Awkward

You have to worry about how your day is going to turn out when you make a little girl you don’t even know cry before it's even 5:00am. Even if your words or actions are completely unintentional, that has to be a bad sign.

At 5am this morning I am standing outside the Baltimore Washington Airport Marriott, waiting for the shuttle to take me to the airport. Just as it arrives, a family comes out behind me, Mom and Dad staggering into the early morning air much as I had done, but their daughter was bouncing with enthusiasm.

She looked to be about four years old, and her chattering, nervous energy reminded me of my own daughters at that age. She pulled a little pink, furry suitcase that no doubt carried her most prized possessions and hugged a white teddy bear tightly with her other arm.

I’ve seen families like this at airports many times; slipping away for a weekend getaway on an early Friday morning, or getting a head start on a week’s vacation. The girl seemed excited to be going on a flight. I wondered if it was her first time flying. I made some quick assumptions, which, as we all know, is not a good thing.

We get on the shuttle and the little girl and her mother sit across from me. The Dad sits behind them. The girl continues to chatter, asking her Mom one question and then another, all in that random, seemingly pointless way that kids do. The Mom was still half asleep, so she answered with the least effort possible. “Yes,” “no,” and nodding.

Although I have a general policy of being somewhat “anti-social” in public when it comes to adults, I can’t resist smiling at a little kid. At one point in her reverie, she happened to glance my way and I couldn’t help but grin. She smiled back and seemed to realize that I was somewhat more responsive to her charms than her parents that morning.

I decided to engage in a bit of conversation, since I knew the shuttle ride would be short and we’d soon be separated in the crowd of travelers and multitude of flights. Imagining her excitement in sharing details of her trip to the beach or maybe Disney World, I leaned toward her and asked, “So, are you flying somewhere fun today?”

The smile instantly faded from her face and she looked at her Mom, who was looking out the window and didn’t hear what I asked over the drone of the shuttle bus engine. The girl turned back to me, lower lip trembling and eyes welling up with tears, and said, “My granny died.”

It was a much longer ride to the airport than I thought it would be, and not nearly as crowded once we got there as I had hoped. As I sit her now, near my gate in terminal D, I can see them…Mom, Dad and now somber child, sitting quietly in the corner. With my luck, they will not only be on my flight, but probably share my row of seats.