Strangers

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There used to be a time in my life when I would make idle chatter with strangers.

At one time I used to actually enjoy trying to get to know someone new.

Those days are long gone.

My travel was garbage this time around. I had 4 flights and got a lousy seat each time, the worst of all being was a middle seat between two ambitious bastards.

The guy to my left had a stack of papers. There were at least a thousand loose leaf pages. For over two hours, he shuffled those pages, over and over and over again.

He was a nervous guy. He licked his finger, and then he used the finger to read. I’m not quite sure when it happened, but it was a long ass time ago. He was still using his fingers to read????

It annoyed me.

Then his leg started to shake.

A nervous habit, to be sure, but there is absolutely no room on a plane. When he shook his leg, my leg moved.

The guy to my right was also a busy guy.

He took out his lap top.

Then he started huffing. I guess I looked over.

“The internet isn’t working!”

I didn’t have a response.

The flight attendant waltzed on by.

“Excuse me! The wi-fi isn’t working.”

“I’m so sorry about that. We won’t have service for the flight.”

The guy actually snorted.

“Do you know that we won’t have service for the entire flight?” He asked.

“Well, I mean, I haven’t discussed it with the captain, he’s been busy.” She laughed.

“Can you ask him?” The guy snorted again.

“I really can’t,” she said, crinkling her nose.

“So, if the wing fell off, you couldn’t go talk to him?”

The flight attendant looked confused.

“That’s a little more of an emergency,”

She walked away.

The guy looked at me.

“Don’t you think the wi-fi should work?” He asked.

I didn’t answer.

I kinda’ hoped the window blew open and sucked the guy out of the plane. You’re traveling thousands of miles in a short window of time.

“Suck it up!”

Strangers.

On a plane.

Thankfully, we would never see one another again. I wouldn’t miss either man.

As we were waiting to get off the plane I heard the two men in the row behind me getting to know one another.

“Where are you from?”

“How long have you worked there?”

“You have kids?”

Bah!

Whatever happened to silence???

The plane seats are way too close!

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