She was told to move it down and always listened to directions.
This one time she should have been more like her sister and fought back.
“You don’t understand,” she said. “This isn’t like pills. This is insulin I need to survive. Not type 2, type 1.”
The average person never understood the difference. Now didn’t seem like the right time for a lecture either.
“What’s going on here, Rob?”
“Hey, Rowan. Please move forward,” Rob was shouting and waving his hand for everyone to keep walking.
She didn’t budge. “No. I’m going back on that plane now.”
“I’ll have to call security,” Rob said, pulling his radio out. The poor guy had people shouting at him in every direction, but she wasn’t moving either.
“I need that bag. It’s life or death,” she said firmly.
Might sound a little drastic, but it felt it in her mind.
The thought of running out of insulin in an unfamiliar town, with no idea how long she might be stranded, filled her with a paralyzing fear.
She wouldn’t leave the airport until she had that bag, which meant she could be here for a day or more with the storm, giving up any chance of finding a hotel or another flight.
“Why don’t we sit over here,” the guy named Rowan said. “I know a few people. Maybe I can help.”
“I doubt it,” she said. “If I go into shock or pass out, just tell my grandmother I tried.”
She pulled a Sandy card out without even realizing it. A pity party was taking over, but she felt so helpless once again.
2
THINGS WORKED OUT
Rowan rushed the frazzled woman to a chair, checked her over to make sure she didn’t pass out, and moved back to Rob. He’d heard her say she was a diabetic.
“Is she okay?” he asked Rob. At least half the people had moved past his friend.
He knew Rob from the slopes more than from working at the airport.
When Rowan needed a break from the grind of work or family obligations, he flew to his brother West’s mountain retreat for solitude and the snow.
More often than not he ended up partying with people, but he still got on his snowboard.
“She says she needs to get her insulin off the plane or something. I’m sure she’ll be fine. Everyone always makes a bigger deal out of things to get their stuff.”
He looked over at the woman who had a device in her hand. He’d seen it before.
Rob wasn’t normally this dismissive, but the guy was being pulled in all directions minutes ago. “She’s not lying,” he said. “Ihad a friend who was a diabetic. She’s checking her blood sugar on the device in her hand.”
“She showed me her bracelet,” Rob said. Rob was still watching people exit from the gate, but it’d slowed at this point and he could just keep pointing forward for them.
“Seriously, dude, is there a way to get her bag before the plane leaves the terminal?”
A flight attendant was coming out and that meant the plane would move soon if it hadn’t already.
Rob looked at Rowan who had his eyebrow lifted. His friend knew who West was also. He didn’t want to throw that card out there, but would. “Let me try. Bring her over here so I can find out where it is,” Rob said. “But I can’t promise anything.”
He waved the woman over and she jumped up quickly while Rob stopped the flight attendant and had a few words.
