The stewardess

On the plane I was sitting in the front row of seats near the wall where they show the movie. I had a bag with me which I put at my feet. The stewardess, a black lady, said, "You can't put it there. You have to put it in the cabinet."

Inside my bag was the box with the birds in it. If I didn't keep my bag open, I was afraid the birds might die. So as the stewardess was putting the bag into the closet I said, "I would like to open up the zipper on the bag. There is something in there."

She laughed and laughed at me. After fifteen minutes, when the plane was about to take off, she closed the cabinet and locked it. I was worried that perhaps there was not enough oxygen for the birds, but the seatbelt sign was on, so I stayed in my seat. Finally, after fifteen or twenty minutes the sign went off.

I went to the stewardess and said, "Please, I have some birds in the cabinet. Can I get them out?"

There was a sign on the cabinet that said while the plane is leaving the ground and while it is landing, the cabinet cannot be opened. But even though the plane was in the air, the stewardess said, "We are not authorised to open it."

Then I went to a steward, a black man, and I said, "Really, I don't want my birds to die."

He said, "We are not authorised to open the cabinet, but I will do it for you."

When he opened it, I immediately took out the box and put it in front of me. Then the stewardess came near me and called out to the steward, "Robert, how are your birds doing?"

She was bothering that fellow because he had helped me. So I looked at the stewardess and showed her a very disturbed face. Then she smiled at me and said, "What would you like to drink, sir?"

I said very abruptly, "Seven-up."

Then she brought it for me.

Beside me was a couple from Syracuse. The lady was so nice. She had heard my conversation with the stewardess and was cursing her. She said, "Some of these stewardesses have no feeling."

The husband asked me, "Do you think the birds are alive?"

I shook the box and said, "I think they are alive." The husband was so happy to hear that. The wife continued to curse the stewardess.