He was somewhere in his forties, with a face that was both handsome and unexceptional, and his tall frame was clad with the clean, well-pressed neutrality of a businessman’s weekend attire. He shook his head and made a gesture of incomprehension, as though to an unseen audience. Finally, as though satisfied that he had genuinely obeyed her, she went away. He took out his phone and checked it and put it back in his pocket.

He rubbed his face and rearranged himself in his chair. ‘You’re putting other passengers at risk by obstructing the aisle.’

‘I’m afraid that’s not my problem,’ she said. ‘I didn’t actually get to bed last night,’ he said.

‘I’m going to have to ask that you do,’ she said. ‘I’m afraid I’m going to have to ask you to keep your legs out of the way,’ she said. She put her hand on my neighbour’s shoulder and shook it. There was a pounding of footsteps up the carpeted aisle and the air hostess reappeared. It’s so sad, the woman said, and the man grunted in reply. In the seats in front a woman and a man were talking. Outside a haze stood over the flat grey landscape so that it seemed to merge with the overcast sky in horizontal bands of such subtle variation that it almost resembled the sea. She moved away and gradually his head began to nod again. ‘We need to keep the aisle clear for take-off.’ The man’s head began to nod and soon his legs were splayed once more across the aisle. Through the window a queue of planes could be seen ahead, waiting their turn. The plane paused for a few minutes and then lurched forward and then paused again. He jerked awake and folded himself awkwardly back into the narrow space in front so that she could pass. An air hostess came up the aisle and stopped at his legs. My neighbour gave a contented sigh and appeared almost instantly to fall asleep. The plane began to move slowly out over the tarmac. He stretched out into the aisle and his head fell against the back of the seat in relief.

‘Usually I travel in executive class,’ he explained, while we got up and changed places. Finally I asked him if he wanted to change seats, since mine was on the aisle, and he accepted with alacrity, as if I had offered him a business opportunity. He sat motionless for a few minutes, breathing deeply through his nostrils with his hands clenched in his lap, but before long he became restless and tried to move his legs again so that the whole bank of seats in front of him was jolted back and forth. The man twisted, trying to cross and uncross his legs, and inadvertently kicked the person to his right. His elbows jutted out over the armrests and his knees were jammed against the seat in front, so that the person in it glanced around in irritation every time he moved. The man next to me on the plane was so tall he couldn’t fit in his seat.

Kudos by rachel cusk