Snow on Christmas

Tracking her down

Ash's heart pounded as she stared at her phone, the information "unused number" mocking her. She glanced at the departures board, frantically scanning for all the flights going to Spain in the next minutes. But that was not helpful.

There was a flight to Madrid in the next 15 minutes, another flight to Valencia in 25 minutes and a flight to Barcelona in 30 minutes. It could be any of those flights.

"What should I do, what should I do?", Ash asked herself in her thoughts. She looked around in the airport as if the answer would just fall from the ceiling or one of the employees would come to her and just tell her where Liora was going. She held the charm tight in her hand. "I can't leave her without this."

She spotted an airport employee at a information counter and walked straight to her. "Excuse me, can you help me?", Ash asked purposely vague.

The middle-aged woman smiled and said "Of course. What's the problem?"

"Can you give me any information about a flight to Spain? A friend is on board, and I need to give her something", Ash explained.

The employee gave her a strange look. "I can't share private information of the customers to a stranger. That's part of our privacy policy."

Ash sighed and was visibly nervous. "Please. She has a great fear of flights, and she needs this." She held up the charm as proof, but the look on the woman's face didn't change much.

"I'm very sorry, but there is nothing I can do for you", the employee said compassionately.

"It's okay, you're just doing your job. Thank you anyways", Ash said and turned around.

Her brain was in overdrive, trying to think of a good solution. Time was racing her, and she was losing. All of sudden she had a great idea: she could call Mathieu in the bookstore. She just needed to find the receipt in the cooking book for her colleague.

Quickly she took the book out of the bag. Somewhere between the pages there must be a receipt; and there it was. Ash scanned the receipt as fast as possible for the telephone number of the bookstore. When she found it, she typed the number fast in her mobile phone.

The telephone rang. It felt like forever for Ash. But then, the friendly voice of Mathieu appeared: "Bonjour, Aurea Littera, Mathieu à l'appareil. Comment puis-je vous aider aujourd'hui?"

"Mathieu! It's me, Ash. I need to know where Liora is flying! I'm at the airport but she already headed to boarding", Ash said eager.

"Woah, calm down. You're at the airport?", Mathieu repeated.

Ash just rolled her eyes. "Yes, I am at the airport. Will you help me now?"

But Mathieu kept asking: "But do you have the charm? You actually found it?", Mathieu pressed, curiosity piqued.

"Yes, I found it! Can we skip to the part where you tell me which flight she's on?" Ash replied, her impatience bubbling over.

"Alright, alright! Liora is flying to Valencia," Mathieu said casually.

"Valencia? Thank you so much, Mathieu! You're a lifesaver!" Ash exclaimed, relief flooding her.

Mathieu chuckled. "Just another day in the life of a bookstore employee, playing airport rescuer. Good luck, Ash! Try not to trip over your own excitement. Au revoir."

So it was the flight to Valencia. But one problem remained, she still didn't have a ticket. So she ran back to the woman at the counter.

"Hello again, I need a ticket to Valencia", Ash blurted out.