Cabin Fever
June 21, 2010
The claustrophobia is setting in. Two Filipino sisters are sitting across the aisle from me, tapping away at their Nintendo DS. Every now and then they open up their window, letting in the blinding white sunlight into the dark cabin. A couple people grimace as one of the sisters slams the window shut. A man behind them mumbles something in Mandarin.
I turn back to my in-flight movie, the third one for this flight. Robert Downey Jr. struts onto the screen as Rachel McAdams tries her best at faking some on screen chemistry with him. There was a reason why I never bothered to see this movie.
A scan around me tells me I’m not the only one getting a little restless. My brother has resorted to playing one of those “name games” you play on a long road trip with my cousins in the row behind us. My cousin Meghan fiddles with her iPod nano, which is probably about to die any minute now. The only one that seems content is my grandparents, who are happily watching Avatar on the little 12-inch screens in front of them.
One of the Filipino sisters cracks open her window again, followed by another chorus of groans. I turn back to my screen, wondering to myself what’s dragging more: this flight or Sherlock Holmes. Only 3 more hours to go…
