[The author recently came across an excerpt from an old travel journal. The back story is that my wife Beth and I were involved for years with a high school student exchange program. We had hosted young men from Sweden, Indonesia, and Italy, and our three daughters had each spent a year abroad, Olga in Australia, Rosalie in Tunisia, and Pauline in Turkey. Our son Max had not been an exchange student, but had spent a year in Germany with Beth’s sister, studying German in the Goethe Institute. This journal excerpt was written on the plane as Beth and I were on our way to visit our Italian exchange student son and the Tunisian and Turkish families who had hosted our girls. We were excited about the trip but there was more excitement to come even before we left.]
*** Journal Excerpt ***
May 30, 1995. Some say that the preparations for a journey are more enjoyable than the trip itself. That may be true in this case; certainly, the planning over the past months was enjoyable if hectic.
This morning we finished the last of our errands and prepared to leave for the airport. Just before we left, I woke Ahmed to say goodbye. A tall, good-looking, young Egyptian man enrolled at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, he is renting a room from us. We get along well and he is very respectful to Beth and me.
When I woke him, he said, “Oh, no, I come to airport with you.” And so he drove me, while our daughter Pauline drove Beth, picking up Mom on the way.
Ahmed, a proud Egyptian, said “You should go to Cairo from Tunis. It is only one-hour flight.” He said it several times. Then, “You can go to Cairo by boat!” I repeatedly told him that unfortunately we did not have time to go to Cairo. He said that if the flight from Tunis to Istanbul flew over we would be able to see the pyramids from the plane. He wanted to share his country with us.
I asked him if he was still planning on staying with us through November. He replied, “I may go back tomorrow! I may go back next week! But if I don’t go by end of month, I stay through November.” Poor guy, I thought, he is getting pressured to return home by his family, and especially by his fiancée.
We got to the airport just as Pauline, Beth, and Mom pulled up. Ahmed jumped out of the car and unloaded our luggage. When the time came to say goodbye, I thanked him for coming to the airport and for his help. He looked me in the eye, shook my hand for a long, long time, then waved goodbye from his car.
Pauline and Mom walked Beth and me inside the terminal, then bade us a fond farewell and left. When we were alone and headed for the check-in counter, Beth stopped suddenly in the middle of the terminal and turned to me. She said, “I’ve got some news for you. Some big news. It’ll knock your socks off!” She had never used this expression before, and I started to get a funny feeling. She continued, “But it mustn’t go any further!” This really mystified me, as there was no one around us and there didn’t appear to be anyone in the terminal that we knew — there was no one nearby to whom I could divulge whatever it was she was going to tell me.
Beth is a great storyteller and tried to draw it out, to play on my curiosity, but her need to tell was too great and she quickly got to her news. “Max called this morning while you were out. I thought he and Tabby had already left for their vacation and I was so surprised that I didn’t recognize his voice. He said, ‘Hey Mom, it’s Max!’ It was so clear I thought maybe they had missed their plane and that he was calling from New York, but he said they were in Las Vegas. ‘Mom, Tabby and I have decided to get married! We’re going to do it this morning, in Graceland Chapel! We’re going to send out an announcement by email, but I didn’t want you and Dad to find out that way.’”
Beth was right. My socks were knocked off, miles off! Max and Tabby getting married after living the carefree young life as a couple for seven years! And in Graceland Chapel in Las Vegas! Wow!
As we continued to the check-in counter, we realized they were probably already married. What had they worn to the ceremony — skate board shorts and a mini skirt? Some 50’s style clothes; Tabby with a bouffant hairdo and bangs, Max with his hair slicked back? How were they spending the afternoon — in their room? By the pool? At the slot machines?
As I write this, it’s 8:30 p.m. EST and we’re over the ocean, an hour out of Atlanta. It’s 5:30 in Las Vegas. Where are Max and Tabby now? Are they having dinner in their room? Beth thinks so, I think they’re getting all dressed up and to go out to some expensive, posh place to dine.
So here we are in seats 39J and 39K, bound for Rome, then Tunis and Turkey. We’re flying at a speed of over 600 mph at an altitude of 35,000 feet, faster and higher than we have ever before. Where are Max and Tabby headed? How high and how fast are they flying?
* * *
Postscript: Max and Tabby did get married that day and now have a family of their own. About their wedding day Max recently wrote me, “ Hi Dad, I wore a dark green shark skin suit and Tabby wore a white mini skirt and matching top of her own design. We were married in the morning, went sightseeing and played the slot machines. Our dinner was not a great one, Tabby was vegetarian and there seemed to be nothing but steak on the menu in Vegas at that time. I think food was the last thing on our minds that day.”
Beth and I had a great trip, three different and gracious host families on three different continents in three weeks. We did not get to see the pyramids. When we got home, we found that Ahmed the Egyptian had left for his home. Our next telephone bill was humongous; he had made many, many long calls to Cairo. He did not leave any money for those calls, but he did leave us a good photograph of himself.
