My flight out of Indianapolis last night was delayed nearly 3 hours so we didn't get into Philadelphia till 1 a.m., way too late to make my connection to upstate New York. Misery loves company and I had four partners, waiting around for a U.S. Airways rep to show up and figure out what we were doing for the night. They were: 1, a stocky older woman with a sensible gray tweed jacket and a serious hardback; 2, a high-tech guy from Ireland, 40, real smart, ironical, headed for Boston; 3, high-tech's partner, a younger American guy with a slightly goofy sweet manner; 4, a tall 40-ish woman with long silver hair, small blue eyes in a pretty round face, worn jeans and sneakers.
The high tech guys kept marveling on the incompetence. The idea that no one from USAir anticipated us, was waiting for us--that just baffled the guy from Ireland and the other guy kept offering possible explanations. I sort of chimed in a lot in a humorous way. I was drained and not sure what to do, grab the 5:10 a.m. train out of Philly, go to my parents' house in the Philly suburbs... Then the older woman somehow got attention before anyone else, maybe on account of age. I saw her walking around with a boarding pass on a flight to New Hampshire at 10 a.m. But then she had to wait for a hotel voucher, so we were still in the same boat.
Finally the rep arrived. She was about 35 and obviously educated, slender, cool, with art glasses and dark hair. I wondered what she was doing in this job. She gathered us in a circle and went through our situations. She was going to get us all vouchers when the tall silver-haired woman said she lived in Tacony, in Northeast Philadelphia, and wanted a cab ride home. We were all a little confused. The rep said, "I can't pay for a cab ride."
