While You’re Waiting To (Card)Board

(I am returning home from spending the holidays with my significant other and his family in the UK (I live in the US). However the return trip involves an eight-hour layover in Chicago, plus on top of that, when I land I find that the domestic flight I’m booked on is going to be delayed for another four hours. Having just endured a sixteen-hour transatlantic flight plus having to face another twelve hours stuck in the airport, I’m a bit on the grumpy side. I do everything I can to pass the time, get lunch, wander around the shops in the concourse, get dinner, etc. About ten hours in I am very noticeably irritable so I just head to my gate where I hide in a corner with my iPad so I don’t have to interact with anyone and end up being one of THOSE passengers. I’m sitting in the corner watching a video on my device and grumbling to myself when I feel someone tug on my sleeve. I look up to see this kid who can’t be more than four years old. I glance around seeing his mother sitting nearby watching, I take off my headphones and mustering up as much politeness as I can:)

Me: “Yes? Did you need something?”

(He hands me a piece of scrap cardboard that he had scribbled on with his crayons.)

Boy: “Hi. You don’t look very happy so I made this for you.”

(I could barely hold back the waterworks as I take his little present.)

Me: “Thanks so much, sweetie; it’s exactly what I needed!”

(I put it in my bag as he happily ran off back to his mom. I still have that scrap of cardboard hanging on my wall.)