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.