Suitcases deposited in to the back of the car I turned back toward the house and started climbing back up the steps towards the front door. I'd been planning this trip for a year and I still felt unorganized, spending the last two hours checking and rechecking cases and back packs for passports and money, that niggling feeling that I'd forgotten something eating away at me.
"Madison, we are going to miss the flight if you don't come down here!" I yelled as I pulled my small black leather backpack on to my shoulder.
"I'm coming, I'm coming mummy! Don't go yet!" I couldn't help but smile as the little blonde head appeared around the top of the stairs, mini purse draped over her chest and cardigan covered shoulder, pulling a denim backpack along behind her. "I'm here, are we really going today? I'm so excited mummy! I can't wait to see them! Can we go to the Statue of Liberty as well?" she asked, talking a mile a minute as her converse clad feet bounded down the last few steps towards me, backpack hitting each step behind her on the way.
"Of course we can," I laughed, "it's your birthday, we can do anything you'd like. But if we don't hurry we will miss the flight and we won't even make it to New York." I took the large backpack from her outstretched hand and swung it on to my spare shoulder before taking her hand in mine as she jumped off the last step and pulled me towards the front door.
"Come on then, I'm so excited!" she squealed. I had never seen my 6 year old daughter so excited as I strapped her in to her booster seat in the car, her constant wiggling making it a far more difficult task than it needed to be. We made it five minutes down the road before the inevitable happened.
"Put it on mummy! Put the CD on pleeeasssse," I flipped on the CD player, smiling in to the rear view mirror as music filled the car and Madison started singing along to her favorite band. The same request was a regular occurrence whenever we we going to be in the car for longer than a couple of minutes and I'd learnt to just leave the CD in the player to save arguments if I ever forget them in the house. She may only be 6 years old but she had the personality of a 16 year old, she was extremely sassy and she was totally in love with music, in particular the band that she was currently singing along rather loudly to.
After an exhausting flight, that concluded in me having to bribe Madison with brownies to sit still, we arrived in New York. The airport was total chaos, there seemed to be thousands of people rushing to their flights or just hanging around not really going anywhere, large groups of teenage girls huddled on seats glued to their phones and talking excitedly though I couldn't catch what they were saying. I glanced at some of them briefly as we passed after collecting our luggage, wondering if there should be some kind of guardian with them if they were taking a school trip, some were shaking with what I could only assume was nerves for whichever flight they were going on, a few of them holding cameras. Catching one of the girls eyes as we walked passed I smiled politely and gave Madison's hand a small tug to hurry her along, watching her as she was walking backwards looking at the gate we had just exited like she was waiting for something.
"Excuse me," My eyes shot back up to find the girl I had smiled at stood a few steps in front of me, "I'm sorry to bother you, but did you just get off the flight from London? I thought I saw you coming out of the gate from that flight." She was a very pretty girl, around 15 years old with brunette hair that had been faded in to blonde at the ends.
"Yes we have," I replied smiling again and glancing down as Madison dropped my hand and turned her face up to look at the girl in front of us.
"You're here for them aren't you?" Madison asked the girl, "I told you he was on the plane mummy! She's here to see him, that's what all those girls are here for! I knew it was him, I recognized his voice!" She bounced up and down on the spot before racing the few steps towards the girl and grabbing her hand, pulling her down so they were at the same height and whispering something in her ear. She'd been determined around an hour in to our flight that she had seen one of the boyband members she liked tucked away in one of the corner seats of business class, she wouldn't let it drop the whole flight, even after I tried to explain to her that they probably had there own plane and wouldn't fly on regular flights like ours.
"Hey little monkey," I walked forward dragging the trolley holding our cases with me and took hold of one of Madison hands, "don't pull on people like that it's not kind, especially when you don't know them."
"It's OK," the girl said as she straightened up to her full height and ruffled Madison's flight rumpled hair giving her a friendly smile "thank you little princess, if I see him I'll definitely tell him it was thanks to you!" She skipped off back to her friends, throwing a wave to Madison back over her shoulder as she went.
"What were you whispering about?" I asked eyeing Madison suspiciously.
"Nothing really mummy, I just told her about our ride on the plane and how you said it couldn't be him but I thought it was," she smiled back at me cheekily and grabbed a hold of my hand again pulling me forward, "now come on, I want to go to the hotel I'm tired." I laughed and picked her up, sitting her on top of the trolley before pushing it towards the exit and hailing a cab.
