How Sweet It Is Read Free Page A

have any record for
you. If you want to purchase a ticket, you’ll have to go to the
other desk.”
    Smiling a thin smile, Delphine cleared her
throat. “I bought a round trip ticket, which I used to fly to
France. Now I would like my boarding pass so I can fly home.”
    The man scanned the license again. “No, you
must be mistaken. There’s no record of your reservation.”
    Delphine groped through her purse until she
came upon a wrinkled itinerary, printed off when she’d reserved her
flight online. She handed it to the clerk.
    “This is proof, non? ”
    He glanced at it. “Not really. Even though
the flight number and time is correct, my computer still shows
nothing about your having a reservation. You’ll either have to
purchase another ticket or talk to an airline representative.”
    “Then can you scan the bar code on my
luggage tag? Surely, that should tell you something.”
    The clerk passed a device over the barcode
attached to her bag. “This shows that you arrived from LAX but
gives no other information.”
    “This is ridiculous!” Delphine cried,
beginning to feel ill. “I would like to speak to your
supervisor.”
    The man nodded distractedly, made a quick
phone call, and moved on to the next passenger.
    Delphine glanced at her watch. Two hours. Her
flight left in two hours. Surely this would be straightened out
quickly and she could slump into her airline seat and close her
weary eyes.
    “Excuse me?” asked a voice in French. “You
are in need of assistance?”
    Delphine looked up at a male airline
representative in a dark blazer with the name of the airline
embroidered into the pocket. She handed him her license and
itinerary as she quickly sketched out the problem. The man led her
to another desk where he accessed a computer. As his fingers tapped
on the keyboard and his frown deepened, her stomach twisted into a
Gordian knot.
    Finally, he shook his head. “We’ve been
having occasional glitches with our new software and this morning
the computers were down for a while, but everything’s up and
running again. However, we have no record of your reservation and I
cannot issue you a boarding pass.”
    “Glitches? Well, tell me how I can get home.
My flight leaves in two hours.”
    Still shaking his head, he looked up from the
screen. “You will not be able to get on that flight unless you
purchase another ticket. When the problem is taken care of, you may
be assured will refund your original ticket price once we confirm
your information.”
    Delphine stared at him in disbelief. A thin
line of sweat trickled between her shoulder blades. “I bought a
round trip ticket and flew into France without any problem. This is
not my fault, this is the airline’s.”
    The clerk tapped on the keyboard again as if
he hadn’t heard her. “You’re in luck. On the flight you want, there
are two seats left in first class. But as I said, you will have to
purchase a ticket to be on it.”
    When he named the amount, she nearly fainted.
It was triple what she’d paid originally. “What if I don’t have the
money?”
    The clerk’s impassive face regarded her.
“Then you will not be on that flight. I’m truly sorry, but with
security precautions, and no record of your reservation in our
computers, there’s nothing else I can do at the moment.”
    Delphine pushed her hair
back from her damp forehead, her mind racing. Dear Lord, I need Your help . Suddenly,
she remembered that she should have just the amount in her checking
account, since she’d used only her savings to finance the trip. The
only problem was it could take months to get a refund from the
airline when they found the problem. And the money in her checking
had been carefully budgeted and set aside for household
expenses— not this
trip. How could she make it until her next paycheck? Then again she
wouldn’t have a job if she failed to show up to work.
    But what choice do I have? I can’t just hang
around hoping they’ll fix the problem.