At last we are settled into our seats.  Perhaps embarrassment should have taken over.  There is this common bond we have that says, “these kinds of things happen to me all the time”.  The shared knowledge dismisses any unpleasant thoughts and we focus on the delights of the trip. 

Another quick fight home.  Now we are faced with getting off the airplane with the beast and the ball.  The descent from the airplane requires us to navigate down a flight of stairs onto the tarmac.  As if we didn’t already have enough challenges facing us.  Going down twenty steep stairs.  We opt to wait for the rest of the passengers to disembark before we attempt this feat.  We truly do know our limitations.  We know that laughter is going to enter into this already complicated equation.  Thankfully it will be just the two us trying to manage this.  First challenge is to retrieve my suitcase from the stewardess.  Nora needs to wrestle with her suitcase and the ball.  One of these would be a challenge – two, well…  Nora loses hold of the ball and it begins to bounce and roll down the aisle of the airplane.  I am trying to drag an uncooperative suitcase through the aisle to reach the back of the plane.  The bouncing ball is headed my way but on its own mission.  Wrestling a ball and a rolling suitcase is a tangled mess.  Laughter strews all over the mess.  We can’t get our arms around any of this.  We do need to get off the airplane.  Divine intervention stepped in.  Somehow I got control of the ball and my suitcase.  I don’t know who was more surprised – Nora or me.  The clumsy could overcome.  Next is the metal set of stairs?  We focus all our energy on getting down the stairs.  I’m committed to holding onto this ball.  We didn’t go this far for it so fall out of my arms and bounce happily down the tarmac.  We’d never be able to get it.  The smile would fade.  The giggles would still be there but this was a mission.

We got down the stairs and into the terminal.  We made it.  We over came our obstacle.  Ball still in hand we work out way toward the exit to the car waiting for us.  My sister-in-law has come to pick us up.  We are still basking in the afterglow of our accomplishment.  We are reliving each bounce, oops and we did it.  She is far more practical then I.  Perhaps because she has on the Mom face today.  We are in our own circle of re-imaging the last ten minutes.  All the way home we are reliving our adventure.  Making mistakes and having oops enforced the bond already created it.

I am dropped off at my house.  I wave goodbye to that precious cargo.  How lucky I am to have a niece!  That ball – it lasted longer than any ball I knew.  Our determination must have worn off on it.