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Write about someone who strikes up a conversation with a stranger during a flight.

Posted in Short Story on Mar 7, 2025

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✍️ 45 stories

Wing Woman

Submitted to Contest #293

    “God, I hate flying”     I look out the window of the 747 so foolishly boarded in my rush to get cross country as quickly as possible. We are flying through some dark clouds so there is little to see. The old familiar fear rises in the pit of my stomach as I try to push it back. I have to maintain myself. Don’t start to panic. Nothing’s going to happen. I try to flood myself with calm, even as I’m white knuckling the arm rest. The four Jack Daniel’s I had before the flight aren’t working. The ...

39 likes 25 comments 25
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dick's Loose Gems

Submitted to Contest #293

[Contains sexual content]Christmas Day, 2020, arrived. Our family had planned a trip to San Antonio for months. I had everything all set. Except I didn't.The woman taking our tickets asked for our passports. I produced five and gave two birth certificates for my little ones. I thought they didn't need passports. My hands shook. My heart burned as it beat into my throat, and as the beats came, they seemed to choke me. I couldn't breathe so well, and I had no words. I turned and stooped to my youngest children's height. I put my arms around th...

24 likes 6 comments 6
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Going Home or Going Away?

Submitted to Contest #293

I’m not claustrophobic, per se, but the tightness of economy seats in an airplane makes me feel uneasy. However, whenever I have to fly (at least on shorter trips, under about 3 hours), something works to pass the time and distract me from the air-specific claustrophobia: striking up a conversation. I’m not dumb, though. If someone has headphones on, or an eye covering and a pillow situated for a nap, I will manage with whatever I can watch or listen to on my phone if the connection works decently. But if someone has their eyes open and seem...

19 likes 10 comments 10
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Jolt

Submitted to Contest #293

Bailey settled into his window seat. He watched other passengers navigate the aisle with their carry-ons. He saw a pretty young woman in sweats making her way toward him.He thought, ‘Where have I seen her?’ He knew they hadn’t met. With hardly a glance, she slid into the seat next to him, strapped herself in and focused on her cell phone.Bailey stared out the window at airport staff prepping the jet for takeoff. Flying was a necessary evil for him. Its charms had faded years ago. But, long overdue, he needed this trip. Hearing laughter, he t...

17 likes 22 comments 22
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Grapes, Lettuce, Chicken Breast, Coffee

Submitted to Contest #293

Most people aren't bothered by being crammed into a human-sized cigar tube traveling over 500 mph through the sky. Some people love the ups and downs of turbulence, treating it like a roller coaster at a theme park. Not me. I'd rather clean toilets than fly. I start getting nervous around 24 hours before take-off, wondering about the pilot's eyesight, airport security, the weather — you name it. I survey my fellow passengers at the gate, guessing who might be the fastest and strongest — who will be most helpful in a disaster. When it comes t...

16 likes 11 comments 11
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Yours, John

Submitted to Contest #293

“Final call boarding all passengers for flight 3816 to Rome.”With one last look at the letter, Caroline folds it in fourths and stuffs it in her purse as she heads toward Gate 58. This is the most irresponsible thing I’ve ever done. I should just get out of this line and go home. Forget this entire hair-brained idea. How hard would it be to retrieve my suitcase before it makes it on the plane?Despite her inner monologue, Caroline moves forward in line, acting on autopilot when the gate attendant scans her boarding pass.&n...

16 likes 12 comments 12
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Later

Submitted to Contest #293

I stumbled along the narrow aisle, crammed into a line of fellow passengers shuffling toward their seats. Up ahead, a man was struggling to fit his oversized carry-on into an overhead compartment. He grunted in frustration as I squeezed past him, muttering an apology. I shoved my bag next to his and slid into row 17.Middle seat. Just my luck. At least I could hope the aisle seat would stay empty.The window seat was occupied by an elderly lady. She looked like a character from an old storybook: her slate-steel hair twisted into a neat bun, a ...

