The Enigma Broker

One of the things they enjoyed on a flight with Cathy was her ability to relate stories of other travelers. She was always quite careful to reserve the names but had quite a way with words. With very little prompting, Petra had convinced Cathy to take an adjoining seat and tell a story.

Cathy thought for a moment and started, “Not too long ago, I was on a flight with a celebrity and her entourage. There was the press guy, the accompanist, the costume designer, and the dog. The dog was a riot, about three pounds of determined female puppy, named Hope, who bossed everyone around. Heck, I even had to provide liver pâté for the little thing. And I don’t mean just chopped liver. Hope detested not being next to her master continually. She ended up being quite the howler when her master had to take a bio break or change her outfits and makeup.

“I was impressed at how patient this celebrity was with Hope. She finally explained to me that she had rescued Hope when she was very little and abandoned at the side of a road in the country. Anyway, there was a new costume which needed to be finished for the performance that night, all blingy with sequins everywhere. It was a size that I couldn’t wear even when I was six but looked beautiful when she came out strutting in it. Even Hope thumped her tail in appreciation of the dress that scattered lights everywhere, almost like hundreds of fairies.

“Hope had stopped eating to admire her master and thumped her tail to the music, as we got a preview of the lead song. I was permitted to capture the song on my fruit phone. I can promise you it was rocking at thirty thousand feet. Everyone clapped and whistled as the song ended. That was when Hope became agitated or more likely so worried that her master would disappear at the rear of the plane again. In a Nano second that dog jumped onto the seat arm, then up onto the top of the seat back, where she launched into her master’s arms.

“I barely suppressed my giggle as remnants of liver pâté’ covered the front of that white and silver dress from the whiskers of that dog. The costume designer screamed, the dog wailed, and the press guy tried to take my fruit phone, then thought better of it. I did help clean up the costume, but it was a lost cause. The celebrity whispered in my ear while I was working on it to not work too hard as she really hated the way it pinched her, and the sequins scratched.”

They all chuckled at the story, then really laughed as Cathy actually showed them the video after extracting promises of their silence outside of this group.