The Sky is the Limit

A young happy couple was enjoying their flight from New York to Paris. Jennifer was very pretty in her beige skirt and white blouse. Around her neck she wore a beautiful pendant given to Jennifer by her grandmother before she died. She looked at her handsome new husband. “I love you,” she said to him.

He smiled back at his gorgeous, blonde wife. His wife: he could hardly believe it! Mark was wearing a dark Armani suit that used to belong to his grandfather. Only minor alterations were needed to get it to fit him. All the Smith men had been tall, slim and well-built for many generations. He had nicer suits for his job in bank management, but he and Jennifer wished to honor their families on this trip. Grandparents on both sides of their new little family had first come to America on flights across the ocean.

“I love you too, Jennifer,” he said to his smiling wife. He gave her hand three squeezes to show her his joyous emotions. She squeezed Mark’s hand back.

After a Bing the Captain’s voice came over the P.A. system. He had a pleasant, relaxed Southern drawl. “Good mornin’ folks! I hope ya’ll enjoyed our take off from La Guardia. Manhattan is always such a beautiful sight in the morning sunlight. The weather looks fantastic all the way to gorgeous, romantic France, but planes ahead of us on this route report a bit of turbulence. Please keep your seatbelts done up even though the seatbelt lights are off. On behalf of First Officer Todd and the rest of the crew, I’m Captain Martin wishing you a wonderful journey!”

“He sounds like such a nice man,” Jennifer said to Mark. Mark nodded his smiling agreement to his young wife but didn’t say anything. He continued holding her hand.

The first in-flight service began. A beautiful Flight Attendant smiled at them and asked Jennifer what she would like to drink. “Oh, I’ll have coffee please,” said Jennifer.

“Tea for me,” said Mark. The attendant gave them their drinks and a light snack before moving on to the mother and young man sitting in the next row back.

Just as Jennifer was putting her coffee back down after a sip the airplane hit an air pocket and bounced up and down. Mark spilled a little of his tea onto his tray. Then the airplane hit a second, bigger air pocket. Something flew through the air between Jennifer and Mark.

The “Fasten Seatbelts” lights came on with another Bing and the Captain’s gentle voice came over the P.A. system again. “Sorry about that folks. Just a touch of turbulence there, but I think that might be all there was to it. Please keep your seatbelts on for bit though, just to be safe, okay!”

Patting Jennifer’s hand, Mark smiled at his wife. Suddenly his smile dropped away. “Jennifer, where’s your grandmother’s pendant?” He had an alarmed expression on his face.

Jennifer reached up anxiously to her throat. “It’s not there? Oh my God, where is it? I can’t lose my grand mama’s pendant. She wore it to America when she came here!” A look of horror crossed the beautiful woman’s face. She jumped up and began to search around her seat. Mark too stood up to search and even got down on hands and knees to look on the floor beneath. It was nowhere.

Together they sat back down. They were dejected. “I’m sorry this happened, honey. It has to be somewhere!” said her husband.

Tears rolled down Jennifer’s cheeks as she began to realize just how precious the family heirloom really was to her. She rubbed the spot on her neck where the pendant had been and placed her head sadly on her husband’s shoulder. He put his arm around her to squeeze her in consolation.

As she reached up to wipe the tears from her face a small voice came from behind them. It was the young man in the seat behind hers. “Excuse me, but I think this must be yours. The clasp must have broken when we hit that turbulence a few minutes ago.” The young man was standing beside their seats now and he was holding out grand mama’s pendant.

With a breath Jennifer jumped up and hugged the young man. She was so grateful she could hardly speak, but she was sure to get his address in New Jersey so that she could thank him properly later. He refused any kind of reward though.

She put the pendant safely into her purse and as the plane flew on toward Paris the happy couple settled down in anticipation of a joyful journey.