Jack ran fast.
His heavy backpack slowed him down, but he kept up the pace. Maneuvering through the crowded airport, he jumped in-and-out and between people, leaping over the endless stream of roller-bags.
Running hard, he kept his eyes focused on the guy wearing a dark blue shirt, the guy who had just snatched a laptop from the security belt. It had only taken seconds . . . Jack had just barely gotten through the Madrid Airport security, and was lacing-up his shoes, when out of nowhere, this thug strolled by and grabbed the expensive laptop - and began to give chase through the terminal.
Jack had yelled - 'Hay, Stop!.' Jack didn't know the owner of the laptop - it was just instinct that told him to run after him - it just felt right. So he kept chasing.
A few yards behind, and running hard too, was the owner of the laptop. By now they had run a couple hundred yards and were getting close to the El Al gates where the man had stopped. Two Israeli security guards saw them all running toward the gate and they stepped out with authority - with guns, grabbing the thief first, then Jack and the other man.
"What's going on here!?" commanded one of the Israeli guards. The 3 men were huffing and puffing. The thief caught his breath and said, "I'm late for my flight - I need to board here for Tel Aviv!". Jack said - "No - this man just stole this guys laptop - we've been chasing him all the way from the security entrance to get it back! Arrest this guy!".
The thief, out of breath, looked astonished. A Spanish man, with broken English said, "What you say to me?? I have laptop - see - this my computer, here, here, see". He hadn't even put it in his bag, it was in plain sight, and he held it up for the Israeli's to see. It was a small black Lenovo laptop. Jack looked at the other man, and asked - "isn't this your laptop?" The other man looked disappointed and said - "well, no, it's not - I had a MacBook laptop. That's not it! Where's my computer?!"
Bewildered - they all just looked at each other. Jack finally said - "wow, I thought you had stolen his laptop, so we were chasing you. Why were you running?" He blurted out, "I run, I late for my flight!"
Astonished - the 3 simply looked at each other, still breathing hard. One of the guards said, calmly, "OK, OK, open the laptop, prove to us that it's yours, and everyone move along - sounds like a mis-understanding. This flight is boarding, you have to hurry. What flight are you 2 guys on?" "This flight - to Tel Aviv - the same flight", said Jack. The other man said the same, "I'm on this same flight with my wife and 4 others - - here they come now." Rushing toward them now were 4 others, a man with 3 women, all with worried looks on their faces. "What's going on?!" said the wife of the man. "We were petrified - why did you run ahead so fast without telling us anything?".
"I thought this man had taken my laptop, and this nice man thought the same. We ran after him. But it wasn't him. Did you pickup my laptop in security?" "No, of course not!" said his wife.
Over the intercom, they heard "Ladies and gentleman, this is the final boarding call for Tel Aviv - the doors will be closing shortly - please board now."
It was too late to go all the way back to security to find the laptop. Jack said "Where are you staying in Tel Aviv?" The man said, "We're at the Gold Hotel, on Jaffa Road, in Jerusalem - I bet I never see that laptop again". "Is it really important - does that computer mean a lot to you?" asked Jack. "Yes - my whole life is on that computer."
One of the Israeli guards said - "just call the airport when you land, tell them what it looks like and where you are staying - if they have it - they'll ship it to you."
On the plane, shuffling bags and arranging seats, fluffing pillows and blankets - the group of 5 took their seats, exhausted. About an hour into the flight, Jack walked from first class, through coach, to find an available restroom in the back. "Hey!" came a quiet voice - "I never said thank you for trying to help me. That was so nice of you - what's your name?".
"Jack. Jack Flak". "See you in Jerusalem."
