After reading this article of mine, a friend once asked me.

– “Is that your real story or you just make it up?”

– “It is my real story”, I answered.

– “Why didn’t you add some imaginary detail to make it more dramatic?”, added my friend.

– “I simply wrote what I experienced”, I said.

That short conversation with my friend about writing gave me a reflection about my writing style. As shared with my friend during our conversation, I think I am not that fictional kind of writer. Though I do like fiction novel and I have had read a number of novels from romantic drama to detective mystery and more. I also like the dramas played in the theatres. Since I was a kid I often had chance to watch live performance since my aunt worked at a theatre in Hanoi. And that opportunity perhaps nurtured in me a sense of how theatre atmosphere was. And I loved it.

UntiI now, I truly love watching drama, to immerse myself in the actors’ performance.

Nonetheless, lately I often write what I see without dramatizing the stories.

I also see that I have encountered all kinds of drama and romance in my daily life, the kind of drama that I can actually be one of the actors of my real life.

One of those dramas was on a flight.

That was on my flight from Lisbon to Berlin in 2015 Xmas. I flew with Ryanair, the cheapest low-cost airline in Europe. My seat was window seat, next to the seats of a lady and her son who was maybe 20. After the routine safety instruction, I started pay attention to the boy and the lady. I could easily recognize, by the look and the behaviour of the boy, that he suffered from the Down syndrome. The mother of the boy, a super skinny woman, looked miserable, carried a crumpled bag. They were poor I guessed.

30 mins after taking off, the flight attendants came around to sell food and duty-free products. The low-cost airlines in Europe do not provide free meals. If you want to eat and do not carry any food, you need to buy on the flight.

I noticed that the boy checked out the menu, then told his Mom that he wanted a sandwich, including a drink. That costed 7 Euros. The boy’s mother did not order anything. Neither did I. I rarely order anything on the low-cost flight. Inflight meals are more expensive than those outside.

It would not be anything special if the mother paid and the boy ate. But, the mother was not able to pay. She did not have enough 7 Euros. There was no under-7-Euro meal option on the menu. After thoroughly searching all corners of her wallet and her bag, the mother found no more cash except a 5-Euro note. She needed 2 more Euros.

She explained the situation to the flight attendant and to her son while her son kept crying that he was hungry. After waiting for a while, the flight attendant showed a sign of impatience. So did the mother.

The boy naturally could not understand that his Mom did not have anymore money. Stuck in the middle, the lady was trying hard to explain to her son that she did not have anymore cash. She also had no valid bankcard when the flight attendant asked her. The mother almost gave up and told the flight attendant to move on to the next seat.

The lady tried to be more patient with her son, at the same time, showed her desperate look at the flight attendant.

(I know some Down syndrome children and I did experience in contact with them. I can’t tell I fully understand but I can imagine how hard it is to be a parent of a Down syndrome child.)

I was not sure what could I do at that moment. The only thing I thought was: “If this boy couldn’t get the sandwich for now, he may not leave his Mom (and other passengers) in peace during this flight.”

I looked quickly into my pocket, luckily I had enough 2 Euros in coin. I actually didn’t have many coins in my pocket most of the time.

I gave that 2-Euro coin to the flight attendant and said:

– “Could you please take this (for them)?”

The mother was surprised and said thank to me. She asked her son to say thank to me too.

The flight attendant moved on to the next seat. The boy then finished his sandwich and felt asleep nicely.

I did feel relief.

Later, the lady took out a chocolate bar from her bag, ate and invited me to try her chocolate. The melting chocolate filled all over her fingers. I said thanks to the lady but did not try the chocolate. She was not able to speak any English. I then felt asleep until the flight arrived in Berlin.

Later I told this story about the mother and her son to my friends in Berlin and that I had never seen any case like that in a flight. Talking with my friends, I wondered, how the mother and the son had managed to buy the air tickets, and what they were going to do in Berlin, or how they could get back if they literally did not have any money.

That was a simple reality drama.

Thu Hang