The Accidental Florist

longer alive. Are you ready to take down my credit card number?“
    Her next call was to Mel. “Did I remember to ask you if you could share Miss Welbourne’s notes about the next meeting with Shelley and me?“
    “You did ask, and I forgot. Want me to fax them to you right now?“
    Jane and Shelley read through the notes and found them fascinating. The theme was American Flying Tips. She said first, don’t buy a black suitcase. Ninety percent of bags coming off a plane were black. Buy a brown or red or bright blue bag and make a pompom.
    You could buy a pompom kit at a craft store with instructions. If you can’t find one, find something the size of a paperback book.
    Leave several long strings of yarn along the top of the book, then wrap very lightly about forty times. Then pull the ends of yarn tight, and cut through the whole back half of wound yarn. Pull the yarns more tightly and double knot around the wad of yarn. Secure the pompom’s long strings to the handle. Use bright colors of yarn; mix colors if you want to.
    The next travel hints weren’t about safety, but practical suggestions. Take ordinary wire, or better, plastic hangers, in a side pocket of the suitcase. Most hotels have hangers too small to hang over the shower rod, preventing you from hanging something wrinkled over the rod and running hot water to shake out the wrinkles.
    If you have clothing along prone to wrinkling, wrap it lightly in plastic covers from the dry cleaners.
    Then she went on to describe locking the suitcase. Get a couple locks with all the keys in the package the same. Every good hardware store has these. But don’t lock the bag if you’re checking it through. It’s likely that if the airline wants to search your bag that they’ll break the lock. Carry extra locks and keys inside the bag or in your carry-on or purse. That way if you leave your bag in a hotel room, you can lock the bag every time you leave the room. Cleaning staff aren’t all honest people.
    Before you go through the security gates, take off your shoes and use Purell on your feet and inside your shoes. Many people are going barefoot and some of them have athlete’s foot. It’s highly infectious. If you’re checking through your luggage, put the bottle back inside it. You can’t carry on gels. If you’re not checking baggage, buy a very small bottle of Purell and throw it away and buy another little bottle for your return trip.
    Put your ID and boarding pass in your front pocket, so they are easy to show at check-in (if you are checking any luggage) and later when you go through the security gates. The rest of the trip, keep your schedule in your locked suitcase at the hotel.
    If you feel you absolutely must take along a laptop computer, save all your e-mail and your tax information on discs. Homeland Security might seize the laptop to examine whom you’ve been e-mailing, how much money you make, business relationships. This should be illegal, but don’t take the risk if you don’t have to.
    Also find a small local phone company instead of the big ones who are sharing information about whom you’ve called and who has called you. Almost every large city has a small local telephone exchange. Make sure your phone produces digital signals. And be aware that anybody can listen to what you’re saying on a cell phone.
    “I wish Miss Welbourne had lived to tell us this. It’s all useful, practical information,“ Shelley said.
    “I had no idea that people could listen to you talk on a cell phone,“ Jane remarked.
    “I think I’ve heard that before. All you need is a certain kind of listening device. I can’t think off the top of my head what it’s called.“
    “I’ll be sure that my phones are all digital, whatever that means. And I’ll be careful what I say on my cell phone from now on.“

    * * *

    While Shelley and Jane were talking this over, Mel was on the phone with the Australian reporter.
    “Say, mate, how am I to cope with all the loonies who call to report having seen these people, or claim to be one of them?“
    “Easy,“ Mel said. “Here are the relevant dates they were in Chicago. So dismiss anybody who saw them earlier. As for those people stupid enough to try to claim that they are one of the people who are being looked for, make them spell out the name of their mother exactly. I’ll spell it out for you. It’s an unusual spelling. And you are welcome to hint carefully about a large estate. Even though it’s not