By Marc Beurteaux
One cold January day, I was sitting in La Guardia Airport waiting for my flight when I heard a most unusual sound for that time of year: “flip-flop-flip-flop”. The sound of summer! The sound of flip-flops!
I looked up and there’s this twenty-something guy decked out in full summer gear: board shorts, flip-flops and a pink polo shirt – with the collar turned up (never a good sign).
So the guy flip-flops his way past all of us losers dressed in winter gear and stops, looks around – he’s lost. He goes over to a nearby information booth and talks to the lady behind the desk. I can’t see the lady’s face, just the back of her.
The flip-flop guy asks the information lady a question and the she shakes her head. He asks her again, a little louder this time, and she shakes her head. Then the guy yells at her, “YOU BITCH!”
Calm as a cucumber, the lady presses a little button underneath her desk and suddenly a door opens in a nearby wall where there wasn’t a door before and three security guards burst forth. They grab the flip-flop guy before he knows what’s going on and hustle him into the secret door. The door shuts, leaving no trace. The wall looks just like a wall again.
Bewildered, I go back to reading.
A little later I hear a familiar sound coming down the hallway – flip-flops! I look up and it’s the guy! However, he has lost his strut. He has a pink piece of paper in hand which he presents to the information desk lady. She signs it and hands it back to the guy who despondently goes flip-flopping off.
But the funniest thing is that his pink polo shirt collar is very firmly folded down.