Puppets In Flight
A memory, from a flight to Canada a couple of years ago.
I had settled in to my seat and was looking through the air travel magazines in the little pouch in front of me. The seats next to me was empty, so I was looking forward to a quiet and uncramped plane ride.
As I was flipping through a magazine, trying to decide which of the featured golf courses looked most pretentious, a mother walked by with her two young children. They had the row behind me, but she obviously realized that she could only seat one of her children next to her and that one would have to sit next to me. Now, the dilemma - which one of the two children could she convince to sit apart from her? The boy was younger, so she tried to convince the girl, about five or six years old, to sit next to me. She brought over her daughter and buckled her in, against the vocal and physical protests of the little girl. Resigned, the girl proceeded to sulk.
This would not do. For my own peace or for the sanity of the mother, who would no doubt soon have to deal with two whining children, one whom she couldn’t really see. I had an idea.
“What’s your name?” I asked her.
“Anna.” Still sulking.
“Hi, Anna. I’m Tai.” (I figured Taiyyaba would be hard for her to say). She shook my hand politely and with little hesitation. This just might work…
“Want to make hand puppets?” I asked, pulling out an air sick bag from the pouches in front of our seats. I stuck one on my hand, using my fingers to move the folded part up and down like a mouth. “All we have to do is draw faces on them.”
Her eyes brightened. “Yeah!”
“Great,” I said, pulling out Sharpies I had in my purse. “Here, get started.”
“Thanks, Tai!” she said, excitedly. I pulled down her tray and she started to draw. Huge oval eyes, colored in with smaller circles. Eyebrows and eylashes. Scribbled hair. Big, pouty red lips.
As the plane started moving, she got scared. I told her not to worry but she still looked concerned, so I offered my hand. Anna grabbed it, holding it tightly while the plane took off. I opened the window and we watched the clouds fly by.
Soon we were done drawing faces, so we put our hands in the bags and made them talk. The air hostess came by, smiled, and asked us if we wanted anything to drink. We had orange juice and those little odd-tasting crackers.
“Now what do we do, Tai?” Right, obviously since I came up with the first idea, I had to come up with the second one, too.
“Let’s listen to some music.” I plugged in her headphones and, at her request, pushed the button to change the channels until she told me to stop. She found one she liked and started singing along. “naa na naaa my hips don’t lie and I’m starting to feel you boy.”
Anna started to fall asleep, leaning her head on my shoulder. I turned off the music and she slept for about twenty minutes. When she woke up, we were ready to land, so I opened the window again for us to see the clouds.
Suddenly, we heard some strange noises from the seat in front of us. Anna looked concerned, and then disgusted, when our noses told us what the smell really was. There were also two children in the seat in front of us, one of whom’s stomach could not handle the ride anymore. The other, in trying to grab an air sick bag, spilled water onto the floor. As it dripped down to our seats, a little water got on my shoes, so I grabbed a napkin to wipe it off.
Anna stopped me, nose wrinkled and eyes concerned. “Tai, are you sure that’s really water?” I laughed and told her I was sure.
She held my hand again as we landed, this time excitedly pointing at the clouds rushing by our window. Before we left the plane, Anna gave me a hug. “Can I keep the puppets?” Her mom thanked me, and we all went our separate ways.
It was nice meeting you, Anna. I hope you’re doing well and that someday, you’ll have the pleasure of making puppets with a little girl as sweet as you.