"Hi! How are you?" The woman smiled as she took the seat beside me. She had to lower herself slowly, squeezing her body into the seat, filling all available space. Positioning herself comfortably, she dropped her enormous arm on our common armrest. Her giant body filled the space around us, shrinking me and my seat into insignificance. I shrank and moved a little towards the window.
She leaned towards me and repeated her greeting in a friendly voice. Her face towered above my head, forcing me to turn to look at her. "Hi." I replied with obvious disgust.
I turned away to stare out of the cabin window, annoyed about the long hours of discomfort I was going to experience with this monster" beside me. She nudged me with her meaty arm. "My name is Laura. I'm from Britain. How about you? Japan?" "Malaysia!" I barked. "I'm so sorry! Will you accept my heartfelt apology? Come, shake my hand. If we're going to spend six hours side-by-side on this flight, we'd better be friends, don't you think so?" A palm waved in front of my face. I shook the hand reluctantly, still silent.
Laura started a conversation with me, taking no notice of my unfriendly reactions. She talked excitedly about herself and her trip to New York to see her friends. She talked about a list of things she was going to buy for her students in the boarding school where she was teaching.
I gave her one-word answers to her questions about me. She nodded as she made appreciative comments to my answers. Her voice was warm and caring. She was considerate and obliging when we were served drinks and meals, making sure that I had room in my seat. "I don't want to offend you with my elephant size!" she said with sincerity.
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To my surprise, her face which bothered me hours before, now opened into extraordinary smiles, lively and calm at the same time.
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By the end of flight, almost half the cabin crew was standing near the aisle by us, laughing and joking with Laura.
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