The Adventures of Harris the Airport Luggage Trolley

by Loz

Clunk, goes the pound coin into my chain release mechanism. The chain rattles as my user pulls me free of my holding bay, where I sit chained to my brothers for far too long every day. That system can be a vicious cycle, if you get near the front of the line of trolleys you can go weeks without anyone taking you for a spin, and the longer your there the worse it gets. The airport staff cottoned onto this recently, and now rotate us around when we've been in the front for too long.

My new user pushed me along gently to where his wife stood by the airport door, my heart lifted as I saw the pile of bags they had with them. From my initial glance there had to be at least 5, not a bad haul for just a couple. But it was the quality of the stuff that got me really excited. All the cases were what looked like carbon fibre, rigid travel cases. I had seen some recently in the shopping area, but this was my first go at carrying some.

The man began loading the bags onto my flat rack area. I noticed he wasn't stacking them very securely, but I was too excited to go for a spin to comment. The final touch was the lady placing her handbag in my small rack by the handle - perfect. The man took hold of my handle and pushed it down to release my back brakes.

We were off! The swirling patterns of the marble floor flew past me as we accelerated towards the check-in area. Other people towered like skyscrapers as we found our path through the crowds.

After a few minutes of this joy ride, we began to slow down. I looked up to see us arriving at the back of the queue for the B.A. desk. We slowly edged forward half a metre at a time. My only view was the ankles of the lady in front of us who was wearing old fashioned red shoes, her snowy legs disappearing into them. My mind drifted and I was only partially aware of what was going on while we checked in. Then as they began handing luggage in, I felt my weight lift. I knew we could go quickly now, this was great.

After a minute, all I had was a small case and the lady's hand bag. I felt my handle pressed down to release the brake. Then we were gone.

The swirling marble patterns like cosmic dust flew under me, as we sped through the crowded airport, I have never been happier.

The End

By Loz.