"I Already Told You No!"

"I already told you no," snapped a flight attendant shortly after Anne and I boarded our flight from Honolulu to Los Angeles.

I was thirsty and had asked her if I could just have the plastic bottle so I wouldn't have to bother her for continuous refills in the small plastic cup I had been given.

Because she hadn't explained why I could not have a plastic bottle I began to ask her again when she abruptly cut me off, doing so in the presence of another flight attendant.

I took a deep breath and returned to my seat without comment. After taking a few moments to calm myself, I returned to where the two flight attendants were standing and said to this young lady, "we need to clear the air."

With that, I smiled and introduced myself, as did both ladies introduce themselves to me. [I've withheld their names to respect their privacy in this controversial piece]

But the angry flight attendant said when I previously approached them, I came into space in which I didn't belong. She found it threatening.

Odd because passengers frequently enter that space just as they would do throughout this flight. But I didn't comment for I didn't want to make her anymore uncomfortable than she appeared to be. I just smiled, acknowledged what she said and returned to my seat.

Thereafter the other flight attendant cheerfully repeatedly filled my cup with water and then replaced it with a larger glass.

This flight attendant was friendly as could be and we got along very well. She did an excellent job for Anne and me and I think for the other passengers as well.

The troubled flight attendant however avoided Anne and me as she would walk by us, even avoiding eye contact. Soon she largely disappeared, apparently working in a different section of the aircraft.

I felt bad about her circumstance then and now, but she never opened up so that I could have been more helpful to her.

I'm not angry and I believe she has troubles and pain in her life that boiled over at me. From there she created me in her mind as someone bad, never getting to know me.

I have no plans to report her to the airline or cause her any harm. It is my hope that whatever troubles and pain she is enduring will be resolved at least to the point where she can become a happier person.

Dick