Far too often I wake up next to strangers.
I'll emerge from the haze of an unrewarding, fitful sleep, open my eyes, roll my head to the left and find a man I don’t recognize. He’s generally either still sleeping himself or is alert and scanning the day’s headlines. He’s never gazing at me with eyes that say it was torture waiting for me to wake so that he could enjoy the witty things I might say. He's consumed elsewhere. It's like I'm not even there.
Then I'll look to my right and find another strange man. This one perhaps snoozing or drawn to the window, looking to be focused in thought. He doesn't take note of the other guy, and he isn’t looking down at me, eyeing me as the prize I most surely am.
Neither man knows me. And it seems that neither one wants to. I'd just slept with them, and they act as if it meant nothing.
Sometimes I wake to see that I'm flanked not by two strange men, but by a couple of women instead. Or one of each. The common denominator is that my tired eyes always encounter a pair of unfamiliar faces—people I don’t remember ever meeting before I slept with them.
From that low grade sleep, I emerge into disorientation, blanking on my location, and embarrassed to realize that I'd made the mistake of sleeping with strangers. I'm so uncomfortable that I ignore them both.
Because that’s just what you do on a plane.
Air travel is the only time I find myself snagging a nap within 12 inches of a complete stranger. And I always wake up ashamed that it happened. Did I drool? Snore? Flail? Talk? Toot? On a flight where my fatigue sedates me to carelessness, I’ll seek slumber in a proximity nearer to people I don’t know than I do when sleeping in the same bed with the man I married. Fortunately, that man doesn’t mind. Given the opportunity, he’s lulled into doing the same thing, sporadically sleeping with men and women he's never met.
You could call it an open marriage; but really, it's just one of those frequent flier trials.
Friday, June 12, 2009
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11 comments:
That one had some good suspense!
I am so afraid to fall asleep on a plane for fear that my head will lean on someone's shoulder. Plus it's just hard for me to sleep sitting up.
I think this is one of your best posts ever!
Really.
On my flight to Missoula via SLC I am pretty sure my mouth was hanging wide open the entire time and there were probably snores involved. I'm always afraid I am going to lean on the person.
I cannot sleep on a plane/bus/train next to strangers. I talk in my sleep and according to both my boyfriend & my best friend, I have a tendency to be quite inappropriate. ;)
Hmm...this puts me in the paradoxically awkward position of having slept with several people who can't attest to the same.
So you say you're sluttin' around with virgins, Ryan?
Shame on you.
Not exactly, though I've heard great things about both international and domestic. (Video touch screens, power outlets, and Ethernet ports -- what's not to love?) May give them a try when Boston beckons or I'm next needed in New York.
No, Southwest is the more usual, as you'd've guessed, and I take immense and unashamed pleasure in my proclivity for sleeping on demand, thank you very much, even before takeoff on occasion.
"Even before takeoff on occasion?"
You sure don't waste time do you? You could at least offer to buy her a drink.
Yeah I s'pose, but that would necessitate an uncomfortable and wholly unnecessary conversation regarding future intent, not to mention their requisite arrival. Would a SW drink coupon suffice, inserted lovingly behind my would-be flightmate's upright tray table.
Now there's an idea. And take it as a good sign when he/she presses that recline button and settles back for the ride.
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