I guess it’s about at twenty thousand feet when I first spot her. Right around there. Twenty, maybe twenty-five. Not cruising altitude; I don’t think we’re there yet, because the seatbelt sign hasn’t gone off, so we must be climbing still. Yes, I’m sure we are. Climbing. Plus, the weather isn’t great. I’m working in first this flight, which is odd, anyway, because I usually don’t. I mean, I have a few times, short hops from, like, Chicago to Atlanta or wherever, some training when I started, but not since I’ve switched to the “international” thing. Not on this route yet. But we need someone else up front because we’re pretty full, you know, lots of people coming over for Wimbledon or who knows what, summer break, I guess. So, I’m starting to pour out OJs and ginger ales and whatnot, just getting us ready. Cups of water. Mixed nuts. And I spot her.

She’s up in the bulkhead seats, here in the front, and I’m staring her right in the eye, maybe ten feet away, off to the left. Like, 1H and K. K, the window, for her son (about six, I suppose), and she’s in H, the aisle, with this baby in her arms. A baby. Yeah. I’ve been going out with the guy for eighteen months, I mean, basically living with him, you know, and I don’t know anything about this infant. Do you believe that? See, he spends two weeks a month in England, her husband, some company he works for, and I’m based out of there now, too. In London. We met on this flight, in fact, when I was moving my things over.

I recognize her from a picture I’d seen in his billfold once. He’d jammed it down in one of those little side pockets, the kind for change or keys, folded twice and shoved inside there. It was an older-type snapshot, the kind with the white borders, and was tucked inside a receipt. It was color, a sort of candid thing from her youth, playing sports or on vacation or something. There was water, too, I guess, in the background, so maybe at the ocean. She had a visor on, in the photo, but I knew who she was immediately when I saw her there. In 1H. Anyway, he’d hidden the thing away. I don’t know why. Maybe so I wouldn’t find it, maybe because he didn’t want to think about her right then. Not sure, really. But I saw it once when he was showering and our Thai food showed up and I needed a few extra pounds or something to pay for it … so that’s how I know it’s her. Sitting in that aisle seat.