“Finally!”  Cristal exclaimed, sitting up in her seat on the airplane and craning her neck to see down the aisle.  Sonja and Suzanne were both asleep; Sonja with her head leaning against the window, and Suzanne leaning against Cristal’s shoulder.  “Wake up, dahlings!”  Cristal said, shaking the other two out of their peaceful slumber, “they are going to serve us some fine cuisine!”

Suzanne sat up immediately and looked around her, all trace of sleepiness gone. “Fine cuisine?  Where?”  She said brightly.  Cristal pointed down the aisle to where a stewardess was pushing a cart of food and drinks.  Across the aisle from them, the two girls who spoke a different language had put down the food trays in front of them.  Suzanne nudged Cristal and nodded her head towards them.  “I think these little trays are our own personal tables so that we can be waited on hand and foot.”  She whispered, putting her tray down.  Cristal copied her and looked over at Sonja, who was taking a little bit more time to become aware of her surroundings than Suzanne.

“Where are we, Cristal dahling?  A yacht?”  She said, a confused expression on her face.  “Why are we floating up and down and what is that dreadful racket?”  She frowned as she said the last bit, and put her little hands over her ears.   

“We are on an airplane, remember little dahling?  That awful racket is the airplane engine.  I do wish they would just turn it off, it is hurting my ears, too.”  Cristal answered her. 

“Oh I remember now, we’re on our way to the Netherlands, tra la!”  Sonja trilled, trying to fix up her curls, which were all matted together on one side. 

By this time, the stewardess and the food cart were in the row in front of them.   “What do you think we should order to eat, Suzanne?”  Sonja asked. 

“Well,” Suzanne said, thinking carefully.  “Nothing too heavy.  I wouldn’t want to feel sick after having not eaten since breakfast.  Perhaps a well done fillet mignon, a sampler of fine bleu cheeses, an Italian red wine, and chicken Caesar salad with croutons and parmesan.  What do you think?” 

“Quite, dahling.  That should be enough.  I’m sure they will come back around to take orders for dessert, so we’ll think about that later while we are eating dinner. “

“Hello ladies, what can I get for you to eat today?”  The stewardess said brightly, pulling her cart backwards into line with their row.   “We have beef casserole, pizza, and hamburgers.”

The three of them looked incredulously at each other and then back at the stewardess.  “That’s ..all…. you have?”  Suzanne said, her voice shaking a little. 

“Yes ma’am,” the stewardess replied, looking bemused.    Cristal sat back in her seat and stared at the roof of the plane, wishing this was a nightmare and that she was going to be woken up in a moment to the smell of chocolate donuts from Clara’s Sweet Shop.  Her stomach grumbled very audibly, and she frowned at it.  Sonja was the first one to speak up.  “I shall have the beef casserole,” she said in her most dignified voice, glaring at the stewardess.  Cristal sighed and ordered the beef casserole as well.  They both looked at Suzanne, who stuck her nose in the air before saying, “I shall have the pizza.  At least it is Italian!”

“Alrighty,” the stewardess said, handing the food over to them and giving them napkins and plastic utensils as well.  “That’ll be $10.00 each please.”

“WHAT!!!”  They all screeched in unison.  “That is absolutely ridiculous,” Cristal said, icily.  “I shall not pay $10.00 for rubbish like this.”  Her stomach grumbled again, louder this time.  “Dahlings, we don’t have anything else to eat,” Sonja said unhappily.  “Perhaps we ought to try and eat something, even if it is horrible.”  They all sighed resignedly and handed over their ten dollar bills.

The three of them were silent and grumpy as they slowly tried to force down their food.   Occasionally Cristal started muttering words like “rubbish,” and “ten dollars,” under her breath until the person in the row in front of them turned all the way around and said “shush!”  Rather angrily.  Suzanne sat there staring at her pizza while the other two worked their way through their beef casseroles.  She was just about to take her first bite of the pizza after fighting a long internal battle between her incessant hunger and her disgust at eating fast food, when the airplane began to shake back and forth and the pilot’s voice came crackling through the speakers.

We are sorry, but we are experiencing a slight bit of turbulence.  For your safety, please ensure that you stay in your seat and that your seat belts are securely fastened.  Thank you.

