Travel Stories: From Here To Paris

Check-in went fine; I got my ticket, went through the security checkpoint, and went to wait at my gate. While sitting there I glanced over at the woman talking on the phone, she had about a 9-month old baby boy. I glanced again, and then I stared. Yeah, that's right I stared. I was speechless. She caught me looking (okay, staring) at her when she got off the phone. I finally got my brain to work and said her name. Then she looked at me again and said she would never have recognized me in a million years. I suppose, when you don't expect to see someone in a scarf, it takes you by surprise. She was my JC my first year at college. I hadn't seen her in 10 years. Isn't life crazy? We chatted until she boarded her plane.


It was soon time to board my own plane. For the most part my plane ride was uneventful. I couldn't sleep. I listened to Quran on my mp3 player, I watched movies, and I played solitaire games. At one point during the plane ride there was an announcement, well more of a question, on the overhead speaker. They asked if anyone could translate between English and Arabic. I wondered what was going on, and wished that I could speak Arabic right about then. On the other side of the plane was an elderly muslim woman she was traveling alone and apparently they were having some issues with her, but I didn't know that at the time. When it was near the time to land I saw her wandering down the aisle appealing to all the passengers in Arabic. She looked quite upset and sad. They got the guy who could translate again, but even he couldn't get her to go back to her seat for landing. I asked one of the stewardesses if I could try. I said I don't speak Arabic, but because I am muslim and a woman, she might go sit with me.

The translator told her I didn't speak Arabic, but once I held her hand and walked down the aisle to her seat she seemed to be okay. I held her hand as we started our descent, and she told me all of her troubles (in Arabic of course). I hoped she would be on my plane to Cairo as well, but she was going to another destination.

Who would send that poor, dear, old woman alone on a plane? It was obvious that she had some sort of dementia. Who could be so horrible? I was saddened by this and hoped she was going to meet someone good at her destination.