When James is on his way home after a swimming competition in London, all he wants is to sleep on the flight. But that’s the last thing on the agenda because sitting next to him is a woman who only wants to cause trouble. Eight hours later, the captain teaches her a lesson.
I was already prepared for the flight. I knew that it was going to be a long one. I mean, eight hours from London to New York was not going to be easy, but I had my earplugs, sleeping pills, and a few snacks to keep me going.
I had just wrapped up a grueling swimming competition, and every muscle in my body was crying for some much-needed rest. I was in the middle seat, which wasn’t ideal for my height, but I was too tired to care. The woman next to me, at the window, seemed just as wiped out as I was, and I could see her eyes drooping before we took off.
We exchanged a weary smile before settling into our seats.
It’s okay, James, I thought to myself. You’ll sleep through it all.
But then there was the woman who was going to be the cause of absolute mayhem and discomfort for the next eight hours.
From the moment she sat down next to me, I sensed that she was going to be trouble. She was huffing and puffing and shifting around like she’d been assigned to a seat in the luggage compartment instead of economy.
“Oh boy,” the window-seat woman sighed.
Aisle-seat woman, let’s call her Karen, kept eyeing me up and down, her mouth twisting into a frown.
Look, I’m a tall guy at six foot two. I was used to getting uncomfortable stares in airplanes, but it wasn’t my fault.
The first sign of trouble came when the plane took off. Karen pressed the call button, not once like any rational person, but three times in a row, like she was setting off an alarm.
I almost expected an alarm to sound off in the airplane.
“Ma’am,” the flight attendant asked when we had reached cruising altitude, “how can I help you?”
“This seat is unacceptable!” Karen snapped. Her voice was loud enough to draw attention from the rows around us.
“I’m cramped, and look at these two… people! They’re practically spilling over into my space.”
She shot a look at me, then at the woman at the window, who was staring straight ahead, pretending not to notice.
“I’m sorry, but we’re fully booked today,” the flight attendant replied. “There’s nowhere else for you to move.”
“You mean that there’s not one seat available on this flight? What about business class? Nothing?” she demanded.
“No, ma’am,” the flight attendant said. “There’s nothing available.”
“Then I want them moved,” Karen declared, louder this time. “I paid for this seat just like everyone else here, and it’s not fair that I have to be squished next to them. I can’t even open a packet of chips without bumping into this guy.”
For emphasis, she elbowed me in the arm.
I glanced over at the woman in the window seat, who looked on the verge of tears. My patience was wearing thin, too, and I couldn’t handle this woman when my energy tank was empty.
“Ma’am,” I said, keeping my voice as calm as I could, “we’re all just trying to get through this flight and get to our destinations. There’s really nothing wrong with the seating arrangements here.”
“Nothing wrong?” Karen barked. “Are you kidding me? Are you blind?”
She continued her rant for what felt like hours. And it was clear she wasn’t going to drop it. I tried to ignore her, but she kept shifting in her seat, kicking my legs, and continuously elbowing my arm.
By the fourth hour, I was cranky and exhausted beyond any other moment in my life. I was done.
“Look,” I said, turning to her as the flight attendant wheeled a cart down the aisle, “we can keep this up for the rest of the flight, or we can try and make the best of a bad situation. Why don’t you watch something on the screen? There are some pretty good movies here.”
But she wasn’t having it at all.
“Why don’t you tell her to go on a diet? And why don’t you learn to book seats that have space for your gigantic legs? Why do you both insist on making my life hell?” Karen hissed.
And the entire time we had been talking, Karen was busy pressing the call button.
I felt my blood boil and watched as the woman sitting next to the window tried to make herself as small as possible.
I could see the flight attendants murmuring amongst themselves, giving Karen dirty looks. If I’m being honest, I was just hoping that one of them would slip her a sedative or something. Finally, a flight attendant came over, looking as upset as I was.
“Ma’am, if you don’t calm down, we’re going to have to ask you to stay seated and not press the call button again, not unless it’s an actual emergency.”
“Oh, this is an emergency!” she shouted. “It’s a human rights violation! My rights are being violated, and everyone is just ignoring that!”
