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The first time she noticed the lady was as early as the queue to the check-in. She witnessed the whole outburst of the business man towards the agent who looked like she'd already dealt with her share of grumps for the day. Saw the woman step in first, soon followed by the man that had been standing behind her. She noticed the look on his face just before he did. He looked like he was debating something to himself. Whether or not it was even worth it was her guess. But that calculating look in his eyes was replaced by a tight-lipped smile the second he seemingly made up his mind, which in turn only took on a more pleasant nature when the lady thanked him. Though it didn't really seem all that nice, not when the girl had been following its every change. No. It was too victorious looking for that.
But then her mom was handing her off to the flight attendant that would assure her safe travel.
The second time, she'd just sat down with bowl of rather disappointing ice cream - all they had was chocolate. This time, she couldn't follow much of what they were saying to each other, and she didn't dare move up a table or two. Not that she could've anyway with how busy the airport was because of all those cancelled flights. But she could see them, and that was enough to notice their awkward attempt at a conversation. The lady who was wearing a different top, didn't do much more than sip at her drink, nor did the man eat whatever was on the plate she'd seen being placed in front of him. Properly distracted. Or, properly focused. His actions may have looked uncertain, but she could see his eyes, and they said he was in complete control of himself, of the conversation. Of the lady sitting in front of him. The one time his face slipped was when she'd turned to call out her order. But not in the way that said he was surprised by something. Rather, that something he knew to be true had just been disproven. Uncertainty, maybe irritation. She couldn't see why that could be but it was hard to see it as anything different. Why the lady wasn't picking up on any of this was beyond her. Too much on her mind perhaps, she did look rather upset, now more than she did earlier.
The girl would have observed them a little longer if it weren't for the fact they'd just been called up to start boarding. Besides, the man had left to take a phone call.
After that, it was kind of hard to keep track of them. She would need to find another distraction. Listening to stewardesses struggling to make their way through jammed aisles was hardly going to suffice.
The plane was hit by turbulence more than once, which wasn't helping her calm down one bit. She might be eleven, but so high in the sky, she felt nine again. It was mostly by luck that, as she stood up to go to the restroom the first time, she spotted them. The both of them, in the same row, but also side by side. And this time it was more than simple awkwardness between them. It is only as she walked passed them however that she saw the tears in the lady's eyes and her wet cheeks. There wasn't anything she could do though, the man was in the way, and it seemed he was doing so purposefully. It must have felt constricting. Threatening. But the girl promised herself that she'd make as many trips down their aisle as possible, or at least as often as her neighbour would allow. She didn't want to cause a scene. She'd seen how adults acted on these red eye flights, all highly-strung, just waiting to let it out. She didn't fancy being the excuse she knew they were just waiting for. The girl's worries were somewhat soothed to see the lady sleeping, her head resting on a pillow against the window. She didn't catch the man's face.
A while later, after a justified amount of time between bathroom breaks on a stressful and cramped flight, time which she spent waiting, dreading, she excused herself once more.
Now, the lady looked worse than ever. It was surprising to her how little people took concern over any of this. It wasn't hard to notice that there was something very wrong going on, but even the lady with the book hadn't picked up on it. Nor the flight attendants. It was worrying -seeing people, so focused on their own misfortunes, that they didn't even look at their surroundings, at the people they talk to. The lady had begun making her way to the restroom herself, but she was blocked from the girl's view because a man, the man, hadn't yet moved to sit back down. She managed to slip by with a polite 'excuse me', but not even that got him to take his eyes off the lady, who she could now see looking back at him, far more uncertain than she did when she broke up the -one sided- dispute just a few hours earlier. That thought was only confirmed the closer she got. With each step new details came into view, mussy hair, a slight unnatural tint to her forehead, eyes a touch more frightened. Because yes, she could see it now, the lady was frightened. The girl didn't want to take her eyes off her, even less if it meant the man would take it as a chance to come any closer. So of course she let her use the restroom first, she had been waiting for longer after all.
She heard sounds through the door. Didn't really notice them until she realised she'd been waiting for quite some time, but in the second the worry hit her and she allowed herself to cover the already short distance that separated her from the door, she heard a cry. She hadn't yet thought of knocking that the door was opened and someone barged their way in before anyone could step out. She knew who it was, hated that she knew, that she'd let him pass her through, knowing that. But she was already being whisked away by the stewardess. She tried to tell her that there was something wrong, that she didn't trust the man, even less that he was now with the lady again, alone. She really tried, but adults always acted like they knew something she didn't, and cut her off, justifying themselves by saying they weren't matters to be discussed with a young girl. She disagreed. She thought, out of anyone here on this plane, she was the one who knew most, and they needed to listen to her, and maybe then they'd see what she'd been seeing all this time they were too busy with themselves. It was useless. She was directed, forcefully, to the opposite end of the plane, the worst place she could be in that moment.
After that she was stuck. Forced to stay seated -for her own safety they said, but they refused to hear that she believed there was another life at stake, that arguably faced much higher risks than a kid walking a bit unsteadily for a couple of meters, just the time to see for her own eyes that the lady had made it back. Because their two seats were empty after she hurried to finish her business to walk back through the plane, and that fact did not please her one bit. What if the one minute she spent drying her hands was all it took to fail her responsibility as the sole witness? What if that was all it took?
The sun had risen. It must have been another couple of hours later, and all the girl could think was that she was glad there had been no commotion near the back of the plane where she knew the two to be. She'd managed to spot their heads a while ago, bobbing over the seats. But not their faces, she had had to keep her seat belt tightly fastened -they kept coming back to remind her, her neighbour pressing the button the moment her nervous hands unbuckled it, but still they refused to listen to what she was pleading for them to hear.
Finally, something happened. The plane had landed, and amongst the usual kerfuffle of people standing up, reaching high for their bags, adjusting their slept-in-suits, she heard it. The moment she'd been dreading, and in that second, all the worrying she had put herself through finally felt justified.
The woman fled first. She looked like she was back in control of the situation, and she looked like she knew it. It was freeing.
The man, she saw approach. He was slower, unsteady, panicked- no. Crazed. The girl saw the opportunity for what it was. A chance to act, to help. And at the last possible second, she only got one chance, she kicked her bag out.