The Flight Attendant

by Chris Bohjalian

Men are afraid that women will laugh at them. Women are afraid that men will kill them.

“I do worry. You should, too. It’s when we stop worrying that we grow careless and bad things happen.”

She stood in a narrow aisle of spices, unsure whether the smell nearest her was the cumin or the merchant. Elena didn’t cook much, but she

had used cumin just enough to know that the stench could be either.

All of Jessica’s confidence would disappear like a helium balloon released on a blustery autumn afternoon. Maybe some of it would return, but it would never be as bold and pure as it once was.

We can talk about it in my office. Not in the cab.” “I could really use a drink.” “You could really use some common sense.

You can repair anything but dead. You can’t fix that.

The world, she thought, was just so young.

She thought of something her father had told her: a smart girl is nobody’s pushover and nobody’s foe.