“Hey, Mike,” I said. “Are you flying the plane today?”
“I sure am.”
“I thought you weren’t piloting any more. Didn’t you get promoted to doing office work?”
“Yes, but the flu is going around and it took out two of our pilots so I’m filling in.”
At about that time, the desk clerk at Tropic Air, Belize City, picked up the public address microphone.
“Passengers with the blue boarding passes can board now.”
“Oh, my God! This plane is so small,” a blonde tourist girl said to her friend.
“Are you sure this little plane will hold the four of us?” her friend asked.
“Sure,” Mike answered. “You and your friend will sit in the back and Dennis here can sit up front with me.”
“The last time I rode in a small plane my ears kept stopping up and popping,” the blonde said.
“Here,” Mike said.
He reached into his pocket, brought out a pack of chewing gum and gave each of us a stick of it.
“Your ears pop because the plane is not pressurized,” he explained. “This gum will keep your ears from popping.”
The twenty minute plane ride to Ambergris Caye was pleasant and uneventful.
“Well, did your ears get stopped up?” Mike asked the blonde passenger when we landed.
“No,” she said. “That gum worked like a charm but how in the world do I get it out of my ears?”
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