Airport Read Online Free PDF Page A

girl, whose name was Patsy Smith, wiped reddened eyes with a large linen handkerchief which Tanya had given her. She spoke with difficulty, choking back more tears. “They wouldn’t talk that way… so mean, rudely… at home… not to their wives.”
    “You mean passengers wouldn’t?”
    The girl nodded.
    “Some would,” Tanya said. “When you’re married, Patsy, you may find out, though I hope not. But if you’re telling me that men behave like adolescent boors when their travel plans get crossed up, I’ll agree with you.”
    “I was doing my best… We all were… All day today; and yesterday… the day before… But the way people talk to you…”
    “You mean they act as if you started the storm yourself. Especially to inconvenience them.”
    “Yes… And then that last man… Until him, I was all right…”
    “What happened exactly? They called me when it was all over.”
    The girt was beginning to regain control of herself.
    “Well… he had a ticket on Flight 72, and that was canceled because of weather. We got him a seat on 114, and he missed it. He said he was in the dining room and didn’t hear the flight called.”
    “Flight announcements aren’t made in the dining room,” Tanya said. “There’s a big notice saying so, and it’s on all the menus.”
    “I explained that, Mrs. Livingston, when he came back from the departure gate. But he was still nasty. He was going on as if it were my fault he’d missed the flight, not his. He said we were all inefficient and half asleep.”
    “Did you call your supervisor?”
    “I tried to, but he was busy. We all were.”
    “So what did you do?”
    “I got the passenger a seat–on the extra section, 2122.”
    “And?”
    “He wanted to know what movie was showing on the flight. I found that out, and he said he’d seen it. He got nasty again. The movie he’d wanted to see was on the first flight which was canceled. He said, could I get him another flight which was showing the same movie as the first one? All the time, there were other passengers; they were pressing up against the counter. Some were making remarks out loud about how slow I was. Well, when he said that about the movie, that was when I…” The girl hesitated. “I guess something snapped.”
    Tanya prompted, “That was when you threw the timetable?”
    Patsy Smith nodded miserably. She looked as if she were going to cry again. “Yes. I don’t know what got into me, Mrs. Livingston… I threw it right over the counter. I told him he could fix his own flight.”
    “All I can say,” Tanya said, “is that I hope you hit him.”
    The girl looked up. In place of tears, there was the beginning of a smile. “Oh, yes; I did.” She thought, then giggled. “You should have seen his face. He was so surprised.” Her expression became serious. “Then, after that…”
    “I know what happened after that. You broke down, which was a perfectly natural thing to do. You were sent in here to finish your cry, and now you have, you’re going home in a taxi.”
    The girl looked bemused. “You mean… that’s all?”
    “Certainly it’s all. Did you expect us to fire you?”
    “I… I wasn’t sure.”
    “We might have to,” Tanya said, “much as we’d dislike it, Patsy, if you did the same thing again. But you won’t, will you? Not ever.”
    The girl shook her head firmly. “No, I won’t. I can’t explain, but having done it just once is enough.”
    “That’s the end of it, then. Except that you might like to hear what happened after you left.”
    “Yes, please.”
    “A man came forward. He was one of those in the line-up, and he said he heard, and saw, the whole thing. He also said he had a daughter the same age as you, and if the first man had talked to his daughter the same way he talked to you, he would personally have punched him in the nose. Then the second man–the one from the line-up–left his name and address, and said if the man you had been talking to ever made