People were sleeping awkwardly, reading, watching movies, or balancing drinks on tiny tray tables.
I went all the way to row 34.
Grandma was by the window.
She stared at the endless blue sky.
Her purse was held tightly against her chest.
Beside her sat a red-haired boy around eight or nine.
He wore an airline badge around his neck.
UNACCOMPANIED MINOR.
His name was Oliver.
He held a coloring book, although he wasn’t coloring.
His knee bounced nervously.
The aisle seat was empty.
I crouched beside them.
“You okay, Grandma?”
She turned toward me.
For one strange second, she looked lost.
Then she smiled.
“I’m fine.”
She wasn’t.
Her hands were trembling.
Her eyes looked damp.
I’m a nurse.I know what “fine” looks like.
This wasn’t it.
“Are you feeling sick?”
“No.”
“You’re shaking.”
“It’s just nerves.”
The boy beside her looked up.
“I’m nervous too.”
Grandma turned toward him.
Her expression softened immediately.
“Are you flying alone?”
He nodded.
“My mom put me on the plane in Boston. My dad’s meeting me in San Francisco.”
Then he admitted quietly,
“I don’t like when the airplane shakes.”
“Neither do I,” Grandma said.
Oliver looked surprised.
“You don’t?”
“No. But my husband used to repair airplanes. He taught me that turbulence is like driving over bumps in a road. The airplane is built to handle them.”
“Did he fix this airplane?”
Grandma looked out the window.
“Maybe.”
Then she smiled.
“Maybe he did.”I watched the two of them for another minute.
“I’m okay now,” Grandma told me. “Go enjoy your seat.”
She nodded toward Oliver.
“I have company.”
So I returned to first class.
—
Twenty minutes later, the cockpit door opened.
A younger pilot stepped into the galley.
He spoke quietly to one of the flight attendants.
She looked surprised.
Then she pointed toward the rear cabin.
The pilot started walking backward through the plane.
Slowly.
He wasn’t simply checking the cabin.
He was searching.
I don’t know what made me follow him.
I just did.
He passed row twenty.
Then twenty-five.
Thirty.
At row 34, he stopped.
Grandma was still by the window.
Oliver had finally begun coloring a purple dinosaur.
The pilot stared at my grandmother.
Then at her purse.Then at the small silver wings attached near the zipper.
His entire expression changed.
