“Excuse me, but aren’t passengers of her size required to purchase two seats? There’s no room for me at all!”
The flight attendant carefully inspected the row.
“Ma’am, your seatmate is within the boundaries of her assigned seat.”
“Are you blind? Look at her!”
I was about to respond, but the flight attendant gently interrupted.
“There is one empty seat toward the back of the cabin. Would you like to move?”
She was speaking to me.
I hesitated. I had selected the aisle seat deliberately, and I did not want to reward the woman’s appalling behavior.
On the other hand, we still had almost five hours in the air. Spending all of them beside her sounded like punishment.
“All right,” I said with a sigh. “I’ll move.”
A triumphant smile spread across my seatmate’s face.
I reached for my carry-on—and remembered the Halloween gift hidden inside.
My embarrassment vanished at once. I turned away so she would not see me smiling.
A wonderfully mischievous idea had just occurred to me.
I opened the bag and carefully unfolded the blanket.
Inside was a doll about the size of a small child. Tangled black hair framed its cracked porcelain face. Its mouth was twisted into an unnatural grin, revealing two rows of yellowish teeth. Its tiny hands ended in absurdly long fingers, and its old-fashioned dress looked as though someone had dragged the doll through an abandoned graveyard.
It was magnificently horrifying.
My grandson was going to adore it.
The doll came with a small remote control. I slipped the device into the pocket of my cardigan, placed the doll in my former seat, and covered it with the travel blanket. Only a few strands of black hair remained visible.
My former seatmate hardly noticed. She was too busy staring at her phone, probably savoring what she considered a personal victory.
I gathered the rest of my belongings and walked toward the empty seat in the rear.
I had barely sat down when a piercing scream tore through the cabin.
“WHAT IS THAT?”
I looked up.
The woman had ripped away the blanket and was staring directly into the doll’s dreadful porcelain face.
“AAAAAH!”
Several passengers turned around in alarm. I leaned forward.
“You found my grandson’s present!”
“WHAT DID YOU SAY?”
“It’s his Halloween gift. He loves scary things. Isn’t she beautiful?”
“Beautiful? She looks possessed!”
I placed a hand over my heart.
“That’s a terribly rude way to speak about a lady.”
The man across the aisle snorted with laughter.
“Get this thing away from me!” the woman shrieked, waving frantically for a flight attendant.
The attendant hurried over.
“What happened?”
“There!” The woman pointed at the doll. “Remove it immediately!”
The attendant looked from the toy to me.
“Does it belong to you?”
“Yes. I can secure it with the seat belt if necessary.”
The flight attendant explained that the doll could remain in the cabin as long as it was safely fastened. With her approval, I returned to the original row and strapped the doll into the seat.
“I am not sitting beside that monster!” the woman protested.
The flight attendant remained calm.
“Ma’am, you were the one who complained about your seatmate and requested that she move. She accommodated your request.”
I smiled sweetly.
“Don’t worry. My new companion is much smaller than I am, so you should have plenty of room now.”
Laughter rose from several nearby seats. The woman’s face turned bright red.
I went back to my new seat, thoroughly pleased with myself.
Then I felt the remote control in my pocket.
I remembered that the gift did more than look terrifying. The doll had several entertaining features.
I pulled out the remote and studied the three small buttons, each marked with a different symbol. The salesperson at the store had demonstrated all of them.
I pressed the first button.
“Kh-h-h… hhhh… kh-h-h…”
The woman became completely still. Slowly, she turned toward the doll.
Its porcelain face remained frozen in that crooked smile.
“Hhhh… kh-h-h… haaah…”
“What was that?”
I released the button at once.
The woman called for the flight attendant again.
“That thing is breathing!”
The attendant approached and looked at the silent doll.
“Ma’am, it’s only a toy.”
“I know it’s a toy! But it’s making noises!”
The flight attendant bent down and listened carefully.
The doll remained perfectly quiet.
“Perhaps the sound came from another passenger. Please keep your voice down. People are trying to rest.”
As soon as she moved away, I waited a minute and pressed the button again.
“Kh-h-h… hhhh…”
The woman gripped both armrests.
The man across the aisle lowered his book.
“Excuse me,” he said. “Are you having a conversation with the doll?”
I released the button.
“At the moment, you’re making considerably more noise than she is,” he added.
The woman shot him a murderous look. I lifted my magazine higher to hide my smile.
Suddenly, she spun toward me.
“You’re doing this! You’re controlling it!”
I lowered the magazine.
“Me? I’m sitting in an entirely different row.”
“You deliberately left that monster beside me!”