Just Plane Happenstance
Nothing to see here. Just your normal, hilariously teeth-rotting airport meet cute.
Carry on (or check it planeside).
"I didn't do anything wrong," screeched the incessant voice, heavy with righteous indignation. "You pulled me off that plane for no reason and my bags are still on there!"
Kyoko rolled her eyes for what must have been the twentieth time at the sound of the irate passenger who had been escorted off of her flight. Now her luggage, about which she'd been intermittently caterwauling, was leaving her behind on its way to her final destination. The loud complaining had gone on for at least five minutes by then. At first Kyoko heard the woman before she'd even set eyes on her; the sound of her angry voice projecting from inside the closed-off jetway as she bemoaned the fate of her precious luggage.
A soft chuckle came from her left and she peeked to find the lanky gentleman seated beside her shaking his head with a wry smile. One hand was quickly scrolling through something on his phone while the other brought a bottle of water to his lips periodically so he could draw short sips from it.
"No, I was not acting crazy," the woman, still standing at the departure gate, continued. "I have to work in the morning and my luggage will be getting home before I do."
She was pacing back and forth in front of the desk, her designer label backpack swinging wildly behind her with each step. Her travel companion, who Kyoko couldn't decide if he had also been forcibly removed or stayed behind for moral support (she guessed it was the latter) talked quietly with the desk agent about what alternatives were available to them.
"This is ridiculous. You're being ridiculous!" designer backpack woman cried, flipping her long, dark hair behind her before storming off into the terminal.
Kyoko adjusted the bag at her feet to let someone pass by, tucking it further under her seat. Pulling her phone from where it lay across her lap, she checked to see how much of her battery's power she'd managed to replenish since she plugged it in upon reaching the gate for her flight.
"The only ridiculous one here is you," the words came mumbled from her left.
The snort and accompanying giggle that left her neither sought her permission nor her forgiveness. She caught his eyes when they snapped to hers and the widening of his smile at her reaction. His mess of deep brown hair looked purposely sculpted to appear as if he'd just pushed his fringe overtop of his head and off to one side with a casual sweep of his hand. It looked so natural it was unnatural and she couldn't help but fixate on it. She stared for as long as one could deem appropriate.
"It's a shame that I already had a meal on my last flight," she quipped, tearing her eyes away from his hair to look back at the poor beleaguered desk agent. "I could have had dinner and a show."
That got more than just a chuckle out of him. He guffawed quietly beside her and she felt an odd sense of pride at getting a stranger to laugh.
"I'm saddened by the fact that all I bought were these snacks," he said, holding up the small plastic bag laden with several brightly-colored packages. "What I really should've gotten was some popcorn."
Kyoko only just managed to cover up her shriek of laughter with a cough. Most of the other passengers around them didn't seem to notice, but a few gave her strange looks. She distracted herself from her embarrassment by gesturing to the aforementioned bag of snacks.
"Didn't have time to get an actual meal?"
He shook his head.
"My stomach never seems to have the capacity for large quantities of food whenever I have to fly."
"So you fill up on junk food instead?" she asked, dubiously.
"Well, aside from the fact that they seem to annoy random judgemental strangers," he gave her a pointed look before continuing,"they have everything I need."
He pulled out a yellow bag of chocolate candies that were advertised to have peanuts in the center and jiggled it back and forth.
"These even have protein in them."
Before she could roll her eyes again, their erstwhile source of entertainment returned to badger the desk agent once more. The person offered to escort her somewhere she could have her (rather repetitive and inexhaustive) questions answered and she followed them while arguing the entire way. Her companion, having completed his conversation with the very same desk agent, gave her an exasperated look before turning away to walk off in the opposite direction without so much as bothering to inform her.
"Oooh, The plot thickens," her seatmate sounded almost thrilled.
"I'm guessing someone's luggage scuffed her matching, designer carry-on when they put it beside hers in the compartment and she threw a fit," she posited.
He stared at her, silently impressed, for several beats. "That actually sounds very plausible."