“AAAH!”  Suzanne looked down at the floor.  All the sudden bumping around of the airplane had caused her slice of pizza to fall down right on top of her dainty little fashionable shoe.  “How DARE they allow all that bumping around! I PAID TEN DOLLARS FOR THAT PIZZA!!”  She shrieked. 

People in rows all around her turned around and stared very pointedly at Suzanne.  She sank low down into her seat and fumed.  “I despise airplanes.”  She declared haughtily.  Cristal nodded in agreement.

Sonja, however, was writing a letter to Teresa in which she gushed about the exquisite food on the airplane and the luxurious lounges they were sitting on.  She smiled conspiratorially and began writing another letter to Rachel as well.

 Soon Sonja tired of elaborating her experiences to her friends back home and peered out the window.  “Look dahlings, aren’t those pretty clouds?”  She said, pointing out the window.  Cristal and Suzanne, who were both still in a very sullen mood, glanced half-heartedly out the window.  “Hmm.. I suppose.” Cristal replied, without much enthusiasm. 

Her mood changed abruptly, however, when the pilot’s voice sounded through the speakers once again, but this time with some very welcome news.

Ladies and gentleman, we are beginning our descent into the International Airport of Holland.  Please return your seats and tray tables to their upright position and fasten your seatbelts.  Flight attendants prepare for landing.

Cristal, Suzanne, and Sonja all squealed with delight and hopped up and down in their seats.  “We’re almost there!  We’re about to land! We survived!”

Cristal was much more excited about looking out of Sonja’s window now, as they all jostled each other over to try and catch the first glimpse of the Netherlands. 

The airplane lowered slowly through the clouds, and Holland came into view, all covered in sparkling white snow.  “Good thing we brought our winter coats, isn’t it?”  Sonja giggled, excitedly. 

The runway grew closer and closer, and Cristal’s eyes grew wide with worry.  “What if we crash!  Dahlings!! I don’t have a Will!  Who would inherit my fortune?  I have not left my affairs in order!”

Just then the airplane hit the runway with a large BUMP.  “Ahhhhhhhhhhhhh!”  Cristal screamed, her eyes squeezed shut and her hands covering her face. 

“….Em.. dahling, you can look now,”  Suzanne said, prying Cristal’s hands away from her face.  “It’s alright, we landed safely.”  Cristal opened one eye, and then the other.  “Oh. Well. Of course I knew we would land safely.”  She said, matter-of-factly.  Suzanne and Sonja exchanged a withering glance.  “Yes, of course you did,” said Suzanne.

The three of them were the last people out of the airplane, as Suzanne needed some space to wrench her large carry-on bag out from under the seat in front of her.  As they left, the foreign girls from the row next to them said "Bedank goedheid die over is. Ik wil nooit naast die vervelende dames opnieuw zitten!"

Suzanne was going to complain to the stewardess when they exited the plane, but for some reason she was nowhere to be seen… 

When they emerged into the airport, Cristal turned to Suzanne.  “I’m not completely sure what to do next.  Where are our bags?” Suzanne sniffed.  “Isn’t it rude that all the signs are in Dutch?  I mean, shouldn’t they know that not everyone likes speaking Dutch?  It seems awfully conceited if you know what I’m saying.”  They followed the flow of people in front of them that had exited their airplane, all the while discussing how difficult it was to find one’s way around a foreign airport.  When they stopped for a moment to rest, Sonja gave a shout.  “That’s my suitcase!  The pink one with the roses on it!”  She was pointing to a bag a few feet away from them that was slowly moving around on a baggage claim conveyor belt.  They hurried over to the bag, and Sonja snatched it off the conveyor belt at once, hugging it tightly.  “Someone thought they were going to get away with stealing my beautiful suitcase did they?  How completely horrible!” 

Just then, Cristal pointed back to the conveyor belt.  ‘”There’s my suitcase!  The white one with the pearls on it.  And there’s Suzanne’s bag!  And Suzanne’s suitcase, and Suzanne’s five hat boxes!  We must snatch them back!”  They did just that, looking around them all the while to make sure that whoever stole their luggage wouldn’t try and steal it again while they weren’t looking.

When they had counted their bags multiple times and were sure that none of them were missing, they headed off with Cristal as the leader, going towards what she thought must be the exit. 

