"Thank you for acknowledging that."
He stared at her.
"So she gets away with it?"
"Both of you have been instructed to respect each other's space."
He looked down at the napkins.
Finally, he crumpled the papers.
"Ridiculous."
"So she gets away with it?"
He dropped into his seat.
I turned forward.
And then the man sitting beside him removed his headphones.
"Wait," he said. "Those were your socks?"
Captain Compost frowned.
"Yes. Why?"
"Wait... Those were your socks?"
His seatmate looked at the socks.
Then at my headrest.
"I thought something was wrong with the air-conditioning."
The teenager made a noise like a bicycle tire losing air.
Her mother covered her own mouth.
"I thought something was wrong with the air-conditioning."
I stared at my tray table.
Captain Compost looked from one face to another.
"What?"
Nobody answered.
