08/05/2026
Omar gets Jodette in trouble! A true story of Jodette! Writing help by Badriya!
Omar: The Best Friend Who Got Jodette Into Trouble
Some people travel with a lucky charm.
Some people travel with a favorite pillow.
Jodette traveled with an eight-foot boa constrictor named Omar.
Back in 1974, Jodette was making history. The University of Washington invited her to Seattle to teach belly dancing for a week. The pay was excellent, but leaving her husband and children back home in Sacramento wasn’t easy.
Before she even finished that first week, something unexpected happened.
The president of the Spokane World’s Fair flew all the way from New York just to meet her. Belly dancers were almost unheard of in America at the time, and they wanted Jodette to perform at the World’s Fair.
The offer was unbelievable.
They would pay her well for four performances over two weekends. They would fly her and her dancers between Seattle and Sacramento so she could spend the week with her family. They covered the airline tickets, hotel rooms, and every meal.
Jodette laughed when she remembered it.
“They would have paid if we ordered steak and lobster every day!”
Of course, if Jodette was performing…
Omar was coming too.
Omar wasn’t just any snake. He was an eight-foot boa constrictor, thick as a tree branch, with a head nearly the size of a softball. He was beautiful, calm, and had become part of Jodette’s famous act.
The airline captain, however, wasn’t nearly as impressed.
“Are you sure that snake is safe?” he asked.
“Oh yes,” Jodette replied confidently. “He’s very, very safe.”
Reluctantly, the captain allowed Omar to ride inside the cabin in his basket.
For a while, everything went perfectly.
Lunch was served.
The passengers relaxed.
Most of the airplane drifted off to sleep.
Then Jodette happened to glance over at Omar’s basket.
It was empty.
Her heart skipped a beat.
She looked at the dancers sitting beside her.
“Who opened the basket?”
“I didn’t.”
“I didn’t either.”
Nobody had opened it.
Meanwhile, Omar had quietly decided that the airplane was much too cold.
Across the aisle sat an elderly woman wrapped snugly in a warm blanket. To Omar, it looked like the perfect place to warm up. Without making a sound, he slithered over, crawled underneath the blanket, and curled himself comfortably around the woman’s feet.
Jodette spotted him first.
“Snake! Snake! Snake!”
The woman screamed.
The passengers screamed.
People jumped into the aisles.
Some climbed onto their seats.
Within seconds, the airplane had turned into complete chaos.
The captain rushed down the aisle wearing the exact expression of a man whose worst nightmare had just come true.
“I told you that snake belonged with the animals!”
Jodette wasn’t about to argue. She still had performances to give and no desire to lose her contract—or worse, end up in jail.
The following Friday, it was time to fly back for the second weekend of performances.
The captain saw her before she even boarded.
He pointed directly at Omar’s basket.
“Absolutely no snake in the cabin.”
This time there would be no discussion.
Omar was placed with the animals in the cargo hold.
Jodette wasn’t happy.
To calm herself down, she changed into her sparkling belly dance costume.
Then inspiration struck.
If Omar couldn’t entertain the passengers…
She would.
She walked into the aisle of the airplane and began belly dancing.
Passengers looked up from their newspapers.
People started clapping.
Before long, the entire airplane was cheering.
Twenty-dollar bills appeared.
Then fiftys.
Then even hundred-dollar bills.
Jodette laughed that she had never received so many tips in her life.
When the captain finally stepped out of the cockpit and saw a live belly dance performance happening in the middle of his airplane, all he could do was shake his head.
“Oh my God…”
“I made a mistake.”
By the time they landed, newspapers and television stations across the country were talking about the belly dancer who had performed on an airplane. By the time Jodette arrived at the Spokane World’s Fair, people already knew exactly who she was.
It became one of the funniest stories of her career.
