The Wrong Suitcase

Pilar had been traveling for almost fourteen hours when her plane finally landed at O'Hare Airport in Chicago. She was tired, hungry and a little confused by the time difference. All she wanted was to find her red suitcase, take a taxi to her cousin's apartment and sleep.

At the baggage claim, the suitcases were going round and round on the belt. When Pilar saw a red one with a black handle, she grabbed it, checked that the wheels worked and walked out of the airport without looking back. Nobody stopped her, and she did not check the name tag.

An hour later, in her cousin's living room, she opened the suitcase and froze. Instead of her clothes, she found a black top hat, three packs of playing cards, a long silk scarf and a white rabbit. Not a real rabbit, luckily: it was a toy with a hidden spring. "This isn't mine," she said. "I've taken somebody else's suitcase."

Her cousin Diego started laughing, but Pilar was worried. Somewhere in Chicago, a stranger had her suitcase, and she had his. Then she noticed a small label inside the lid: "Marco the Magnificent. Show tonight, 8 p.m., Riverside Theater." It was already half past five.

"He needs this stuff for his show," Pilar said. "Magicians can't perform without their props." Diego called the theater, but nobody answered. So they got in his car and drove downtown through heavy traffic, while Pilar held the suitcase on her knees as if it were a baby.

When they arrived at the theater, a man in a purple jacket was walking up and down in front of the doors. He looked desperate. On the ground next to him was a red suitcase with a black handle, exactly like Pilar's.

"Marco?" she asked. He turned around, saw the suitcase and almost cried. "I've been calling the airline for two hours," he said. "They told me that my suitcase had left the airport with a woman from Spain." He opened Pilar's suitcase to show her that he hadn't touched anything, and there were her clothes, her books and her slippers.

Marco gave them two free tickets for the show. That night, Pilar watched him pull the toy rabbit out of the top hat and make the silk scarf disappear. The audience clapped loudly, and so did she. Her first day in Chicago hadn't gone as planned, but it had been much more interesting than sleeping.

The next morning, before she did anything else, Pilar tied a bright yellow ribbon around the handle of her suitcase. She was never going to make that mistake again.