The other day I received a used book from Amazon. When it came, I flipped through to see if there were markings or torn pages. Instead what I found was an airline boarding pass stub and a home-made book mark with a black and white photo of three little girls.
On the back of the marker, I read a very faded: Merry Christmas 1995. Most of the letters were worn off, but there was enough to make sense of the message.
Does the bookmark belong to the woman on the Continental Airlines boarding pass? If so, I have a name and I know that she flew on the 13th of June (no year) and her name is Underwood/Wend.
She flew from Chicago to Phoenix on flight HP 2442 in seat 2D.
I sit here staring at the two items and wonder about the girls in the photo. It has been laminated and cut by hand (you can tell) with a hole punched on one end for a ribbon or string. The girls look similar but not enough to prove they are sisters. Their hair and dress suggest 1950’s. Their ages appear to be about 10, 7, and 3.
Who were these young girls? Were they related?
Who created the bookmark? Was it a gift to Wendy from a friend? A sister? Her mother?
And how long ago did she make the flight as she read Under the Tuscan Sun?
How did her life turn out and here does she live now?
Are all three girls still living and if so, do they live near each other?
Are they married, divorced, gay?
Was their childhood happy or sad?
My brain wants to create a whole scenario.
I did a quick search on Facebook – it turned up nothing. Should I try to locate her? She might think me ridiculous, although that is unimportant. I question if I’m the one making a big deal out of nothing. She probably doesn’t even realize it is gone. She left it inside her book; maybe it was not important to her.
A mystery for sure. Will it ever be solved? Probably not. But perhaps it will be the basis of a short story or a novel. For now, it calls to me each time I look at it.
Does anyone know a Wendy Underwood from Chicago? Or perhaps this was her return flight to Phoenix.
Connie Wesala 