In the Aisle at Row 4

In the aisle of the plane, people line up behind a woman dressed in trendy black. She has short dark hair, and her facial features are sharp. When she gets to row 4, she leans over.

As she moves toward what must be her seat, she struggles with a cell phone held to her ear, a laptop computer, a large black floor-length coat held under her right arm, and some sort of musical instrument in a canvas case that keeps sliding off her back.

Excuse me, she says to the man in the window seat of row 4 as she throws down her coat and tries to set her laptop down, holding her phone to her ear talking to someone on the other end.

People stand in the aisle behind her.

Hold on, she says into the phone. I'm in an airplane. Hold on, ok?

She tries to set her laptop down, but the instrument on her back keeps slipping, and she only has one hand free. As it slides into the face of the person across the aisle, the woman drops her laptop into her seat, and her phone falls out of her hand into the lap of the man by the window. Her instrument slips further down.

Oh excuse me, she says to the person across the aisle, grabbing the case by its strap and turning around to put it into the overhead bin, which is mercifully empty except for a pile of fuzzy blue blankets, which she shoves out of the way.

The man by the window says something to her that the rest of us can barely hear. She chuckles.

What can I say? I gotta work, and I gotta play. That's why I bring my computer and violin along.

He hands her the phone, and she sits down. The people in the aisle stream by.

Hello? she says into the phone. Are you still there?

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