An Interesting Encounter

Hailie leaned her head back on the airplane seat and sighed, wishing she hadn't had to go on this trip. She hated traveling. Hated the ear-popping, the strange people she had to tolerate, the cramped plane seats, the impossibility of any sort of comfort or sleep.

Knowing that she was in for the long haul, Hailie decided to try and get comfortable. She had felt nothing but annoyed as the Successful First Class people had boarded, looking down their noses at the unwashed masses they sauntered past. Hailie had to wait until Group D boarded, and she was able to get in line with the rest of those masses.

She had laughed, though, when the airline attendant and announced the boarding of families with small children, and five adult hillbillies got up and got in line with their one six-year-old child. She'd shaken her head incredulously when they were allowed through with no problem. 

Once finally on board, she had been jostled, tossed, sneezed on, coughed in the direction of, and some creep in First Class had even tried to fondle her as she pushed by him. 

Hailie decided to stay unbuckled until takeoff. No reason to buckle up when the plane wasn't even moving. 

She was sitting alone for now, but she didn't suspect it would last long. Leaning down for her backpack, Hailie reached in and pulled out her copy of Jane Eyre, which she thought would pass the time rather well throughout the flight. Stuck in the window seat, she planned to live inside the paperback for the foreseeable future.

It wasn't that she didn't like talking to people, she just didn't like the kinds of people that were to be found on airplanes. Travelers were always of a different disposition than they were in everyday life, usually a less agreeable one, and Hailie wasn't so prideful that she didn't count herself among that generalization.

Settling in to the story, she started escaping the world of the airplane and entering into that of the early 1800s.

Just as Mr. Rochester's horse slipped, Hailie was startled by a sound to her left. 

A young man was having trouble getting his bag into the overhead compartment. After a moment, he finally succeeded, and Hailie discreetly watched as he sat down and settled in. 

Right as she was about to start reading again, he spoke. 

"Hello. I'm Easton, but my friends call me East. And you are?"

He extended his hand.

"I'm Hailie. My friends call me Hailie."

She shook it, slightly annoyed that he interrupted her reading.

As if understanding her thoughts, he asked,

"Sorry for the interruption, but, what are you reading, may I ask?"

She held up the book so he could read the cover and shrugged.

"I read it a while back for school, and liked it, so I got my own copy. I figured it deserved a re-read right around now." 

Thinking the conversation was over, she went to turn back to Jane.

"Jane Eyre? I used to like that one. Mr. Rochester's quite the character, isn't he? My favorite part was probably when he dressed up like the old gypsy and played that prank on the guests."

She had to smile at that.

"Yes, I rather enjoyed that part as well. 'Old Mother Bunches', he was." At the memory of the name, she burst out laughing. East joined her.

"So, how many other classics have you read?" He asked upon regaining his composure.

"Oh, as many as time allows. Pride and Prejudice, Emma, The Hidden Hand, oh, that was a good one. I've read some Shakespeare, some Dickens. The basic Tolkien works, pretty much just Hobbit and Lord of the Rings. I've read the Chronicles of Narnia, all of them. That's all I can think of at the moment."

"Really? I've read most of the ones you said, but I've never heard of The Hidden Hand, what's that?"

She was starting to like this guy.

"It's a mystery set in the mid 1800s about this crotchety old man who's known as 'Old Hurricane', who, by the way, is my favorite character. He's rich, and he takes in this little orphan that an old midwife tells him about on her deathbed. He pampers her, and raises her like his own daughter. Her name is Cap, and she's just this spitfire of a girl who has a wit and a will to match Hurricane's. The conversations they have are hilarious. I thought so, anyway. And in another part of the story, a poor boy and his single mother try to make their way in the world, and he apprentices for the town doctor, and falls in love with his daughter, but after the father's death, she gets shipped off to get engaged to Cap's neighbor, and the two girls become fast friends and have all sorts of adventures together. Then the boy goes off to fight in the Mexican-American war with Cap's best friend, Herbert. Apparently there's a sequel called Capitola's Peril, but I haven't read it."

East had been grinning all through her description.

"Wow, that sounds fascinating." 

"It is." Hailie nodded enthusiastically.

Feeling a bit self-conscious, she turned back to her book with a slight blush coloring her cheeks.

Just then, the pilot came on the loudspeaker and announced that takeoff was imminent.

Hailie finally buckled in, and East did the same.

After the painful ear-popping of takeoff that had involved the chewing of much gum, she began to relax again, grateful the seat between her and East remained unoccupied. 

They both began to use it as a storage space for their bags, and were surprised to find that there was plenty of room for all of their things that they wanted to put there.

After the stewardesses came by with drinks and those amazing little Biscoff cookies, East started the conversation back up.

"So where you headed? Will you stay in Anchorage after we land, or do you have a connecting flight?"

"Anchorage is my last stop. I'm homeward-bound. You?"

"Same. I live in Kenai though, so I've still got a three-hour drive ahead of me after we land. What were you doing in Seattle, may I ask?"

She sighed, wondering how much she should say.

"It wasn't Seattle. Seattle was my layover spot. I actually went to SoCal. My grandfather's funeral."

His face fell. 

"Oh, I'm sorry for your loss."

"Thanks, but it's not necessary. I hardly knew the man. Laid eyes on him maybe three times in my life. He and my grandma divorced when my mom was just a teenager. He was... a hard man to be closely acquainted with. Everybody loved the surface David, but the people that had to go home with him... well, suffice it to say, he didn't make life easy."

"Oh, I'm sorry to hear that."

"Thank you." She offered him a weak smile.

"What about you? What was your business in Seattle?" 

"I'm an engineer, and I was consulting on a new bridge design. It was fun, but I'm glad to be on the way home."

"That's so cool! Was it a highway bridge, or did it actually go over water?"

"It went over water. It was to connect two piers off the coast."

"Oh, I love the beach! Was the weather nice?"

"Beautiful. Just like you."

"Cheeky." She teased. "Appreciated, but ineffective."

"Can't blame a guy for trying." He chuckled with a shrug.

"I guess not." She laughed again.

The conversation continued in such a way as this until the end of the flight. They were so engrossed that neither of them realized how much time had even passed until the pilot announced that they were landing and asked everyone to please fasten their seat belts.

Once on the ground and at the baggage claim, Hailie spoke.

"Well, it was nice meeting you, East."

"You as well, Hailie." 

"I hope you do well for yourself down there in Kenai."

"Ha, me too!" They snickered.

After Hailie saw and collected her suitcase, East decided to say something that had been on his mind for the last hour.

"Hey, umm. Look, I..."

"Yes?" She prodded gently.

"I'd like to get to know you better. I know we live three hours away from each other, but..."

"Actually... I live in Soldotna. I'm taking a Grant flight back to Kenai in half an hour. I just didn't say anything when we were talking because we hadn't really known each other that long."

"Well, that's a problem I'd like to remedy. How about dinner this Saturday night?"

Hailie hesitated a moment, considering the implications of this request. She finally decided that you never know if you don't go.

"That sounds really nice, East. I look forward to it."

He grinned like a kid on Christmas morning.

"Great."

They exchanged numbers and parted ways. 

As Hailie boarded the little bush plane that would take her the rest of the way home, she realized that, though she was unsure of what the future might hold concerning Easton, she was OK with that.

She was willing to simply see where this might go.