Brothers From Another
The airplane cabin was filling up quickly. Mark seat was 14B, relieved to find the aisle seat empty. He'd had started to settle in when another passenger approached.
"14C," the man said, pointing to the window seat. "Mind if I...?"
Mark stood up to let him pass. As the stranger turned to put away his bag in the overhead bin, Mark noticed he was wearing shades and looked up and seen that he had a dark purple bruise on his left eye under his dark shades. Self-consciously, Mark touched his own right eye, sporting an almost identical bruise under his shades as well.
When the stranger sat down and turned toward him, both men did a double-take.
"Wow," the stranger laughed, the sun shining bright today. They both took their shades and was pointing at their matching black eyes. "What are the odds?!"
Mark chuckled. "I was just thinking the same thing."
The plane began to move, while the flight attendants began their safety demonstration.
"I'm David," the stranger said, extending his hand.
"Mark," he replied, shaking it. "So how'd you get yours?"
David sighed, with embarrassment crossing his face. "Well, I was at the train station the other day. Needed to get to Pittsburgh for a conference. The lady behind the ticket counter had such a nice..." he made a gestured at his chest, "you know. I got distracted, and instead of asking for two tickets to Pittsburgh, I asked for 'two pickets to Tittsburgh.'"
Mark laughed.
"Yeah," David continued. "I was hypnotized and didn’t notice she reached back and punched me in the face. Can't really blame her."
"Security didn't stop her?"
"They were too busy laughing. Honestly, I just grabbed my tickets and went to the gift store." David touched his bruise with caution. "What about you? How'd you get your black eye?"
Mark hesitated. "Damn, that's sort of like how I got mine. The other day I was woke up by some freshly brewed coffee, looking up at the ceiling and was in a good mood until I walked downstairs, and seen my wife standing there all happy singing while she was cooking breakfast. So I walked over to pour me a cup of coffee and she was giving me that look you know that take me right here look. Instead of me saying something sexual because of the way she was looking at me, I said, 'You ruined my life, you bitch!'"
Both men sat in silence for a moment.
"Jesus," David finally said. "That's... sort of not the same thing at all." Surprised both of your eyes not black.
The plane lifted off the runway, pressing them back into their seats. From the window, the city below grew smaller, shrinking with the distance.
David cleared his throat. "So... where you headed?"
"Marriage counseling," Mark said, staring straight ahead. "In Chicago."
David looked at him and nodded slowly. "Good. That's... that's good."
Another silence fell between them.
"She's meeting me there," Mark added. "Separate flights. Her idea."
"Well," David said carefully, "seems like you should’ve said 'You ruined my life, you bitch!'" But at least you're both going."
Mark nodded, adjusting with his seat belt. "Yeah. At least we're both going."
The plane flew between the clouds catching the afternoon sun. For a brief moment, two imperfect men never met before had something in common with matching black eyes on their way to marriage counseling.