The flight from San Francisco was overbooked. The airline was offering first $600 credits, then $1200 credits for anyone willing to give up their seat for a later flight. Since I need to be at a client site first thing tomorrow morning, I had wistful thoughts of those possible credits and boarded when my group number was called.
A woman was sitting at the window in my row. I was in the aisle. Then a younger man looked first to his right, then to us, confirmed his seat, and I stood and let him pass me. In this Covid-protocol world, we spoke by eyebrows and head nods as he settled into his seat. The woman put on her headphones and tuned us out completely. This guy and I shrugged at each other. He pulled out a Switch console. I turned off my phone, but he noticed my Legend of Zelda background on my phone.
His eyebrows rose. "You're a gamer?" he asked, behind his mask. I could hear the too-late-to-take-it-back judgement in his tone.
I locked eyes and held him. "Yes. Since before you were born." He had the grace to laugh softly.
"Nathan," he stated, offering his hand.
"Sid," I replied, shaking his hand firmly.
We bantered back and forth on favorite games and genres. PC, console, mobile...FPS, turn-based, strategy, RPG. We traded favorite titles. We were both jazzed to sit next to someone for a 4.5 hour flight and have something in common. He played Breath of the Wild and nudged me when he was fighting a tough opponent. He showed me how to use a shield as a snowboard. He favored the divine shield power and I favored bombs and melee when I fought the baddies. He'd take a break from gaming and at one point he gifted me an extra tangelo, and I gave him a bag of cheddar sun chips I'd brought along. We exchanged Discord info so we could keep in touch. I pulled out my laptop and dove into work documents.
At about the 3 hour mark, after yawning a few times, he'd put his Switch away. He mumbled something about getting two hours sleep and then he leaned back in his seat and closed his eyes. He fidgeted a little bit before bunching up his hoodie and, eyebrows in askance of me, to which I nodded and smiled behind my mask, he used the hoodie as a pillow against my shoulder. I kept reading through a 300 page implementation manual. The hoodie kept slipping until his head was against my shoulder. He held my right arm and the hoodie against him while he slept, which didn't impede my ability to read and scroll with my left hand. I thought of my godsons who were avid gamers and the many screaming hours of Mario Kart and other games, until their eyelids were heavy and we HAD TO GO TO SLEEP - and Nathan was barely older than them. I continued to read and let him sleep against me, cuddled into my side, holding my bicep.
The fasten seat belt sign came on as the 30 minute warning towards touch-down. He raised his head and rubbed his eyes, yawning. He punched my arm softly.
"You are rad. Honestly, this is the best flight ever," he said.
I let my eyes narrow so he would know I was smiling behind the mask. "Gamers gotta game."
He removed his mask, showing a huge smile. "See you online, Sid."