The Adventuresome Suitcase

Meetings with the teacher and to-do lists prior to the class trip to Denmark were behind us. Permission slips were signed and the trip paid for and arrangements for lodging with Danish families, the history teacher answered all of our questions. Excitement was high as tenth grade students talked of flying on a jumbo jet to Copenhagen, Denmark. Our daughter was already a seasoned world traveler by the end of second grade. Somewhere along the way to her teens, she had her belly button pierced and announced it after the fact much to our consternation. Today’s poem tells of the amazing journey she and her suitcase made.

Odd Traveling Companion

My first inkling of a strange incident during
our daughter’s tenth grade trip to Denmark
came when I observed that her suitcase zipper was
now fastened with staples. She explained that the
zipper had become unfastened during the flight so
she stapled it together. Well, at least everything else
appeared normal inside… or?

Well, almost normal…as I transferred the load of wet laundry
into the dryer, I heard a slight noise, a clatter and clunk.
What had I missed in a pocket? As I shook the wet items in the
still cold dryer, out fell a tube of SUPER GLUE! As I not so
calmly called (shrieked) to our daughter and inquired
about this container of glue, she nonchalantly
uttered, she had forgotten about it.

How had this container of super glue made the
transatlantic flight without bursting inside the
suitcase? More baffling to me was how I had
washed the entire load of laundry with the container
still intact. My immediate question to her was WHY
did she have super glue in her suitcase held together
by mere staples? How had it made the journey?

Oh, she calmly explained, she had forgotten to mention that
her belly button piercing broke in Denmark. She had to
repair it. Really? Why not just remove it? No, it was easier to
fix it with super glue. The logic? Heaving a sigh of resignation,
I was grateful I did not have to explain to a repairman why our washer
and/or dryer had a glued together interior of clumps
of clothes. It could have been worse, I suppose. Or?