Years ago, I was on a short flight headed back home from visiting a friend. It wasn’t a terribly long flight, but about halfway through I dozed off.
I awoke to feel the seats shaking and shuddering.
I was alarmed for a moment, until I noticed two kids barreling up and down the aisle. The little nuisances were about 8 or 9 and were running into people, into seats and being very loud.
As this was going on, a boy around the same age was sitting directly in front of me with his dad. He had been watching the spectacle from the sidelines.
After a few moments, he looked up at his dad with longing and said “Please, dad? Please can I go run up and down the aisles?” His dad gently told him no and tried to distract him.
As the boy had asked, a flight attendant had been walking past and finally asked the mischievous kids to go sit in their seats.
Half an hour later, we were getting very close to our destination. The flight attendant, who had been walking past, stopped at the row in front of me and addressed the little boy.
“Excuse me, sir.” she said, “We’re approaching our final descent pretty soon here and I may need some help- would it be alright with your dad if you came and helped us out?”
