The Backpack

Chapter 19

“See that young lady a few rows ahead with the red headphones on?” Buddy asked, nodding in her direction. “When she got on the plane, she was carrying the very definition of an over‐stuffed backpack. Her arms were through both straps so it was dead in the middle of her back. She couldn't see it unless she had a big mirror or a selfie‐stick or an owl's head,” Buddy laughed.

“And?” Jon asked.

“And, she hit almost every aisle passenger between the front of the plane and her seat there in row 13,” Buddy stated. “Then, as she was stuffing her phone and headphones in the seat pocket and then trying to get her purse under the seat, she almost took the head off of the guy across the aisle.”

Buddy continued to laugh. “And it was Groundhog's Day until the gentleman put his hand up in self‐defense to keep from getting whacked the same way over and over. Reminded me of a bull in a chute, banging everything around it. Except the bull is aware of exactly what he's doing and whom he's whacking.”

“So, she's a selfish jerk,” Jon observed.

“Hmm. No, I don't think so,” Buddy replied. “And let me highlight something very important: I am not judging people. I'll leave that to the courts. Our judgments of why people behave the way they do are wrong more often than not.”

Jon thought back about the military family in the terminal. And his conversation with Grace about the fundamental attribution error. Buddy was right about being wrong. And it put an ache in his gut.

“No, sir,” Buddy continued, ...