A CHANGE OF PACE... Bermuda (Part 164p)

A CHANGE OF PACE… Bermuda (Part 164p)

The stewardesses hadn’t served everybody (who was interested) when the first signs of buffeting occurred. The pilot came over the speakers telling them to secure the food carts and warned all passengers not to leave their seats. At that time we’d only been in the air for a fairly short time and my guesstimate was we had well over an hour to go. My thought was if it was this rough so early in the trip what was it going to be like the rest of the way. About the same time the pilot came on again and said he was going to try and fly around the turbulence. It wasn’t long after that I could hear some people using barf bags. I knew Elle would too, sooner of later. Even with the pilot’s evasive maneuver the buffeting got worse. I, myself, wasn’t worried about anything other than Elle… until I felt the plane go into a free-fall. I have no idea how far or for how long it lasted… but it was enough to upset me. When the plane got level again I watched Elle reach for her barf bag. Not a pleasant sight.

We got tossed about like popcorn in the popper. There were women crying and across the aisle from me I saw a man with his eyes closed and hands and fingers together as if he were praying. The next announcement from the pilot did not bring forth good news. I’d mentioned the reason for our delay in leaving Bermuda had been the heavy plane traffic of planes waiting to land at our destination. In spite of waiting to avoid the congestion it turned out that the storm had created even more. The pilot’s words were few… that we were 16th (I think) in the queue. That made me look at my watch. I distinctly remember what it read… almost 11pm. We’d gotten in line to board the plane at 7:30pm and now it was 3 1/2 hours later. I immediately looked at Elle and knew… There was nothing I could do about her problem so began wondering just what we were going to do about getting home.

During the wait to board at the terminal I’d managed to get a call through to my father and explained what was happening from our end. We both recognized there was little to no chance for him to get back to me but said he’d try to get in touch with Cliffy. We left it that I’d call him as soon as we landed. Sitting there in the plane all I could visualize was being stuck at the airport in the middle of the night. What had been a very positive experience was dissipating by the minute. One thought I had was that my aunt and uncle lived not too far from the airport so that was a possibility. However, my uncle didn’t drive and my aunt wouldn’t drive at night. If that was going to be our ‘out’ it would mean taking a taxi and we’d gone through most of our cash. The more I thought about the situation the worse it seemed to get.

We landed just before midnight. Elle had managed to fall asleep for most of the time we were flying around in circles above the airport. It was still ‘bumpy’ and the pilot kept reinforcing the need to stay in our seats. Talking about ‘bumpy’, the landing sure was. It was enough to elicit some female cries. I’d not been troubled with the turbulence but the sudden ‘smack down’ on the runway had my heart really beating. When Elle’s grogginess wore off the realization of her predicament hit her. The only thing I could offer was to remain seated until all the others had deplaned. That wasn’t her concern. The fact that she’d be walking around in the terminal with the back of her skirt exhibiting her wetness was. I told her I’d walk behind her as close as I could but that was about it. I reminded her of our real problem… how to get home… and that took her mind off her wet backside for a few minutes.

Thankfully, at midnight there weren’t a lot of of people there and after a short wait got to a phone. While waiting I noticed a woman sitting on a bench right across from the bank of pay phones and looking very nervous. My father was waiting for the call and had contacted my aunt and uncle. They would be looking for a phone call and would put us up for the rest of the night. The handyman that worked for my father would pick us up in the morning so he’d taken care of almost everything… except Cliffy. I couldn’t worry about that right then and proceeded to call my uncle. It was while talking with him I noticed the woman get up and as she reached down to pick up her suitcase I saw the back of her skirt was obviously stained… but was a different color than Elle’s. I felt sorry for her and thought about pointing her out to Elle… but didn’t. Seeing her was a reminder of the rough trip we'd all just experienced. In the conversation with my uncle I told him we didn’t have money for the cab ride and he said he’d take care of it. With that out of the way it was time to reclaim our baggage. Once we located it Elle was on me to find clean dry clothes for her.

For our trip to Bermuda I’d neatly organized all our things for packing. For the trip back it was more like stuff it in. Almost everything had to be washed so it didn’t really matter how it went back in so for me to find what she’d specifically asked for would be almost impossible. Right there on the baggage area floor with people all around I opened the big suitcase and rooted around finally finding a pair of white slacks. As for panties, the only place I knew specifically where some were located was in the little carry case. When I told her that she wrinkled up her face in disapproval but I went ahead and opened it up. They were all very damp. When she rejected that idea I told her to just not wear any at all. The look on her face never changed. I watched as she headed for the rest room with the slacks and got a little ‘excited’ about the prospect of her, in public, without panties. When she returned she handed me the now just damp skirt to put in the carry bag. I made a point of checking to see if she had dared to go bare but couldn’t find panties. She’d stayed true to her past and decided she’d rather wear the panties she had on rather than go without any.

By the time we got arrived at my aunt and uncle’s place it was almost 2am. I was exhausted. Elle didn’t want to tell my aunt about her incontinence. We had the plastic panties from the previous night in the carry bag so she just stuffed a washcloth in them as she climbed into my cousin’s bed (she no longer lived at home) while I ended up on the living room sofa. My uncle worked in the city and would leave the house sometime around 6am. I heard him and then went to check on Elle. Not having had anything much to drink since around 6pm she was dry. My father's handyman arrived around 10 am and we arrived home in the early afternoon. I’d called in to the bank earlier but now decided I wouldn’t bother to go in. Whatever had happened while I was gone could wait until the next morning to be explained. As we unpacked I had a hard time getting used to being home again but, in spite of the plane trip, it had been a wonderful time.

To be continued…