baby double
Last week I was flying to SLC from St. Louis, where I had been visiting Bill and Scarlett and sweet grandbaby Des. As I always do, I surveyed the crowd waiting to board the plane. I expect to see someone I know but I never do. Then I try to guess who might sit next to me. It's rare anymore, that a person ever gets a seat alone.
It was hard to not notice the slender youngish mom trying to handle two children - one who looked to be about 6 and the other around 18 months - both girls. The younger one had this ear splitting, glass shattering, eardrum breaking scream - I am sure that scream could be heard all over the airport. I said a silent prayer for the poor mother and then another one to please God, don't let them sit with or near me.
God had better things to do I guess so when I boarded the plane, I ended up sitting across the aisle from the mom and the two little girls. I decided to be positive. I have kids. I worked with kids. Kids like me mostly. I have a grandson. I know how kids can be so I should be understanding and helpful. When my kids were little we rarely took them on planes - people didn't fly that much and we didn't have much money. I am sure if we had taken them on planes, they would have been good natured and quiet. I know my grandson is pretty good on a plane and has flown all over the country and even out of the country in his one year of existence. Scarlett and Bill even brought earplugs the first time they flew with him which they planned to present, with a note of apology, to anyone sitting near them if Desmond started to squawk. Turns out he slept the entire flight!
Of course as soon as the plane took off, the little girl began again, her unbearable, soprano scream - it sounded like she was being inflicted with the worst punishment in the world (and she certainly was inflicting punishment on the rest of us), or being possessed by some evil spirit. I expected to see her head start spinning around on her neck and that she would begin vomiting green stuff - like in the exorcist. I worried that this scream would incite seizures or ventricular fibrillation in some of the older passengers - or suicide.
I really was trying to be patient and sympathize with the mom who was amazingly calm but oblivious, it seemed, to the older couple behind her and the other passengers who, one by one, plugged in earphones of some sort - trying to block out the noise. I feared for my twice ruptured left eardrum. The mom kept saying "don't scream" but of course that was a futile request. She even tried pleading in other languages. Then she put the little girl down in the aisle and she would toddle off and when the mom grabbed her, she would scream again...nothing seemed to help. I thought of offering some assistance but decided against it. I wasn't that nice.
Maybe she had an earache or maybe she was tired, I tried to tell myself. Just be nice. The flight attendants even stayed away from her. The rest of the passengers, as if to compensate, were quiet. I expected the pilot to go on the overhead paging and say "Don't make me stop this plane. If I have to come back there I will give you something to scream about".
Finally, about half way through the flight, the little girl fell asleep. I settled down into my book. I heard another shrill scream and thought she had woke up already - but to my surprise, a man appeared from the back of the plane, holding a replica of the sleeping child - a clone, perhaps? This clone was screaming in the unfortunately familiar shrill of the now sleeping screamer.
Apparently this was the very identical twin of the sleeping child - right down to the pitch of the scream. Dad was kind enough to relieve the mom of the sleeping little girl - who looked very angelic in sleep and totally incapable of such shrill screams that were close to breaking the windows of the plane and sucking us all out. He handed her the screaming clone and went to the back with the quiet one. No exchange of words took place between the couple. I wondered if she wanted to throttle him? I sure did. Where was her backbone? Let him deal with a the screaming one - but no, she took the screaming child and we started all over again.
The twin proceeded to scream in the same manner as her sister, for the entire second half of the flight. But, the plane landed safely and that is what mattered. It was, however, one of the longer 2 hour and 20 minute flight I have ever been on.
It was hard to not notice the slender youngish mom trying to handle two children - one who looked to be about 6 and the other around 18 months - both girls. The younger one had this ear splitting, glass shattering, eardrum breaking scream - I am sure that scream could be heard all over the airport. I said a silent prayer for the poor mother and then another one to please God, don't let them sit with or near me.
God had better things to do I guess so when I boarded the plane, I ended up sitting across the aisle from the mom and the two little girls. I decided to be positive. I have kids. I worked with kids. Kids like me mostly. I have a grandson. I know how kids can be so I should be understanding and helpful. When my kids were little we rarely took them on planes - people didn't fly that much and we didn't have much money. I am sure if we had taken them on planes, they would have been good natured and quiet. I know my grandson is pretty good on a plane and has flown all over the country and even out of the country in his one year of existence. Scarlett and Bill even brought earplugs the first time they flew with him which they planned to present, with a note of apology, to anyone sitting near them if Desmond started to squawk. Turns out he slept the entire flight!
Of course as soon as the plane took off, the little girl began again, her unbearable, soprano scream - it sounded like she was being inflicted with the worst punishment in the world (and she certainly was inflicting punishment on the rest of us), or being possessed by some evil spirit. I expected to see her head start spinning around on her neck and that she would begin vomiting green stuff - like in the exorcist. I worried that this scream would incite seizures or ventricular fibrillation in some of the older passengers - or suicide.
I really was trying to be patient and sympathize with the mom who was amazingly calm but oblivious, it seemed, to the older couple behind her and the other passengers who, one by one, plugged in earphones of some sort - trying to block out the noise. I feared for my twice ruptured left eardrum. The mom kept saying "don't scream" but of course that was a futile request. She even tried pleading in other languages. Then she put the little girl down in the aisle and she would toddle off and when the mom grabbed her, she would scream again...nothing seemed to help. I thought of offering some assistance but decided against it. I wasn't that nice.
Maybe she had an earache or maybe she was tired, I tried to tell myself. Just be nice. The flight attendants even stayed away from her. The rest of the passengers, as if to compensate, were quiet. I expected the pilot to go on the overhead paging and say "Don't make me stop this plane. If I have to come back there I will give you something to scream about".
Finally, about half way through the flight, the little girl fell asleep. I settled down into my book. I heard another shrill scream and thought she had woke up already - but to my surprise, a man appeared from the back of the plane, holding a replica of the sleeping child - a clone, perhaps? This clone was screaming in the unfortunately familiar shrill of the now sleeping screamer.
Apparently this was the very identical twin of the sleeping child - right down to the pitch of the scream. Dad was kind enough to relieve the mom of the sleeping little girl - who looked very angelic in sleep and totally incapable of such shrill screams that were close to breaking the windows of the plane and sucking us all out. He handed her the screaming clone and went to the back with the quiet one. No exchange of words took place between the couple. I wondered if she wanted to throttle him? I sure did. Where was her backbone? Let him deal with a the screaming one - but no, she took the screaming child and we started all over again.
The twin proceeded to scream in the same manner as her sister, for the entire second half of the flight. But, the plane landed safely and that is what mattered. It was, however, one of the longer 2 hour and 20 minute flight I have ever been on.
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