A passenger snapped at my autistic grandson during his first flight, but things took a strange turn when a flight attendant picked up his old toy airplane. Why did she suddenly ask to see my boarding pass?
It was my grandson Benjamin’s first flight.
He’s seven and has autism, so we’d prepared for weeks.
I packed his headphones, crackers, two familiar books, and the little blue airplane he’d carried everywhere since he was five.
I booked him a window seat because he’d spent months asking what clouds looked like from above.
For the first hour, he did beautifully.
He pressed his forehead to the window and whispered the names of things he recognized.
“Cloud.”
“Wing.”
“Cloud.”
Then the plane dropped.
Not far, probably.
But my stomach jumped, the overhead bins rattled, and the seat belt sign chimed.
Benjamin jerked away from the window.
The next bump was worse.
He clapped his hands over his ears and began rocking.
