An encounter on the airplane

I parted at the airport with my husband, who had an unexpected business trip the night we were leaving Seattle. As our trip was planned way ahead in May, the cancelation of the flight turned out to be a little bit costlier than the flight fare itself. So I decided to leave his ticket as is without cancelation to see what will happen. After going through the long security check and boarding lines,  I finally seated myself against a window.  Rested, I looked at the empty seat next to me with much contentment, fancying myself stretched sprawlingly when tired. Minutes before the take-off, a middle-aged woman showed up and squeezed in. She took the seat, a seat we paid for. I reluctantly straightened my body and moved my bag underneath closer to myself. I glanced at her and could not stop wondering when the seat was sold to her. Was it half an hour ago when the boarding was complete or was it even earlier when I made the call the day before?

About 15 minutes later, the plane finally geared up and propelled itself toward the dusk sky. The light was turned dim inside the cabin. It was quiet. Nobody was talking. Outside the window, the distant sunset sky was layered in pink on the top and blue at the bottom, the same scene I saw the third time now.  The air was stuffy as in any plane. Bored, I took out the cell phone to write my Chinese or English but found my brain drained. As the time ticked by, I started to feel restless, and keeping changing my sitting postures only made it worse. The monotonous engine noise of the plane added to the boredom and discomfort. The first one-hour flight seemed so unbearably long. The thought of another an hour and a half duration like this agitated me. The guy at the end of the isle was flipping his newspaper with annoying sounds. Turning around, I saw the lady next to me awake but buried her head low with the hood of the jacket covered all over. The unsettling question of when she got ticket came back to me.  I plucked up my courage, turned myself a little bit towards her and opened my mouth with a hi and an excuse- me.  She did not move or raised her head, her eyes fixating downward at her cell phone. I tried the two words again, but my second attempt failed as well.  Not sure why she did not respond to me, I turned back and continued my gaze outside the window.  Then the stewardess with a cart came over offering drink. I asked for a cup of orange juice. When it was her turn, she took off her hood and the earphones. I knew instantly that it must be the music in her earphones that drowned out my previous greeting.  After both of us were served with drinks, I caught a moment for her attention and thus began my third attempt to strike the conversation. Small talks were ensued by my story of what happened to my husband ticket, and my curiosity of when she purchased the ticket. She told me she got it for free, as two of her daughters work for the airline. Proudly she told me how she has been frequenting Seattle to see her daughters and grandchildren, and how as one of the employees’ perks, she, as a mom, always flies free, only that she has to wait till the last minute, like this time. She also told me how great the company is, which allowed one year maternal leave for her daughter without discounting any senoriority.  As our talks deepened, time sneaked away quickly. Not sure if I interrupted her for her private time, I gestured to her for her continuation of the music. She smiled back, saying that the talks made the time go faster, and she appreciated my small talks too.

Surprisingly my back did not feel that sore any more, nor my legs. Leisurely I looked out the window again, and this time the city beneath was visible from the  elevation. Out of darkness, there were silver rivers of lights glittering with golden colors woven in between. Irregular the patterns were,  they were like checkerboards carved out with dim borders flickering and moving. I don’t know which cities we were flying by, but the sight of night city scene from the sky above, along with the encounter of a nice lady added the color to my trip, ending an otherwise tiring journey with some enlightenment.