As Kate walked through the airport, she couldn't help but feel a sense of both nervousness and excitement. She was headed to meet her husband in Mexico for a long weekend. Her husband, Dave, had left a few days before for work and she was arriving Thursday for a short vacation once his meeting were done.
She traveled frequently in the US and abroad, but flying internationally by herself to Mexico and then making her way alone to the hotel made her a little nervous. Nonetheless, she was excited to get out of the cold and snowy January weather and sun herself in a bikini at a pool.
Further, she was always a bit paranoid about getting held up by security and missing her flight and today was no exception. She had packed only a carry-on bag to make sure she had as few hassled as possible. Since it was only a four-day trip, she had borrowed a bag from her 17 year old son that was the right size for what she thought were just the essentials, but now she was second-guessing herself.
Should she have brought more than a few sundresses, bikinis, her sexiest underwear (not her favorites, but certainly Dave's favorites) and toiletries and checked a bag? Oh, well - she could buy some cute new outfits there if she needed anything else.
Having jumped the line with TSA Pre-check and Clear, She made her way to the front of the security checkpoint line thinking it wouldn't be long until she would be settled into her first class seat sipping champagne.
Kate placed her bag on the conveyor belt and shoved it forward and then waited her turn to step into the full body scanner. When it was her turn, she put her little feet onto the painted foot prints in the circular plexiglass scanner. At 5' 1" and only about 100lbs, she was petite and beautiful and looked tiny in the scanner. She put her hands on her head and stood spread eagle with her tiny little boobs poking out from her tight, thin, light pink cashmere sweater.
With her hands laced above her head, the bottom of her sweater lifted up exposing a little skin above the waistband of her tight, white jean leggings, which hugged her tight little legs and ass.
Kate thought about how exposed these things made you feel and was wondering what the TSA agents could actually see on the scanner. Could they tell she wasn't wearing a bra, she wondered? With her little boobs, a bra wasn't always necessary and Kate often went without.
The scanner spun around her and she was told to step out on the other side. Kate walked up to the conveyor belt and saw her son's bright blue Patagonia bag begin emerging from the bag scanning tunnel. She was about to grab the bag when the conveyor belt stopped and reversed, pulling the bag back into the tunnel.
She saw one of the TSA agents waving over a colleague. Kate furrowed her brow, put her hands on her hips and wondered what this was about.
The agents leaned into the screen and grinned - one of them nudged the other. The taller one looked over and asked her to step aside and follow him to the end of the line to open her bag. He carried the bag and dropped it on a table.
Kate complied, feeling her heart beating faster with each passing moment but at the same time thinking what a waste of time, what could she possibly have?Kate unzipped the bag and the agent began to rummage through her bag, pulling out items and examining them closely.
As he reached the bottom of the bag, he unzipped an inner pouch and he pulled out a small, plastic and metal pipe. "Ma'am, what is this?" the agent asked, holding up what was obviously her son's marijuana pipe.
"I'm going to fucking kill him," she thought.
Kate's heart was pounding and her cheeks were getting hot as she realized what she was going to have to deal with.
"It's not mine, I borrowed the bag, I'm just trying to go see my husband in Mexico for a long weekend and I don't want to miss the flight for something I swear is not mine!" she said, trying to sound apologetic and pleading at the same time, but the agent was not convinced. He twisted the small pipe and sniffed it.
"Ma'am, this contains marijuana," the agent said.
Kate's mind raced as she tried to come up with an excuse, but she knew it was futile, they wouldn't believe her and she had been caught red-handed and her family's name was on an embroidered luggage name tag. Would she get her son in trouble with the law if she told the truth and said it was his?
The agent called for backup and before Kate knew it, she was being led away with one agent holding her upper arm. She was told she would be charged with possession of a controlled substance, and that she could forget about her flight.
Kate couldn't believe what was happening. She had never been in trouble with the law before, and now she was facing serious charges. She knew her life would never be the same again and her only way out would get her son in trouble right when he was applying to colleges!
As she was taken away, she couldn't help but think about how one foolish decision to borrow a smaller bag can change everything. Was she going to face actual consequences? Was her son? She had to protect him, but she didn't want to go to jail either!
Kate realized that with Dave out of country, she had no one to call and come get her if she got arrested. Oh, God!
The two male TSA agents led her down a long hallway with a number of rooms on either side and ended up outside a metal door at the very end. One of them unlocked the door with a key from a lanyard full of keys while one continued to grip her arm. Both agents looked back down the hallway which was empty except for the distant sound of PA system announcing flights being boarded.
They ushered her into a well-lit room with gray vinyl floors, white walls, a desk, and a waist-high stainless steal gurney.
"OK, Ma'am, stand on that white line in the middle of the room and turn around and face us."
Kate heard the door slam shut and the lock latch loudly behind her as she stepped forward and on the line painted on the floor.
"We have you in possession of illegal narcotics boarding an international flight to a country whom we are pressuring not so send drugs over the boarder to us and we catch you bringing it to them! Do you know how bad this is? This requires further investigation and escalation since this becomes a potential international smuggling charge as well as possession."
Kate pleaded, "Oh, come on! What is this? I don't understand - it's just a marijuana pipe - are there drugs even in it? Can't we do this quickly so I don't miss this flight?"
"Sounds like she admits it's hers now, Gene. Put it in the record that the suspected smuggler stopped denying it was someone else's bag," said the agent.
"I'm not smuggling! I haven't done anything wrong. I'm just a mom going on vacation. I didn't know that was in there - I don't even do drugs! I can prove it to you, I'll take a drug test, you can call my boss or friends. What are you planning to do?"
The TSA agent closest to her stood with his arms crossed looking down at her in his blue uniform and said, "I'm not at liberty to say at this time, but we will be detaining you in this private screening area until we are satisfied you aren't involved in trafficking as a drug mule."
The other agent stepped forward in line with the other one and said, "We'll do our best to expedite the process, but if you're not compliant, I guarantee you we will be here a VERY long time that will end with you in cuffs and agents on their way to investigate your family."
"Alright, I understand. I'll do whatever you ask, but I want to speak to a lawyer," said Kate.
The TSA agent said, "You have the right to legal representation, and we can make arrangements for you to speak with an attorney.....or maybe we get this settled to our satisfaction without anyone else ever knowing you travel with drugs."
Kate's eyes flashed back and forth between the two sets of eyes looking down at her and started to realize these apes held the cards. "Fine, what do you want?"
"We need to perform a full body cavity search to make certain you aren't a drug mule. If we don't find anything, then you get to go on like nothing happened and you might even make your flight. Now, you can start by completely disrobing."
