I was flying to my parents and had been waiting for this day almost the whole year. We hadn’t seen each other for months, so I was only dreaming of peacefully sitting in the plane, closing my eyes, and resting for a while. The flight was supposed to last almost five hours, so I imagined how comfortably I would settle in and just fall asleep.
But that’s impossible when you sit next to people who think they can do anything.
We had barely taken off when I noticed a strange smell. At first, I didn’t pay much attention to it — I thought it might have come from the kitchen or someone spilled food. But the smell kept getting stronger and more unpleasant, and soon I realized it was something else.
I looked down and saw someone’s foot on my armrest. It was dirty. Barefoot. And it was from this foot that the stench was coming, making it hard to breathe.
I turned around. Behind me sat a young guy who looked like he had no idea where he was. He was comfortably sprawled in his seat and apparently considered this completely normal.
People around us started looking around. Someone grimaced in disgust, someone else was whispering something under their breath. The atmosphere was getting more and more tense.
I tried to stay calm.
“PLEASE REMOVE YOUR FOOT.”
He didn’t even look at me right away, as if I had interrupted something important to him.
“I’m not going to. I’m comfortable like this.”
I gritted my teeth and repeated:
“This is my armrest.”
He snorted with laughter and shrugged his shoulders.
“Move over. I’m not taking anything away.”
At that moment, I felt everything boiling inside me. I gently slid his foot down, but just a second later, he placed it back as if it were some kind of game.
THE SMELL BECAME EVEN MORE INTENSE. PEOPLE AROUND US STARTED OPENLY SHOWING THEIR DISPLEASURE.
“Your foot smells terrible,” I said firmly. “Please take it off. It’s bothering everyone.”
He lazily looked at me and responded with irritation:
“Plug your nose. And your mouth too.”
Then I realized that talking to someone like this was pointless and that nothing would get through to him except consequences. So I came up with a simple, but effective way to teach him a lesson. Here’s what I did. 😒😧
I turned around, pretending to calm down, and pressed the button to call the stewardess.
When she came, I asked for a hot tea. Just a regular one. She brought it after a few minutes. I took the cup, took a few sips, and sat quietly as if nothing had happened.
AND THEN, AT A CERTAIN MOMENT, I SLIGHTLY TILTED MY HAND. THE TEA SPILLED. IT WASN’T BOILING, BUT IT WAS WARM ENOUGH TO MAKE HIM REACT IMMEDIATELY.
The guy jumped up as if burned, immediately pulling his foot away, and started shouting across the whole plane.
“What are you doing?!”
The stewardess appeared almost immediately. I calmly apologized and said that it was an accident. I added, however, that his foot was on my seat and that I had asked several times for him to remove it.
The passengers around started to support me. Someone said the smell was unbearable, and someone else confirmed that the guy had been acting arrogantly from the start.
The stewardess no longer had a smile on her face. Calmly but firmly, she explained to him that such behavior was unacceptable and that if he continued breaking the rules, the captain might decide to hand him over to the police after landing.
The guy immediately went silent.
In the cabin, someone smiled, then another person. After a while, half of the passengers were looking at him with clear irritation, and some even couldn’t hide their amusement.
HE DIDN’T SAY A WORD AGAIN. UNTIL THE END OF THE FLIGHT, HE SAT QUIETLY, KEPT HIS FEET TO HIMSELF, AND TRIED NOT TO DRAW ATTENTION TO HIMSELF.
And finally, I could lean back comfortably and close my eyes.
Sometimes people only begin to understand when they feel the consequences of their actions.