"It's a game I like to play whenever I have to be in a public place for a while. I make up back-stories for complete strangers."
"Really?"
She nodded.
"Okay," he looked around the immediate area and gestured towards a middle-aged man who was fast asleep in his chair. "What about that guy?"
Kyoko pondered the person for a moment, drumming her fingers on her chair's armrest.
"He's living a double life and the time he spends travelling between both of his homes and families is the only time he truly has to himself to rest."
The man beside her nodded in appreciation, accepting her explanation without question. Then, he chose another target. This time, it was a young mother who nervously watched her toddler alternate between pressing her face against the glass to see the airplanes parked outside and running up and down the rows of seats. When she wasn't staring at her child, she was giving anxious glances to her phone.
"What's her story then?"
She didn't even bat an eye for that one and immediately rattled off her answer.
"That child's father will be picking them up from the airport when they arrive."
His brow wrinkled in confusion as he seemed to catch her odd choice of words. "She's not the child's mother?"
Kyoko shook her head, smiling.
"She is, but the father doesn't know that's his daughter."
"Ohh. You are good at this," he breathed in awe.
She giggled, "I know."
She took a moment to check her messages, sending a confirmation to her friend that her flight was leaving on schedule and that she'd update once she arrived when she felt a nudge against her arm. Looking up, the man beside her nodded towards the desk at the gate. Another desk agent, who'd been nearby when the whole fiasco started, replaced the one who left and who should be standing before them but their favorite discharged passenger.
The woman was in tears .
"I don't know if you remember me," she started, her voice quavering.
"Oh, I definitely remember you," the gate's new attendant replied before she could finish. "You were here earlier."
The subsequent part of their conversation was drowned out by an announcement over the public address system but she could see the woman gesturing emphatically as she spoke.
"... I don't know where he went and I can't find him. My luggage was on that plane and I didn't do anything wrong! Please, just help me understand why."
The person at the desk spoke calmly and lowered their voice so she couldn't make out what they were saying but the woman's reactions told her all she needed to know. Her responses quickly became heated and peppered with expletives as she rudely stated (again) that she did nothing wrong. It was at that moment, the woman was again, led away from the desk by the agent and the two of them walked away in a repeat performance of what transpired earlier.
From her left, she heard a series of several crunching sounds. Her neighbor, apparently, had opened a bag of chips. He looked up at her with wide eyes when he caught her looking at him, the chip he held between two fingers froze in midair on its way to his mouth. Tilting the bag towards her, he made another offering as he had with the candy and she politely refused again.
"I thought you said you couldn't stomach a lot of food when you have to fly."
"Usually I don't," he agreed. "But this drama is so entertaining, I can't look away and it's making me oddly hungry."
She shook her head and sighed.
"Where do you think they're taking her?"
"No idea," he shook his head. "But I hope it's to a therapist."
Kyoko tried desperately to transition her giggle into a sneeze by muffling it with her sleeve. It half worked. Thankfully the announcement from the newest desk agent to enter their midst that their flight would soon begin boarding drowned out the rest of it.
"A shame, really," the man chimed in once the announcement finished. "I was getting kind of attached to this soap opera."
"Maybe you should cause a disturbance and get kicked off our flight as well so you can stay behind and keep watching."
That earned her a chuckle.
"I would, but I have to be at work in the morning."
"So did she," Kyoko nodded in the direction the woman last departed.
He laughed around another chip, chewing quickly and swallowing before he answered. "I'll only do it if you get yourself in trouble as well. I need you to keep creating amazing origin stories for the other passengers."
"Too bad," she said with an air of mock sympathy. "I start a new job tomorrow. I don't think bad behavior at an airport would be an appropriate excuse to use with my new superiors for my lateness."
He winced, the bag of chips in his hand made a loud crackle when his fingers tightened briefly tightened around it.
"I guess we're stuck being model citizens then."
Her lips lifted up on one side, "Will you be able to survive without ever knowing the exciting conclusion?"
