There is something about men who are unkempt and in what I will refer to as a state of disrepair that is more attractive to women the nicest, handsomest, most truly confident man that they will ever meet. This is nothing new it just never ceases to amaze me, the maternal instinct that kicks in, and how it leads so easily and quickly to a sexual relationship. There is something very reverse and Oedipal about it.
On the airplane ride back from San Francisco I was half drunk and going on about five hours of sleep over the last three days. I passed out for a minute and woke up with my head on the shoulder of the man next to me, drool running down my chin. My beard was long and scraggly and my mustache which I usually kept shaved was looking like a spic stash. I was sweaty and smelly.
She was one of the flight attendants and she must have been forty at least. She was attractive, but there were pronounced crow's feet under hers eyes. She was slim and curved in the appropriate places under her navy blue one piece uniform but she had a little bit of paunch. It must have been hot on the plane too because she was glowing.
I watched her and the other attendant who was very beautiful and about my age come up the aisle with the snack and drink cart. The truth was, I would have been in love with the attendant closer to my age and her big brown eyes if it weren't for the way the other one was.
The older lady looked like she was having a bad day. She was polite and forced a smile, but she seemed very short with everyone. I guess what I said about women and their maternal instinct works in some strange reverse too.
Every time I fly home from some place, I have a tradition of writing a short poem on the flight about the plane crashing. Usually it involves that an acceptance of the fact that it must have been meant to be if the plane crashes; that I was supposed to be there despite it being the end of my life. It's cheesy, I know. I was writing this one on a cocktail napkin.
"What can I get for you?" the younger attendant asked me.
"No, no," the older one snapped. "You are supposed to take odd rows."
"Oh, sorry," she said and asked the man behind me.
I smiled as warm as I could into the eyes of the older attendant.
"What can I get you?" she asked.
"A black coffee," I said.
She smiled at me like she could feel the pain and exhaustion I was in.
Later on the flight, I got up to go to the bathroom. When I came out, the two attendants were sitting in their seats and I had to climb over them to get out. The plane jumped and I steadied myself on the woman's knee.
"Sorry," I smiled.
"Hi," she said.
The rest of the flight was painful. I felt like hell and it kept feeling like the plane was turning around and I would get nervous until I realized that I was still spinning a little bit. The attendants came around twice more, once for more snacks and once again for the trash. I gave her the balled up cocktail napkins which I had used for working on the poem and she threw them away. Once we touched down, I unloaded my luggage from above and put on my felt hat and was one of the first passengers off.
"I have to know, what it was you were writing on all those napkins," she asked me. She was standing with the pilot as I got off the plane.
I explained the tradition and they laughed.
"You didn't have a lot of faith in me," the pilot said, smiling.
"I just like to be the one driving," I said. "And on a plane that's not an option."
"I would love to read it," she said.
I started to take it out of my pocket.
"I can't right now."
"Meet me in the bar near the baggage carousel."
She looked at the pilot who was talking to the other people exiting the plane.
"Okay," she said quickly. "But I can't drink here. It's against regulations."
"All right. How long?"
"Thirty minutes," she said.
It was more like an hour and I was feeling all right after two whiskeys. I was dreading going home because my girlfriend had told me straight out that if I went on this trip that I should not come back. After my second drink, I gave the bartender my credit card and asked her to keep the tab open and save the two seats at the bar. I went across the way to get my big bag. As I was coming back I saw her looking in at the bar. I had been carrying my jacket because it had been so hot; especially coming from San Francisco where it is cool year round. I dropped my bag and spread my coat over her shoulders from behind her. She jumped a little and I let my arm linger on her shoulder.
"If you wear this, you can have a drink and no one will know the difference," I told her.
"I really shouldn't," she said.
"C'mon."
"Fuck it, I don't care anymore anyway," she said.
We drank a beer at the bar and I managed to convince her to do a shot with me. Her name was Connie and she had been having a bad week. She had a similar situation to mine. Her husband was supposed to be out when she got back.
"Somehow, I know he'll be there, though," she said.
"So what happened?"
"I don't want to talk about it," she said.
"I'm sorry, it's none of my business. I shouldn't have asked."