"Way Better Than the Last Flight"

I had a great flight home on Friday night. Mostly because I was lucky enough to sit by two adorable unaccompanied (and unrelated) kids. Two little boys, I'm guessing the middle seat boy was about 6 and the window boy was probably 9.

The younger one, right next to me was adorable. I tried not to ask too many questions as I was guessing he'd gotten a "Don't talk to strangers" schpill prior to getting on the plane....but I did say hi and ask him where he was headed. "Home-well, back to mom's house."

We sat quietly for a second before he nudged my arm and said "Hey, wanna know how I got that backpack?" (pointing to a new-looking navy backpack under the seat in front of him). "Yes, tell me!" "Well, I won it! At my dad's new wife's mom's bingo thing...and there were teenagers there, who won Wonder Woman ones." "Oh my gosh, what did they think of that?" "Well, they were BOYS so I bet they hated it..." "Yeah, you're way lucky that you got a boy backpack." "I know, huh?"

From there it was non-stop talking, Tyler and I became good buddies. Found out his name from the "I love Tyler" note on the napkin his step-mom packed in his dinner....when he saw it he said "oh, nice....she always writes me nice stuff like that." I noticed that he kept it. Tyler had been visiting his dad. He gave me fairly in depth movie reviews on: Avatar, Sherlock Holmes, New Moon, Terminator 3 and several others. I was not pleased to hear that this little wonder, whose feet did not even touch the floor, had seen many movies that I would never see myself, let alone allow a cute kiddo like him to see. I was also not surprised then, when he told me the snowman he made that day had "squished cherries for eyes that looked like they were bleeding....and was wearing a bikini." Oh Tyler, dang it.

This is the same boy who, when he spilled his hot chocolate, said: "Oh man! Now it looks like I peed my pants!" To which I replied "Nah, it's on the sides and besides, it'll dry before we even land, watch." About 30 minutes later "Yeah, look, it's almost dry...good!" He almost didn't get a drink...and when he finally did he said "Yeah, they sell it for free." Darling boy.

I watched as he and the boy next to him perused the SkyMall magazine...they'd often poke me and say "Hey, look at this...it's R2D2" and show me their favorites...the things they wish they had. I always love watching how kids can become friends in seconds. The older boy was a bit showy and bossy...he's been to China, has a PSP AND a Wii, goes flying in his uncle's jet all the time...etc. He was visiting his grandparents. I did wonder what grandparent sends a child on a plane with three hot dogs (cold in the original bag...and bunless)...and a huge back of chips. (I also wondered the circumstances that allowed his parents to be okay with not having him on Christmas...but I'm sure I don't know the details.) But, he did love the hot dogs and boasted that once he ate a whole pack. I believed it. He tried to get Tyler to give up his sandwich. I was proud of Tyler for holding his own...although he did share his fritos and oreos with neighbor boy...and offered them to me as well. I pretty much adored Tyler. When he got his pretzels and peanuts, he was very obviously distressed about what to do with his gum. I laughed inside as I (as I do daily) just swallowed mine. But after my snacks were gone and he was still sitting with them burning a hole in his tiny hands, I held out my wrappers and said "Here, put your gum in here." He said "Are you sure, are you done?" He said thanks about 6 times. Very polite and kind kid. Pretty much wanted to keep him.

While looking @ SkyMall, he saw an ad for pictures of various Presidents of the US. He casually asked "So, who did you vote for?" "McCain." "Me too," he replied. He then said, "I don't like Obama." "Oh really, how come?" "He's letting bad people into our country." When the two little boys started talking about 9-11, (September 11th is the older boy's birthday), I don't know that I've ever felt more sad about it. Hearing them talk about it (keep in mind Tyler was not even born when it happened, but was very aware and when we landed said "Phew, I was worried we were gonna get hijacked") made my heart hurt. The older boy said "Oh, they made all these new laws and stuff, so now it's like way safe-it can't ever happen again now." Tyler responded "Yeah, we're like the most safe because someone just tried it, but got caught..so once that happens the bad guys get scared and don't try it for a while so there's like 99.9999% chance that they won't try again for a long time...til they forget about getting in trouble and try it again. But not today, not for us."

As we got close to landing he said "I hope my mom is there. Sometimes she is late..." He wiggled and squirmed and seemed generally nervous. I responded and was grateful with the neighbor boy also said "Oh, she'll come, and besides, they won't leave you, they have to stand right next to you till your parent gets you, it's the rules." Sometimes reassurance works better coming from another kid.

Shortly before landing, Tyler said "this was way better than the last flight." I'm not sure why he said that, but I hoped it was a little because he sat by two people who listened to him. (9 yr old even shared his DS briefly, although he was a bit critical of how Tyler drove the race car). We landed and said goodbye but I stuck around the terminal, interested to see who the parents were of each of these boys...and especially hoping Tyler's mom was on time. She was. Phew.

At baggage claim, Tyler saw me and said excitedly "Oh, hey! Hi!!!" His mom looked at me strangely, and I said "Is this your son? I got to sit by him on the plane, he is a great kid, very smart, very kind." She smiled weakly at me, said "I know" and turned away. Hmmm. If I was the mom and found out an adult had been kind to my child who had been flying alone, I would have responded differently I think. Neither she nor her boyfriend seemed very interested in Tyler's stories as he excitedly chatted while waiting for his luggage. Situations like that kill me. People like me...dying for kids...parents like that...annoyed by the children they do have. Crazy.

Anyway. Long post. But...it's been 2 days and I'm still thinking about darling, baby-faced Tyler with his glasses, star wars t-shirt and new backpack from step-grandma's bingo....