Another chip. Another chortle.
"I'll live."
The public address system came to life again announcing that all premium level passengers were now welcome to board their flight. Once the cacophony of the overly loud, tinny voice died down, a completely new din was revealed. Vengeful screaming came from the departure gate situated behind them and everyone turned in their seats to find the source. Kyoko was the last to turn in her seat, the top half of her body twisted as far as her torso would allow.
The woman from earlier was now openly berating the most recent desk agent to fall victim to her wiles. Her arms flailed wildly and she occasionally pounded the desk with her fists to punctuate her words. Expletives flooded from her lips and her voice pitched up, up, up the longer she carried on. Not even the quiet murmurs from onlookers were enough to muffle the racket she was making.
She had no reason to expect it to be there, short of knowing the man sitting next to her had been eating from it. Nonetheless, her hand instinctively reached to one side before descending decisively into where she assumed the bag would be.
Thankfully, it was there and it was perfectly angled for her hand to slip right inside.
Her fingers pinched around the edge of a chip and she extracted it slowly before bringing it to her mouth. There was no accounting for how loud the crunch was to everyone around her, but it was plenty loud inside her own head. The man holding said bag caught her eye and a crooked grin broke out on his face. Kyoko only sighed and reached out again for another chip.
"I knew you'd cave eventually."
"Shh," she hissed through her teeth to silence him while her eyes were glued to the scene taking place.
They shared a bag of chips in a rapt sort of silence, broken only by the intermittent sounds of crunching. The raving woman continued with her deafening tirade until the gate agent contacted airport security for assistance. A man and a woman in uniform appeared in short order and instructed the woman in stern, hushed tones to follow them. Voicing her disbelief at the entire situation, she shot the desk agent a dirty look before whipping her head back around to follow the officers who led her away.
Kyoko reached out for one last chip only to find the bag was gone, her hand swishing through nothing but air until hit smacked against the back of the seat beside her. The man to whom it belonged was in the process of packing up his things and getting out of his seat. His movements stopped when he noticed her watching him and he offered a sheepish look.
"It's time for me to board. They called my group number a while ago but I missed it in all the excitement."
Her eyes widened in shock when she also realized that she needed to prepare herself to board soon.
"Wait, what number are they on?"
"Five," he said, slinging a backpack over one shoulder. "I was supposed to board with group three."
A breath of relief left her and her posture relaxed in the chair.
"Oh, thank goodness. I'm in group eight."
"Well, maybe I'll see you on the plane."
Her laugh was gentle and breathy and he seemed to be taking his time about moving away from her despite the latest announcement stating that group six was free to board.
"If you do, I hope you'll save me a spot in the overhead bins."
He feigned shock, "That's like prime real estate these days. Are you trying to get me kicked off this flight?"
She shooed him away with one hand, wholly unable to reform her lips into something other than a gleeful smile.
"Just get on the plane already."
"Well, it was fun," he raised two fingers in a mock salute.
"It was," she agreed.
Adjusting the bag at his shoulder once more, he scurried off to join the line at the gate. So preoccupied was she with trying to get the airline's app to load on her phone, she completely missed the occasional glances he sent her way as he moved further up the line. By the time she had her boarding pass pulled up, they were now calling for group seven and her acquaintance-slash-partner-in-banter was nowhere to be seen. The line moved quickly and it felt like mere seconds had passed before it was her group's turn to board.
"20B… 20B…"
She repeated it to herself under her breath as she slowly wiggled her way down the aisle inside the plane, trying her best to prevent her larger bag from hitting anyone as she moved. Alternating between looking ahead to watch the passengers in front of her and off to one side to read the labels on each row, she saw row thirteen go by followed by row seventeen a few seconds later. When she reached row twenty, she noticed two things; the first was that she'd been placed on an exit row. The second was the person sitting in the window seat.
"What are the odds…" the words were out of her mouth before she could stop them.
