Christine is for my help

“Okay, shit, I’m going for it,” Christine said. Even though the plane was moving, she unbuckled her seat belt and stood in the aisle. She opened the overhead bin across from us—the same one I used to stow my luggage—and unzipped the side of a duffel bag. She strained to reach something inside, and I simply couldn’t help but ogle her long legs, barely clad by the short skirt she was wearing. I stared with lascivious fascination as she ruffled around in her bag, bracing herself in case the plane lurched.

She finally found whatever she was looking for, closed the bin, and dived back into the seat next to me right before a flight attendant arrived to **** her to sit down. “Sorry,” she told the attendant, who hurried back to take her own seat before takeoff.

“Did you get it?” Ava asked over me.

“Yeah,” Christine said.

“Well, go on then,” her friend urged.

I was utterly bewildered by this behavior until I could finally glimpse what was in Christine’s hands. An essay with the word INCOMPLETE written in neat red letters at the top.

“What do you have there?” I asked.

“So my bitch of an English professor thinks I can’t write even though I was in, like, the top 25% of my English class back home,” Christine said. “She told me I had to take an incomplete and rewrite my final essay over the summer or I have to take this fucking class all over again.”

“Sounds rough,” I said. I couldn’t empathize—I have always been a stellar writer and served as the editor of my high school and college newspapers. People called me a nerd, and I finally learned to live with it.

“Rough I could handle,” Christine groaned. “This is brutal.” I wasn’t entirely sure where this was going, so I waited to see what she would say next. “So, I guess…” she trailed off, suddenly seeming unsure of herself.

“Look,” Ava said from the other side of me. “What my friend is trying to say is that she could really use your help.” I looked quizzically at Christine, who gently nodded her head. Ava continued, “So, would you be willing to take a look at her essay?”

Back in my own college days, with late-night debates about philosophical and moral quandaries, I would have loved to think hard about this ethical dilemma. Would this be cheating or just helping? Do I owe anything to the person in need, and is that more than I owe the mores of my profession? What is the proper balance of mercy and justice?

But in the moment, with a modern-day damsel facing the only distress I could reasonably rescue her from, the answer came immediately to my lips. “Sure,” I said. “Happy to help.”

Christine’s teeth gleamed through her broad smile and her light brown eyes lit up with joy. “Oh my God THANK YOU, Mr.…” she gushed at me.

I may even have blushed a little.

“His name is Simon,” Ava reminded Christine at the same time that I said, “Mr. Clark.”

“Thank you, Mr. Clark,” Christine smiled. “This is huge.”

“No problem,” I said. “Let me just get my pen.”

I pulled my own trusty pen from my backpack, my arm accidentally brushing Christine’s bare leg in the process. I admit that my loins stirred just a bit, but I worked hard to pull myself together. I read the essay while Ava and Christine both put in their airpods. Hardly seemed fair, but I guess I did sign up for this.

The essay wasn’t terrible, and I could tell why the professor (who I assumed was not, in fact, a bitch) hadn’t just failed Christine. But the grammar was sloppy, there were several unnecessary repetitions, and the whole thing needed reorganizing and a conclusion. Within a half-hour, I had annotated almost every sentence of the essay, and I was confident that if Christine just followed my suggestions, she’d ace the assignment.

I was ready to give Christine her essay back, but her eyes were closed. I tapped her on the shoulder. “All done,” I said. But she didn’t stir. I turned to Ava and tapped her on the shoulder as well. “Chris is out like a light,” I said. But Ava’s eyes were also closed, and she also didn’t respond to my touch. Looking around, I noticed that everyone nearby seemed to be asleep, including the people in the seats in front of us on both sides of the plane.

This was certainly an interesting development...