Courtesy pays

The flight from JFK in New York to Cairo, Egypt takes about ten hours. I normally sleep very little on the flight unless the two seats next to me are vacant and I can lay down. (I always take an aisle seat). However, the plane is usually full and the only time I ever slept in a sitting position was back in my school days.

On this particular flight I had the added inconvenience of a seat that would not stay in its normal upright position. I found that out when I took the seat, buckled my seat belt, then leaned back and the seat went into full horizontal mode. I apologized to the Egyptian woman behind me, pulled the seat up and leaned forward. I then assumed this would be the longest ten hour flight of my life.

It was a Friday evening, rush hour, and we were about 42nd in line for take off. I tried reading but would momentarily doze, lean back, and the seat would go horizontal. I tried to make it look like I was doing it on purpose, you know, trying to strike up a conversation with the woman behind me. She wouldn’t have anything to do with me though, so I began talking to the nice Egyptian businessman in a suit and tie sitting in the window seat next to me.

He seemed exceptionally friendly, so we kept talking as the plane took off and I quietly fought the forces of gravity that would surely send me crashing back into the woman’s lap. We reached our cruising altitude and another well-dressed Egyptian man stood up two rows in front of me and came back to say hello. He explained that the man next to me was his friend and would I mind terribly taking his aisle seat two rows in front. Being the gentleman that I am, I said no problem, grabbed my briefcase and moved. His seat worked fine. Sometime later in the flight I seem to remember a man and woman behind me having an argument.