Pilot: Good afternoon ladies and gentlemen, this is your captain speaking. We are now flying over the ancient city of Jerusalem, which can be seen clearly on the left side of the cabin.

The middle-aged woman sitting next to me leaned over and craned her neck over my right shoulder trying to peer through the window on my left. She clearly was eager to see Jerusalem and I was clearly irritated by having my personal space invaded. I stopped reading.

Me: would you like to swap seats?

Her: No, I prefer the aisle seat

She straightened up and I returned to my reading. But then as other passengers behind us began to mumble with excitement, she leaned over again and I stopped reading again.

Me: why don’t you take my seat and when you have seen enough, we can swap again?

Her: Are you sure?

I stood up and we exchanged seats in silence. She pressed her nose against the window and I went back to reading my eBook. A few minutes later, she stood up.

Her: That’s it; thank you very much

Me: That’s okay

I went back to my eBook and restarted my paragraph.

Her: I am sorry about disturbing you

Me: It’s okay

Her: You see I am originally from Palestine

Me: Yes

Her: I haven’t been there for many years

I realised at this point that she wanted to talk and given that we only had no more than 25 minutes before we landed at Larnaca Airport, I thought: what the hell, I will be nice, for a change.

Me: I am also a Palestinian and in fact, I was born in Jerusalem

Her: No! I am so sorry; I deprived you of the view

Me: No you haven’t, I take this route frequently and I have seen Jerusalem from the air many times before.

For the next 20 minutes she downloaded so much information about her life, her family, her work for a charitable NGO, her conference attendance, how she was born and brought up by her Palestinian parents who had immigrated to Cyprus. Although she felt Cypriot by birth, her Palestinian identity was very strong and in fact she passed this sense of identity on to her two daughters and one son. It was quite remarkable how much factual information as well as views and opinions she was able to convey in those 20 minutes. The captain came on again and announced we were now making our approach to Larnaca Airport.

Her: It was good talking to you. Do you visit Cyprus often?

Me: Yes, my company is based here and I rent an apartment near work

Her: Where, in Nicosia?

Me: No, Limassol

Her: Ah, I live in Limassol too!

Me: Great!

Her: Shall we share a taxi?

Me: I leave my car at the airport

Her: Ah

There was a silence of about 10 seconds and she held her gaze in my direction so, I finally cracked.

Me: Would you like a lift?

Her: Are you sure?

Me: Yes, why not?

Her: Thank you, very kind of you

Woman behind: I live in Limassol, shall we share a taxi?

Her: no thank you, I have been offered a ride by this gentleman

Woman behind: oh okay!

I held my nerve and drew the line on “being nice”.

The aircraft landed and taxied to the allotted jetty. We gathered our carry on luggage and she had a suitcase that weighed a ton. She explained that it was full of Jordanian sweets and roasted nuts. I wondered if she traded the stuff.

As we prepared to disembark, she dropped a bombshell.

Her: I have the big suitcase checked in so, I hope you don’t mind waiting

Damn! There goes my quick exit from the airport. Why did I offer to drive her home? Why did I even speak to her? Serves me right for doing nice!

I said I would go ahead and clear passport control but would wait for her at the luggage carousel. I whizzed through immigration, went to the toilet, then to the cash machine, found out Carousel 5 was assigned for our flight and I stood with my luggage waiting.

A few minutes later she joined me with a trolley laden with her carry on luggage and we stood together waiting for the “Big Suitcase”. It finally emerged and it was BIG. What is it about me and other people’s luggage? Was I always meant to be a porter in this life but somehow a momentary glitch in the solar system got me doing something else?

I helped her load up the stuff on the trolley and we made our regally slow progress out of the airport towards my car “pick up point”. I calculated that I roughly lost 30 minutes through my gratuitous act of kindness and resolved not to do it again for a long time.

For the next 40 minutes my companion filled the gaps of my knowledge about her life so much so, I felt certain I could have a go at writing her biography, if only I cared to do so.

Here is the funny thing: We were together for roughly two hours and during that time, I never asked her a single question but in spite of that, I gathered so much data about her. I have known people for years and I knew less about them than I did about this lady.

I liked her.