The sound of her voice prompted him to look away from the window out of which he'd been previously staring. The second his eyes met hers, his face brightened and he pulled in the long, gangly legs he'd sprawled out in front of him to sit up straighter in his seat. He raised one hand and pointed up and slightly behind him before leaning closer to speak in a conspiratorial whisper.
"I saved you a spot."
"You didn't even know where I'd be sitting."
He only shrugged by way of a reply. Kyoko huffed in disbelief, if only to distract herself from the flush in her face, and placed her bags in the empty space remaining in the compartment above her. Once she was settled and buckled into her seat, she'd composed herself enough to mumble a quiet thanks.
"No problem," he waved her words away with a hand.
She folded her hands in her lap. "So, is this the part where we politely ignore each other for the next two hours?"
"It doesn't have to be."
"I'm not helping you do the crossword puzzle in the in-flight magazine," she teased.
He fiddled around with the armrest between them, poking it from every direction until the top of it popped open to reveal a remote control stored inside. Kyoko's brow wrinkled in confusion as she looked at it.
"What…" she finally managed to ask.
"What do you say to a bonus challenge round for your backstory game?"
"A challenge round?"
He nodded. "We watch a movie neither of us have seen and you have to tell me the plot without the help of closed captioning or sound."
She looked up at his excited smile and knew she couldn't refuse even if she wanted to. But she didn't want to. Even though he was a complete stranger. Even though she knew absolutely nothing about him beyond his atrocious eating habits. Kyoko felt her lips stretch into a smile and she settled back into her seat.
"Alright, you're on."
Two hours passed quickly while Kyoko wove a story about a man who was deathly allergic to hugging people and the compassionate understanding of a seemingly fractious friendship with someone who could only display their affection through punching. They were both in tears from laughing so hard by the time the movie ended; the drinks and snacks served during their flight opened but forgotten on their tray tables.
Their companionship continued even after the plane landed and parked at the airport gate. Making their way to the baggage claim, they shared yet another laugh when both of their bags appeared side-by-side on the squeaky conveyor belt. Of course, the coincidences had to stop somewhere. Luggage in hand, they finally reached the point where their paths diverged. Her friend was waiting to pick her up. His car was parked in the lot just outside the terminal.
"To think we've spent hours together and we never introduced ourselves," he remarked as they stood, somewhat reluctant to part company.
He held out his hand to her. "I'm Ren."
"Kyoko," she replied, shaking the proffered hand.
He took a moment after their handshake to reseat the bag on his shoulder before grabbing the handle of his luggage and tilting it back onto its wheels. She wondered if he realized how crooked his shirt was now that the bag's strap had bunched the left side of his collar up around his ears.
"Well, Kyoko, thank you for making the drudgery of flying a little more enjoyable." His smile was warm and appreciative.
"Likewise."
"Good luck with your new job tomorrow."
"Thanks," she replied, genuinely grateful that he remembered. "I hope you get home safely."
Ren replied with the same sentiment and they both stood there looking at each other for decidedly too long, each wondering when was a good time to leave. Nervous laughs spouted from them both upon realizing their awkwardness. They bobbed their heads in uncertain nods and traded a tiny wave before turning in the opposite direction and walking away. Neither noticed when the other turned to look back at them, wondering if they'd ever cross paths again.
It was a fairly large city, it didn't seem plausible.
And yet, when Kyoko arrived at her new job the next morning and desperately shouted a plea to hold the elevator, the breath in her lungs vanished for parts unknown when the door slid open to reveal Ren standing on the other side.
-END-
BASED ON ACTUAL EVENTS. I was talking with some friends while on my way back home from traveling late last year when I witnessed some lady get kicked off the flight before mine. When I related the tale, it was suggested that it would make for a good story and they were absolutely right. After all, I had the length of a layover and one domestic flight to start writing it; which I did.
I sort of finished it in December, but realized I wasn't 100% satisfied with the ending I gave it. So I rewrote the ending as the one I originally wanted all along, but couldn't find the words to make it happen. Until now.
AUTHOR OUT!
