“Help me! I can’t find my daughter,” Sophia shouted. “I was distracted for a moment to change my baby’s nappy and when I came back she was gone!”
“Calm down, ma’am,” the stewardess told her. “If she boarded the flight, she must be somewhere around here. Could you tell me what she looks like?”
“Are you serious ? !” The man from the seat next to Sophia said to the stewardess. “We’ve only seen this woman with one child ! Don’t waste your time ! This woman is lying!”
“No, I’m not lying. There were three of us. The stewardess saw us!” shouted Sophia.
“Well, there are a lot of children on board, ma’am. So I don’t remember if I saw your daughter, ” said the stewardess after a pause. “But I will do my best to help you find your daughter.”
The passengers continued to insist that Sophia’s daughter was not on board, but the stewardess kept a close eye on the entire flight. She looked into the toilet, into her room, on the top deck of the plane and even into the food van that was serving passengers, thinking that the child might have been hiding there, playing with other children. But unfortunately, Sophia’s daughter was nowhere to be found.
The stewardess irritatedly returned to Sophia’s seat. “Well, ma’am, I’ve checked every possible place, but I haven’t seen your daughter anywhere. Honestly, I think I only remember you and this child, too.”
At this point everyone looked at Sophia questioningly and started laughing at her. “I knew she was lying! I didn’t see the girl with her either!” The passenger in the front seat shouted.
“I know it’s true! I even saw her take the pills,” said another woman.
“My God, is she on drugs? How can airport security be so irresponsible and let people like that in?” “said the old lady.
“There is no such thing! Please help me,” Sophia tried to explain. “I just took a sedative because I’m afraid to fly.”
“Oh, come on!” “Shouted the man behind her. “Can you stop yelling? I have an important meeting tomorrow. For God’s sake, let me sleep!”
Poor Sofia was heartbroken. She tried to explain to everyone that she wasn’t lying, but it was useless. Unfortunately, even the stewardess was beginning to doubt her. “Are you sure you only took one pill, ma’am?”
“Yes!” exclaimed Sophia. “I was with my daughter. You can check the boarding pass.” The stewardess rushed to the computer to check if Sophia’s daughter had boarded the plane. It turned out that she had. “Yes, she was with her daughter. I checked it,” the stewardess said.
At this point, all the passengers were confused. “But then where is the little girl? Has she been kidnapped?” – said one man.
“That’s impossible, sir!” said the stewardess. “We’re in the sky!”
“That’s not entirely impossible either,” Sophia interrupted. “We have to search everyone’s hand luggage, especially the bulky ones!”
Hearing this, the passengers started to get indignant. “I won’t let you touch my bag. I have an antique in there!” – complained one man, an antiques dealer.
“Sir, we can see that the child will not fit in your bag. We will only check oversized bags, so please cooperate with us.”
“Why do we have to do that?” protested a woman who complained about Sophia taking a pill. “She lost her baby and it’s her fault! She’s a terrible mother! Why should we have to pay for it?”
“I agree. She should be deprived of her parental rights!” complained the man sitting next to her.
Despite her objections, the stewardess insisted on inspecting the luggage and overhead compartments, but unfortunately, Sofia’s daughter was not to be found.
At this point, the plane was only 10 minutes away from landing. The pilot activated the seat belt signals and asked everyone to carefully return to their seats.
Exhausted and desperate, Sofia collapsed to the floor before reaching her seat. But when she opened her eyes, she saw something that proved her daughter was on board.
Sophia’s child was playing with something shiny on the floor beside her. Sophia didn’t immediately realise they were beads from her daughter’s necklace. She searched the floor and found several more beads leading to a locked luggage compartment. “Open it, now!” – she shouted. “Beth could be in there!”
“But I don’t have access to that room. Only the pilot has the key to that compartment. Your daughter can’t be in there!” said the stewardess.
“Just open it!” snapped Sophia at the employee. “The flight lands in less than five minutes. My daughter will be stuck there if we don’t check and the culprit will escape!”
“But…” Before the stewardess could say anything, two passengers jumped to their feet and started shouting. “There’s a lot of valuables out there! We don’t want to cooperate in this search!”.
“I agree! It’s a breach of security. Who is she to order us around?” – said another passenger.
“Please don’t listen to them,” Sophia pleaded with the stewardess. “I have a feeling my daughter is there!”
The stewardess felt sorry for Sofia and decided to help her. She took the key from the pilot and opened the door. There were many suitcases in the room, but the girl was gone. Embarrassed, they were about to leave the room when Sophia’s gaze was caught by a hand that appeared from behind a large suitcase.
She rushed to the suitcase, but found her daughter Beth unconscious behind it.
“Beth, wake up. Are you all right?” Sophia couldn’t stop crying. “Can you hear me, honey?”
“Yes, Mummy,” Beth said, slowly opening her eyes. “They brought me here, Mama. Thank God you came!”
“Who, Beth? What do you mean?”, Sophia asked.
Beth pointed to two passengers who were resisting the search in every way they could. After the flight landed, they tried to get out of the compartment as quickly as possible, but two men blocked their way. “She mistook us for someone else. It wasn’t us!” – said the woman, trying to defend herself.
Sophia stepped forward and slapped the woman in the face. “Stop lying! I know you and your partner did this. How dare you touch my daughter!”
A stewardess intervened. “Madam, calm down. It is good that your daughter is safe. We will see to it that they do not escape easily.”
On arrival, both passengers were interviewed by the police. It turned out that they were looking for an antique necklace. They managed to steal it from an antique dealer’s bag, but Beth happened to see them doing it. They decided to hide her so she wouldn’t tell anyone.
As it was a connecting flight, the luggage compartment was only opened once when some passengers got off the plane. At this point, while Sofia was busy changing the baby’s nappy, they hid Beth in the compartment.
When the truth was revealed, the antique dealer felt ashamed. He thanked Sofia for saving the antique necklace and discovering the burglars and apologised to Beth. Later, his museum held a big event honouring Sophia, who had saved their cultural artefact.
