On a long trip, Haley gets into a fight over a window shade with a teenager and his spoiled mother. A smart flight attendant steps in and gives them an answer they didn’t expect, which makes them gasp.
I put on my seatbelt and got ready for the long trip from New York to London. It was my goal to have a peaceful trip across the Atlantic, so I brought a lot of books with me. One of the teens sitting next to me was watching TV on his computer. Even with his headphones on, I could hear the noise.
While sitting in the aisle seat, his mother imagined that the plane was her living room. She had her hair sprayed straight, and she looked at me sharply as she went through her many purses.
We didn’t say anything at first. I tried to focus on what I was reading, but the boy’s screen kept making noise that got in the way. There were a lot of funny and loud fight scenes. I asked him nicely to say no.
He said, “Okay,” and as he did, he didn’t lower the volume at all. While her son was making a mess, his mother did nothing but turn the pages of a magazine. It was already early in the flight, but I knew it would be hard to find peace.
Only the sound of the teen’s computer could be heard in the flight cabin as the night went on. It sounded like his headphones were just for show because the air was full of exciting music and car chases. With all that noise, it was hard to read my book.
“Could you please turn it down?” I asked as I leaned down. less quiet this time. I got a weak smile from him, and he looked up and stopped his show. He replied, “Sure, sorry about that,” but as soon as I calmed down, the level went up. His mom didn’t even look up from her book.
The fight over the window shade then started. I was looking up at the stars when the teenager reached over and pulled down the shade. He didn’t say anything. Now that it was dark enough to read, I raised it again after a short break. He stretched out his arm and brought it back down with a deep sigh.
Finally, his mom spoke up. He’s trying to fall asleep, you see. “Just put it down.”
I tried not to get angry and said, “I need it up so I can read my book.”
As dawn got closer, the window shade turned into a quiet battleground. Every time I raised it to enjoy the early morning light, the teen quietly pulled it down. This tug-of-war went on for a while. Not far away, his mother watched, and her frown got bigger every time I reached for the shade.
She finally lost it. “Enough already!” He needs to rest. The sound of her voice was like a knife cutting through the quiet cottage. I took a quick look around and saw that other tourists were looking over their chairs, curious about what was going on.
I said, “I need to read,” in a calm voice. “I’d also like the window to be open.”
She made a narrow line with her lips. “You are being so self-centered!” she yelled.
As the stress reached a breaking point, she pressed the call button hard. The flight attendant showed up a little later, but it was hard to read her face.
“What seems to be the problem here?” she asked in a calm voice.
The mom complained right away. “This woman is keeping my son up at night.” She keeps pulling back the window shade on purpose.
I told her what I thought and showed her my book. “All I want to do is read, and I need some light.”
The flight attendant looked at her and gave a quick nod. Then she turned around to face me, looked serious, and gave me a small wink. “I think I know what you two can do.”
She leaned in closer and made a low noise. “There is a free spot in business class.” If you want, you can have more peace and another window.
I was shocked by the offer, but I loved the way the son and mother looked at each other with their mouths open and eyes wide. She made it sound like she wanted to take me to a different planet, not just the front of the plane.
I gladly took it and got my books together. The flight attendant kept working after I moved to my fancy new seat. She turned around to face the boy and his mother and said, “And for you.” “This seat needs to be filled since it’s now open.”
Soon, she was back with a new guest: a very big man who turned away at the sight of how crowded it was. He politely asked, “Is it okay if I take the aisle seat?” Because he was big, his voice was soft, but there was a hint of need in it. The mother didn’t want to agree, but she did. Now she was stuck between her child and an uncomfortable flight.
As I took my place in the roomy business class section, I couldn’t help but look back. Now that he was sitting in the middle, the man began to snore louder and louder every minute. It looked like the child and his mother were being pushed even more tightly than before. They were shocked and in pain.
The flight attendant’s quick thinking turned my trip into a relaxing vacation. The mother and son, on the other hand, had to accept their new situation and possibly thought about what they had done in the past. The man sleeping next to them had no idea what was going on.
As the trip went on, I enjoyed the unexpected ease of business class. I smiled and took the champagne glass that the flight attendant brought over. As I lay back in my seat, I enjoyed the feel of the bubbles on my nose. The sound of drinks clinking and the quiet hum of the cabin made me feel much calmer than in my previous spot, which was quite tense.
As I turned the pages of my book, I liked how quiet it was and how the view from the big, clear window next to me looked. The rest of the trip was a happy blur of leisure, with thoughtful service from the flight crew every so often.
We looked at each other for a moment, and I couldn’t help but smile in a polite but slightly naughty way. The mother quickly turned her eyes away and narrowed them as she grabbed her son by the arm to move through the line faster.
The woman on our flight made fun of the other passengers and crew all the time. She did it so much that she had to cry as she got off the plane.
Because of a mean stranger, everyone on the plane was on edge, even the flight staff and other passengers. It didn’t stop her from making trouble, being mean to people, and doing whatever she pleased! We told her she couldn’t bother us, but she didn’t know that!
I’m Miranda, and I hope all is well. Tell me about a stranger who did something bad on a plane because she thought she could get away with it. I’ll tell you a story. But my other tourists and I told her she was wrong!
These days I’ve been traveling a lot, but this last trip had to be the most exciting! I try to book spots in rows six and seven whenever I can because they aren’t too expensive. Two more things I like about the rows are how close they are to the front.
Today, I walked through the plane’s crowded halls and found what I thought was seat 7D. While I was leaving, I thought that seat 7D was my return spot.
Mistakes happen, especially for people like me who travel a lot and have trouble remembering where our seats are. I thought it was just a small problem before she got here.
When she came to claim my row, the woman thought she had the aisle spot. I politely stood up to let her in, telling her, “No, that’s my seat.” But I didn’t realize I was in the wrong row.
But when the row got busy, I realized I had read my ticket wrong. But the fix was sent with a level of anger that was not expected.
She made a mean face and said, “YOU ARE SO DUMB THAT YOU CHOSEN THE WRONG SEATS!”