The rest of the flight went on like this, with Karen sighing dramatically, muttering under her breath, and generally making everyone around us miserable.
I just kept my head down and tried to focus on the tiny screen in front of me, tracking our progress home.
When we finally landed, I couldn’t have been any happier if I tried. This nightmare was almost over.
But then, as soon as the wheels touched down, Karen was out of her seat, darting up the aisle as if she was about to miss her connecting flight to Mars. The seatbelt sign was still on, and everyone was sitting patiently, waiting for it to turn off.
But not Karen. No, she was ignoring all the calls from the flight attendants, not even looking back. Soon, she was standing right next to the curtain separating the business-class seats from economy.
The rest of us just watched, too exhausted and frustrated to react.
Then came the captain’s voice over the intercom:
“Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to New York! We have a special guest onboard today.”
There was a collective groan. What now? Were we supposed to sit there for longer?
“We ask that everyone remain seated as I make my way through the cabin to greet this very special passenger.”
Karen perked up for some reason, her shoulders straightening like she’d just been announced as Miss Universe. She looked around with a self-satisfied smile, as if expecting everyone to applaud her.
When the captain came out of the cockpit, we saw a middle-aged man with a calm demeanor and a tired smile. As he saw Karen, he paused.
“Excuse me, ma’am,” he said. “I need to get past you to greet our special guest.”
“Oh,” she said, looking surprised. “Of course.”
He continued to make her step back down the aisle until they were almost to our row. It was priceless because although she was complying with him, the confusion growing on her face was clear.
“Maybe you should sit down in your seat,” he said.
The rest of us were watching in stunned silence, catching on to what he was doing. I could feel a smile tugging at my lips. The woman next to me was grinning, too.
Finally, the captain stopped at our row, forcing Karen to move into the row and stand at her seat.
The captain looked up at the seat numbers and grinned to himself before speaking.
“Ah, here we are,” he said, his voice booming through the cabin. “Ladies and gentlemen, our special guest is sitting right here in seat 42C. Can we all give her a round of applause?”
For a moment, there was silence. Then someone started clapping, followed by another, and another. Before long, the whole plane erupted into laughter and applause.
The woman’s face turned bright red. She opened her mouth to say something, but no words came out. She just stood there, awkward and humiliated, as the captain took a slight bow and returned to the front.
“That,” I said, leaning back in my seat with a satisfied grin, “was worth the eight hours of this torture.”
The rest of us finally gathered our things and filed out, leaving her to stew in her own embarrassment.
“Jeez,” the woman next to me said. “I’m so glad this is over. I don’t ever want to see that woman again. Maybe we’ll end up next to each other on another flight. Without a Karen this time.”
“Here’s hoping,” I said, and for the first time since the flight started, I genuinely laughed.
What would you have done?
Boy Promises to Water Old Lady’s Plants after She Moves to Nursing Home, Finds Note Left in Soil – Story of the Day
When Daniel saw his older neighbor fighting with her son over her plants, he offered to help and volunteered to water her garden for her. Sometime later, he found a note buried in the soil that changed everything in the most surprising way.
“I can’t believe you would ask that of me! I can’t come here every day to water your plants! If you gave me the house, I would do it!” Daniel heard someone shouting and stopped his bike in front of a pretty little house with a lovely garden. He knew that an older woman, Mrs. Carrino, lived there, but he had never talked to her, and he had no idea who was yelling.
Suddenly, Daniel saw a man exiting the house, still yelling, and the older woman was following him behind. “Arnold, I asked you to come and help me, and all you’ve talked about is getting this house! Are you crazy? Do you want me to die so you can have my house?”
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Daniel’s eyebrows went up, and he thought he should leave, but he was rooted in place.
Suddenly, the sound of metal crashing against each other made him flinch. “What the –”
“You’re being a drama queen, mother. This house will go to me anyway. I can’t believe you’re giving me this attitude when I came to help you move!”
“Leave now if that’s how you’re going to act!” Mrs. Carrino stated, which made Arnold stomp to his car and drive off in a huff. They were so engrossed in their fight that they didn’t even notice Daniel standing there with his bike.
Finally, the older woman saw him. “Oh, boy. What are you doing here? Do I know you?” she asked.
