The shade

While flying back from Puerto Rico, I was sitting near the window. When they started showing the movie, the stewardess came and pulled down the window shade.

The lady sitting next to me on the aisle did not want to watch the movie. She was interested in Time magazine, so she lifted up the shade so that she could see better. Her reading light was on, but she wanted daylight as well.

Twice the stewardess came and pulled the shade down. But each time the lady reached over me and pulled the shade back up.

I watched this happen twice. Then I didn’t want to see it anymore, so I went to sleep.

— 13 October 1988