“Wait dahling!” Suzanne called.  She had stopped and put all of her hat boxes down, and was staring at a shoe-shining station.  “I must get my shoe cleaned, it has that dratted pizza all over it, ugh.  I can NOT be seen walking around the Netherlands with pizza on my shoe.  That is so vulgar!”

“Alright, go ahead,” Cristal called back.  “Yoohoo!”  She called to an airport worker.  “What is the fanciest hotel in all of Holland?”

He gave it a minute of thought before replying, “that would be Hotel De Dutch, ma’am.”

“Oooh that sounds right. Perfect, actually,” she said with a satisfied smile.  “You can find a taxi outside the revolving doors,” he said, pointing towards them.  She thanked him graciously, and returned to Suzanne and Sonja, who were examining Suzanne’s clean and shining shoe.  “I found out that the most fashionable hotel in the Netherlands is called ‘Hotel de Dutch,’ so we must stay there.”  Cristal told her friends. 

When they arrived at the revolving glass doors, Sonja stopped short, looking quite terrified.  “Don’t worry dahling, they’re harmless.  Really.”  Suzanne said, in an off-hand sort of way.  With her nose in the air, she walked through the door, and pushed it around with her many hat boxes in front of her.  The trouble was, she didn’t notice that she had already passed the outside exit, and was continuing back to where she started.  She must have been quite preoccupied, because she kept striding around in circles, her nose in the air and  her hat boxes pushing the doors around faster and faster until she was a blur and a large line of people had lined up behind Sonja and Cristal to exit the airport, tapping their feet and looking at their watches impatiently.

Finally, Suzanne whirled out of the exit in a tumble of boxes and bags.  A few people nearby glanced at her with eyebrows raised, and muttered "toerist..." to each other.

Suzanne immediately recovered her composure and her haughty expression as well, and tried to ignore Cristal and Sonja’s quiet giggles as they made it through the revolving doors and to her side. 

“I found all the taxis.”  Suzanne sniffed, not meeting their eyes.  Sure enough, a line of taxi drivers was waiting by the curb, all of them laughing openly.  Cristal and Sonja did not comment, fortunately, and Suzanne marched over to the nearest taxi driver.  “We would like to be taken to the Hotel De Dutch if you please.”  He nodded and reached for her bags.  “That will be $100, ma’am.”  He said, opening the trunk of his taxi.  Cristal and Sonja glanced at each other incredulously.  “A hundred dollars?”  Cristal hissed,  under her breath.  The taxi driver smiled encouragingly.  “I’ll give you a deal,” he said, “only ninety dollars for you are such nice ladies.”  Suzanne, smiled and shook his hand.  “Thank you.  Now please let’s be on our way.  I have had far too much of the airport today!”  Suzanne said, glaring at the other taxi drivers who were still looking very amused. 

However, one of them looked quite furious, and came striding over towards them as they were about to sit down in the taxi.  He began speaking rapidly in Dutch to their taxi driver, who spoke angrily back to him.  After they had been arguing for a few minutes, the angry man turned to Suzanne, who looked quite frightened.  “I am sorry ma’am, but this driver is cheating you into paying more than twice the usual amount for a ride to the Hotel de Dutch.  I can take you there for thirty dollars.” 

Cristal jumped out of the taxi, pulling Sonja along with her.  Suzanne followed suit, and they grabbed their bags from the trunk.  “My name is Pardon, at your service,” the man said with a bow.  The other taxi driver glared at him and shook his fist.  He got back in his taxi and zoomed away.  Sonja let out a sigh of relief and sat down on a hat box. 

Once in Pardon’s taxi, they relaxed a little and began exclaiming at everything visible outside the windows.  “Ooooh, look at the building!”  Sonja said, pointing up at a stone building many stories high.  “Never mind about the building,” Suzanne answered, “look at that dress!”  She exclaimed, pointing at a lady walking down the street.  “How fashionable we shall all look when we leave the Netherlands,” sighed Cristal dreamily.

Sooner than they expected, Pardon pulled up to the porte-cochere of a very fancy looking hotel.  “This is it, ma’am,” he said, removing their bags from his trunk.  “If you are in need of a driver during your stay here, please give me a call.  Here is my card.”  He handed them a business card, and, after receiving their effusive thanks, he drove off and left them in front of the extremely elegant Hotel de Dutch.

To Be Continued!