For illustration purposes only | Source: Pexels
“I live two houses down the street. I’m Daniel, Caroline’s son,” he stated, pointing back to his house. “I’m sorry, but I was biking around and heard the yelling. I got worried. Are you alright, Mrs. Carrino?”
“Oh, I recognize you now, and it’s so nice that you know my name. Don’t worry about that. It was just my son being a brat,” she explained.
“Why?”
“Well… I’m moving to a nursing home, and I asked him to come and help me. But he only came here to ask if I could give him the house. He said he was going to move in here. But I know he’s just going to sell it because he doesn’t value investment like I do. I worked hard to earn this place, and as long as I’m alive, I’m not selling it,” Mrs. Carrino revealed. “But then he made a scene after I asked him to water my plants. And I believe you saw the rest of the fight.”
For illustration purposes only | Source: Pexels
“I can do that,” Daniel said, shrugging his shoulders.
“Do what?”
“Water your plants.”
“I can’t pay you, dear,” Mrs. Carrino said, her eyes apologetic.
“I know. But I live so close. It’s not a problem,” Daniel insisted, and the older woman smiled brightly at him.
A few days later, Mrs. Carrino moved to a nearby nursing home in Florida, and Daniel kept his promise. He visited her home almost every day to water her plants and was happy to do so. Soon enough, he started to love gardening and would visit Mrs. Carrino to ask about adding some new plants.
For illustration purposes only | Source: Pexels
“Of course! And make sure to watch out for the soil,” she said, winking at him, although Daniel had no idea why she was acting cheeky.
Daniel began buying and adding new plants to the garden, thinking it would be great to start a gardening company in the future so his family wouldn’t have to struggle so much. His mother worked two jobs on the weekdays and one on weekends to keep him and his siblings fed and to pay rent. But it was not enough.
He only had a bike because he had found an old one and had taken side gigs to repair it. But gardening gave him an escape from all those money worries, and he felt terrific after planting something new and seeing how it started to grow. He never expected what he would find in the garden one day.
He had gotten some azaleas, which he read thrived in the Florida weather, and had started digging with a tiny shovel on a specific spot of the grass. Suddenly, the sound of metal crashing against each other made him flinch. “What the –”
For illustration purposes only | Source: Pexels
Dropping the shovel, he used his hands to unearth a mason jar with a metal top and found a note inside.
“Dear Daniel! Thank you for your help, this house is now yours! Go inside and find all the paperwork. You and your family can move in whenever you want!”
Daniel couldn’t believe his eyes, but he rushed inside, using the key Mrs. Carrino left him. On the kitchen counter, he saw the title to the house. Although he couldn’t understand what most of it said, he saw his name at the bottom.
Still in shock, he called Mrs. Carrino, who confirmed everything. “You’re going to need to sign it to complete the transfer. But I wanted you to find the note first!” Mrs. Carrino said.
His mother couldn’t believe it. They could move into the house and stop paying rent. There was no mortgage either, which would help his family immensely. They were so grateful for the older woman’s gift that his mother and other siblings started visiting her often, thinking of her as a grandmother.
For illustration purposes only | Source: Pexels
But during their move, Daniel discovered something even more curious. In Mrs. Carrino’s old room, there was another note. It was the same as the one he had found, but instead, it said “Arnold.” The older woman was actually planning to give her son the house if he helped her with her plants. But she changed her mind, and Daniel received a huge present just for being kind.
It was a lesson he would never forget.
What can we learn from this story?
- Aspire to be someone like Daniel, not Arnold. Arnold pretended to want to help his mother, but he only wanted her house. Meanwhile, Daniel did it out of the goodness of his heart.
- You should never feel entitled to an inheritance. While most parents like giving their children the results of their hard work, children should never feel entitled to it. Arnold assumed he was getting his mother’s house but he was wrong.
Share this story with your friends. It might brighten their day and inspire them.
If you enjoyed this story, you might like this one about a boy who helped an older woman carry her groceries and received money later.
This piece is inspired by stories from the everyday lives of our readers and written by a professional writer. Any resemblance to actual names or locations is purely coincidental. All images are for illustration purposes only. Share your story with us; maybe it will change someone’s life.
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