Friday, December 7, 2012

Unexpected and poetic 2

Jessica was on a lot of airplanes and on a roll with looking deeper at life last September.  She called it here traveling series.  Jessica took a long flight with her Dad and had an encounter with a stewardess. You know the kind that happens between strangers on a plane overnight where you are sleeping and eating with perfect strangers? It's formal and intimate all at the same. Jessica commented "she was uniform, and then she wasn't."

1 comment:

  1. Dad and I were taking a red eye from Accra to Joburg. In the middle of the night, while I was waiting by the restroom, I found myself standing next to a nauseous looking airline attendant. "It is pretty turbulent tonight," I said. She nodded, and then said, "but I dont think this is why I am not feeling well." We were silent for a moment. She looked at me worried,and said, "I think I am pregnant." As if it was completely unexpected and by saying it she was making it real for the very first time. The restroom door opened, I grabbed it before it closed and looked back to tell her, "congratulations." She nodded, head down with a small smile of acknowledgement.
    I went back to my seat thinking about this intimate moment as I drifted in and out of sleep, wondering about this uniformed woman's life. Later as she passed out morning coffee, she winked at me while filling my cup as if to acknowledge that we had shared something.

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