot of ground activity and a baggage cart stuck under the number two engine didn’t look good.
The Captain came on to say that the number two engine had to be changed and that would take 8 hours. They had the spare engine on hand and would put everyone up in a local hotel if they’d like to wait and continue on with them to Newark. Eight hours in the airport for us may have put us over the edge but no way could standbys get a hotel now with all these passengers checking in. The Captain came over as we were standing there dumbfounded and offered us one room as he and the co-pilot could share one. What a nice guy. Sure we’d do that.
Our clothes were sticking to our backs and Katy’s net stockings were implanting permanent grooves in her legs so this was a good idea. Feeling every part of the immigrant family that we were, we all piled into this one beautiful room. Ok who needs the bathroom first? Three on the king bed two on the chairs on the patio and the remaining two on the floor. This’d do nicely, thank you very much.
Back on the plane eight hours and thirty two minutes later we breathed a sigh of relief as the nose wheel lifted off. Seventy two hours after we checked in and our baggage left for Newark we were reunited with all seven bags. Katy’s non rev adventure was history but it sure made an impression on all of us (not just Katy’s legs). We laughed about it, cried about it. It was better than "Cats"!