Layla asked, “Who is assigned to 31B?”
Nobody answered.
I looked at Brenda. Her daughter sighed.
“Mom, what did you do?”
“I didn’t do anything!”
Nobody answered.
“Ma’am,” Layla said, “how did you end up here?”
Kayla’s mother shifted.
“A gentleman was sitting here when we boarded, but I explained that I was traveling with my daughter.”
“And where did he go?” Layla asked.
“I don’t know. Somewhere back there.”
Kayla covered her face.
“How did you end up here?”
Apparently, Brenda had found the actual passenger assigned to 31B before I boarded and told him that she and Kayla needed to sit together. He’d agreed to move because he’d assumed Brenda belonged in the row.
She didn’t, but Kayla did.
Brenda was supposed to be in row 32.
Which meant she had spent 10 minutes demanding that I leave a seat I’d paid for while sitting in somebody else’s!
Brenda had found the actual passenger assigned to 31B.
***
Layla quickly found the displaced passenger, a man named Gary.
When he returned, he looked confused.
“I thought this was sorted.”
“It is now,” the flight attendant said.
Brenda gathered her things.
“This is ridiculous!”
Kayla looked at her.
“No, Mom. It’s really not. You are.”
“This is ridiculous!”
Brenda stared at her teenage daughter.
“We made a mistake.”
“No, you told me you had checked.”
“I thought I did!”
“And then you yelled at her,” Kayla said, pointing at me.
“I wasn’t yelling!”
The man across the aisle suddenly became fascinated by the safety card.
“We made a mistake.”
Before Brenda left, she looked at me.
“You could’ve just been nice about it.”
That nearly broke me.
“I was sitting quietly until somebody closed my laptop.”
Garry coughed into his fist.
Brenda walked back to row 32.
After her mother left, Kayla looked at me.
“I’m really sorry.”
That nearly broke me.
I smiled.
“You didn’t touch my laptop.”
She glanced toward her mother.
“My mom, she gets… enthusiastic.”
“That’s one way of describing her.”
Kayla laughed.
Then she went back to her mother, Garry reclaimed 31B, and I returned to work.
I thought it was all over.
It wasn’t.
“That’s one way of describing her.”
***
Two hours later, I’d finally finished my report.
Garry was asleep beside me, and most passengers were watching movies or resting.
I got up to stretch my legs.
As I passed my row, I saw Kayla sitting quietly in the aisle seat, fiddling with her phone.
So much for the time-lapse.
Brenda was squashed in the middle seat of row 32.
Another passenger had the window seat.
Garry was asleep beside me.
Kayla looked up as I passed and gave a small wave.
Then she glanced at the window next to my seat.
“Great natural lighting, huh?”
I laughed.
Brenda heard her.
“Very funny!”
I continued toward the back.
When I returned, Kayla was standing by her seat.
Brenda heard her.
She moved to allow me easier access before sitting down.
“I wanted to apologize again,” she whispered. “I didn’t tell her to do any of that.”
“I figured.”
“I said it would’ve been cool to get a time-lapse from the window. That’s literally all I said.”
“And she turned it into an international negotiation.”
Kayla tried not to laugh.
“Basically.”
“I wanted to apologize again.”
Then she glanced at my laptop.
My report was still open, showing charts from a social media campaign I’d analyzed.
Kayla froze.
“Wait. Is that engagement data?”
I looked at her.
“You know what engagement data is?”
“Yeah. Are you in marketing?”
“I’m a marketing analyst.”
“Is that engagement data?”
Her eyes widened.
“No way!”
Kayla revealed that she had been making short travel videos for about a year. She had a few thousand followers and genuinely enjoyed filming and editing.
Suddenly, the window request made more sense.
She wasn’t an entitled teenager demanding special treatment.
Her eyes widened.
She’d mentioned an idea.
Her mother had turned it into a hostage negotiation over 31A.
“Can I ask you something?” Kayla said.
“Sure.”
“Why do my travel videos always look worse after I upload them?”
That became another question.
Then another.
“Can I ask you something?”
Soon I was explaining compression, lighting, retention, and opening hooks.
Then we got to airplane windows.
“Wait,” she said. “So filming through the window might’ve made it look worse?”
“Sometimes.”
I explained that reflections from the cabin could show up in the glass and that phones could struggle with differentiating between a bright sky and a darker cabin.
Soon I was explaining compression.
Kayla stared at me.
“So Mom started World War Three over a reflection?”
I laughed hard enough to wake Gary.
He opened one eye.
“Did she get the window?”
“No.”
“Good.”
His eye closed again.
“Did she get the window?”
I showed Kayla a few simple tricks, including waiting until the cabin was darker to reduce reflections.
Then I told her she didn’t need a window time-lapse at all.
“Build the video around the trip, not one shot.”
I suggested using clips of the airport, departure board, food, flight map, cabin, arrival, and maybe one short window clip if she got the opportunity.
I showed Kayla a few simple tricks.
Kayla looked at her phone.
“So I’ve been obsessing over the wrong thing?”
“Welcome to marketing.”
She grinned.
Then Brenda appeared next to her, looking very annoyed.
“Kayla.”
We turned.
“What are you doing?”
Then Brenda appeared next to her.
“Getting advice.”
“From her?!”
I raised my hand.
“Still here.”
“She’s a marketing analyst,” Kayla explained. “She’s helping me with my social media reach and giving me tips.”
Brenda’s expression changed.
“Oh.”
It was the smallest word she’d said all day.
I raised my hand.
“She’s showing me how to make my videos better,” Kayla continued.
Her mother looked at my laptop.
Then at me.