15 likes 7 comments 7
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MOE & ALEXANDRA

Submitted to Contest #293

Moe and Alexandra Antoine J. Polgar Moe Fierst was usually not talkative on long flights. Yet when he arrived at his aisle seat on the Swissair flight from JFK to Geneva in 1982 in his three piece suit looking like an undertaker, he could hardly believe his luck. A lady in the window seat next to his aisle seat. A greying middle-aged woman dressed in a suit. A good prospect for a captive audience. Someone Moe could while away the time with over the next six sleepless hours in the darkened cabin until they got sleepy as if they were in bed to...

14 likes 2 comments 2
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The Sound Between Us

Submitted to Contest #293

Martin Weiss had the same face I remembered, now framed by gray hair at the temples. I watched him approach down the airplane aisle, checking his seat number—next to mine. My fingers, which hours earlier had danced across ivory keys for an audience of a thousand, now twitched nervously on the armrest. I closed my eyes, pretending to sleep. I wasn't prepared for this encounter. Not today, when each applause still sounded like an accusation in my ears. The tour had been a success in everyone's eyes but mine. Six countries, eighteen concerts, e...

11 likes 3 comments 3
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There’s Something I Want to Tell You

Submitted to Contest #293

Write about someone who strikes up a conversation with a stranger during a flight. There’s Something I Want to Tell You I’m getting situated in my window seat on that flight I take once a month to Portland to see my boyfriend--the “get up before God” Saturday morning departure you say I’m “nuts” to take and “why doesn’t he ever fly here to see you?” Yeah, that one.  Anyhow, a guy sits down in the middle seat next to me and smiles and while he’s slipping his backpack under his seat, he goes: “I’ll wager good money that you’re a Libra.”...

10 likes 6 comments 6
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Inflight Meal

Submitted to Contest #293

Leo was not a fan of flying. Not like this. Sitting quietly with strangers in an enclosed space. Like he was back in the classroom. That was one of his ideas of hell. He had many ideas of hell and very few of heaven. He made sure her was one of the first passengers on the plane. He took his seat with no fuss and no nonsense and then did his best to weather the storm of humanity around him. He tried the breathing technique his therapist had taught him and he also tried zoning out. Neither worked. A voice in his head was screaming at him to le...

10 likes 8 comments 8
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Whispers in Transit

Submitted to Contest #293

The gentle hum of the Airbus A380's engines provided a deceptive calm as Amara settled into seat 43C, her slender fingers tracing nervous patterns against the armrest. The oversized sweater she wore concealed the secret growing within her—a life that wasn't meant to be hers for much longer. She glanced at Hassan, her chaperone, his stern face fixed in permanent disapproval as he argued with the flight attendant."This is unacceptable," Hassan snapped, waving their boarding passes. "We must sit together."The flight attendant, a slender woman w...

10 likes 3 comments 3
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I’ve Never…

Submitted to Contest #293

I’ve Never…I’ve talked to a stranger before. Yup. I’ve broken my pinky promise with my mother. But, to my defense, if it was really like that, I’d never would’ve dared to befriend kids from my school, right? Also, it was really on accident. I’ll tell you the story if you want. Okay, here it goes: I shuddered as I walked through the plane. I’ve never walked—or have rode a plane before. I thought of the time I beamed so brightly during my ballet competition. It was my third year. My first two years were pretty bad—all just improving. My first ...

9 likes 1 comment 1
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In Flight

Submitted to Contest #293

“Why does it take three hours and 48 minutes to fly here, and four hours to fly back?” the preteen asks, absorbed by the simulated world of his iPhone. He sits in the waiting area along with his parents and sister, their carry-ons, including four rollaboards, bunched around them, cramping their knees as if rehearsing for the airplane’s constrained seating. Coping with a spontaneous spasm, the father stretches one leg across the tops of two cobalt blue bags, both aflame with neon orange duct tape. This answers the question, Why do people buy ...

9 likes 11 comments 11
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Captain Charon

Submitted to Contest #293

Tomás shuffled along the aisles, one eye on his ticket, the other on the places where the seat numbers should be. So far, halfway through the plane he had traveled, he had found both empty: the places where the numbers should be, and the seats themselves, where the passengers should be sitting. He would take a step, look at his ticket, mutter the number to himself—“42F”—look up, across the aisle, not find what he was looking for, and move on, perpetually repeating the process.“May I ask why you’re wet, mate?” a voice suddenly asked. It belon...

8 likes 2 comments 2
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