“Final boarding call, Flight 267!” I hear the chirpy voice through the airport loudspeaker and pull my rolling bag quickly behind me as I reach the gate just in time. I’m never usually late for flights, but my connection had been booked too close for comfort. I finally relaxed as I eased through the jet way, fit my suitcase in the overhead bin and slid into my window seat in business class. Grateful for the chance to rest my eyes, I dozed off until I felt the roar of the engines lift the plane into the sky.
“Please keep your seatbelts fastened until the seatbelt light has been turned off,” the flight attendants cheery voice came floating from overhead. Shoot- I left my novel in my carryon bag, I realized, but didn’t want to bother the man next to me to reach it. He wore a crisp business suit and was reading a book I couldn’t catch the title of.
Ding. The seatbelt light blinked off. “It is now safe to use approved electronic devices.” The man immediately reached under the seat in front of him for his briefase, and pulled out a sleek, thin laptop. He opened it and in minutes was completely engrossed in the screen. I couldn’t help my curiosity at what was so intensely grabbing his attention, so I sneaked a peak at the laptop next to me. A website filled the screen, filled with text in another language that I assumed to be Arabic. I had never seen another website in another language, and just had to ask him what it was about.
Feeling a bit silly for having peeked over at him, I almost backed out but he noticed me looking at him, and smiled over at me. Feeling encouraged, I introduced myself, and asked him what was captivating him so strongly on his screen. The man introduced himself back, and told me he was from Jordan, traveling on business. He told me the website was called www.online-casino-gambling-strategy.com, and he used it to find sites online to play roulette. I still found the foreign language on the screen fascinating, and explained to him that I had never seen a website that wasn’t in English. I pointed to one particular phrase that appeared often on the page.
“What does روليت mean?” I asked.
With a warm laugh, he told me that it means “roulette” in Arabic. Alright, that made sense. He showed me through more of the site, and it was quite interesting to learn about his hobby. His warm, friendly demeanor put me at ease and we discovered we had much in common, and spent the flight chatting easily until we landed at our destination.