I took this job because I love to watch people. I love to see how people react to different situations. I have seen everything working as a gate agent for Delta Airlines. People’s true colors shine through when they are left behind from their scheduled flight. Just last week I left a passenger traveling to
“There is no way this flight is closed. It’s not supposed to leave for at least another ten minutes at least. I have a meeting I have to get to. You have to let me on that flight.”
“Sir, you are correct. The plane doesn’t leave for another ten minutes, but here at Delta we like to leave on time and so we close are flights ten minutes to departure so that we can have time to do the final paper work and have passengers up in the air at departure time. I understand that you are upset and frustrated because you missed your flight due to your illogical thinking that the Starbucks in your right hand was more important than making your flight, but we do not allow our passengers to throw childish tantrums in the boarding area. On the bright side, ( I said with a very accommodating smirk), I do have you rebooked for the next flight which will start boarding in approximately one hour, which is perfect because now you have time to drink your very important cup of coffee.”
He stared at me in furious disbelief. There used to be a time when the words that I had just spoken would have shocked me too, not anymore.
“You can’t talk to me that way.”
I was engaged with this challenge that he had just laid before me.
“Sir I’m sorry, I don’t know how I am speaking to you. I apologize if you found any offense with my words or the tone in which they were conveyed.” I said in my best
“You’re still doing it.” He whined with anger.
“I’m sorry sir. This is just the way that I talk. Is there anything else I can do for you today?”
“No, you’ve been more than helpful”, he quipped, “a pure delight; so delightful in fact that I want to tell your supervisor about you.”
I had won and he didn’t even know it yet which is what made what I was about to say even sweeter as I was saying it.
“That is so nice of you to say. My supervisor is right over there at Gate 76 dealing with fifty or more angry passengers because their flight was just cancelled. I’m sure that he would love to take a break from helping them to receive a compliment for one of his employee’s great work. Thank you again for the compliment I really appreciate it.”
Needless to say nothing happened to me. Nothing ever happens no matter how hard I try. This is how I make my job and my life more entertaining.
Great now there is a couple who have decided my counter is the perfect place to kiss and cry. Obviously one of them is going away. I wish they were both going away so that I wouldn’t have to see their ridiculous forms of affection for one another.
Oh good, today’s my lucky day; Make-Me-Want-to-Shoot-Myself Mandy is walking towards me. I give all of my co-workers names to remind me if I can stand to converse with them or if I just flat out despise them, they are another reason why I loathe my job, excuse me career.
“Make Me Want to Shoot Myself Mandy” I chuckle to myself. Maybe she’ll just walk by without her incessant need to talk to me… Nope.
“Hey Bill how are you today?” she squeaked like Minnie Mouse.
“Well Mandy, I would rather be getting my groining kicked over and over again then to be here.”
Laughing awkwardly she said, “Oh, well that doesn’t sound good, but look at it this way, you get to go home in a couple of hours.”
“Yeah Mandy, you’re right. A couple of hours and I will get to go home. That makes everything better. Thanks for the reminder.”
“You’re welcome.”
She started to walk away, but then spotting something she turned back around.
“Isn’t that just the sweetest thing you have ever seen? That young couple must be in that wonderful honeymoon phase still. I am going to go home and just give my husband the biggest kiss for being the sweetest man alive.”
“Oh Mandy I thought you loved me the most you little heart breaker.”
“Oh Bill,” she blushed, “you are too sweet for words.”
She was always saying stupid phrases like that to me. I feel that she believes being overly nice to me is her way of fulfilling her Christian duty. And that one day I will find “my Lord and Savior” again and be baptized and she will have another notch on her Christian bed post so to speak. If that is what she fills God wants her to do with her time, then I feel I have an eternal obligation to make her work for her salvation.
I hate working in front of the smoking room. The big glass bowl of smoky mist slowly creeps to my gate and I choke on it. If I wanted to die from a long painful disease I would have picked up smoking forty years ago, but as it is I abstain from any substance except for my Jack Daniels. I have a glass every morning whether I am working or not. It makes my day a little more bearable.
Well it’s an hour before my flight departs which means that it is time to work down my flight. A task that takes five minutes maximum to do and yet my supervisor, the little prick, makes me sit out here for the entire hour like a trained monkey sent here to entertain the passengers along with answering their insipid questions; questions that could be answered had they not checked their brains with their bags.
“Excuse me, what time does this flight leave?”
I look up from my computer at the ridiculous passenger and then point at my back drop.
“So at 3:30 then?”
“I guess so if that is what the sign says.”
I am so sick of stupid questions, “Are we on time? Will my luggage be on board?” What time will we start boarding? Can I take food on board? Is this a window or an aisle? Is there some place close by that we could eat at?” And the list goes on and on. Maybe if passengers would just pull their heads out of their ass and look around at the signs in front of them or even at their boarding passes, I wouldn’t have to take my time to answer such benign questions. Great here comes another incompetent passenger accompanied by a child whom I am sure will be raised to be a genius like her mother.
“Excuse me sir.”
“Yes ma’am how can I help you?”
“It said in the over head announcement that I need to check in with an agent if I am traveling with a child.”
“Yes I just need to mark on your boarding pass that you are traveling with a child…ma’am pardon me, but what in the hell is your daughter doing?”
“What? Oh that she’s praying. I don’t know why she does it, but she just drops to her knees whenever she feels like she needs to pray.”
“Well how would she feel like praying? She can’t be more than 3 years old.”
“She’s two actually, and I don’t know. She does it all the time though.”
“What would a two year old even pray about?”
“I don’t know; she never prays out loud. All I know is when she’s done she has the most warm glowing presence around her.”
I watched her stand up from her kneeling and folded arms position. As she rose to her feet the little girl lifted her head and looked at me. I don’t understand how someone so young can have so much faith; or does she have faith? I bet that her mom makes her pray every night because if she doesn’t she gets whipped. And yet her eyes were not giving off that of an abused or pressured child. She seemed genuinely happy. She seemed to know exactly what she was doing and it came from within.
She smiled at me with what can only be described as pure, unquestioning love radiating from her eyes and her smile into my soul. I had been touched by a small child who had said nothing, but had made me feel everything. How can a child that has not said a word to me make me feel this incredible sense of love and peace? A warmth came over my body. I don’t know what is happening, but I know that this child is different and now I was different because I knew her. There were so many unanswered questions that I wanted to ask that mother? I wanted to just sit down and watch that little miracle and just observe her. I need more time with her. That little girl knows something, something that I have been searching for my entire life. As I watched her walk away with her mother to their seats laughing and smiling, I knew that my world would forever be changed by this small act of this tiny child.
I grabbed my boarding announcement microphone, “Attention Delta passengers traveling today to sunny
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