JAL STEWARDESSES'WAYS OF ALIENATION-ANALYSIS 3

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I was eagerly waiting for my lunch. Was it so difficult to bring out one lunchbox from the nearby cuisine? Why make me wait so long, being the only one not given lunch? And with no excuses for delay.

Then a few people in front of me had finished eating and was wiping their mouths. I began to feel anxious and looked around lots of times with intervals of seconds; the JAL stewardesses were nowhere to be seen as if by agreement. Then, as it was embarrassing to meet other passengers' faces, I kept looking ahead.

A long time passed by; when I looked again the broad-faced stewardess was standing with her left hand on the top of my seat, looking around at the passengers eating lunch as if checking.

I was so glad to see her; it was the first time I saw her face since twelve minutes before, when she had serenely passed by me pushing the cart. I thought, now's the time, and quickly called in Japanese looking right into her face, "excuse me" three times.

Oops! I'm caught, run!

While I was still calling out, the broad-faced woman quickly turned away and with a speedy waddle, busily disappeared into the cuisine. When I called out like that, three times, the Korean passengers nearby all stopped eating and looked at me and the broad-faced woman who busily walked away ignoring my call. During all this I was very embarrassed and displeased. After I had called out breathlessly "excuse me" three times she had disappeared. It was at this point that I got angry. Following her disappearance, 1minute, 2minutes, 3minutes, 4minutes, 5 minutes, 6 minutes, 7minutes, 8minutes, 9minutes, 10minutes, 11minutes. 12minutes, 13minutes, 14minutes, 15minutes, 16minutes, 17minutes, 20minutes passed and she never returned. The stewardesses were seemingly having lunch in the cuisine; no single creature was in sight. Only my table had nothing placed on it, and I was looking around watching others eat. The fat Japanese man next to me was eating with full sound effects, his upper body intruding into my space. I was just stealing looks.

The passengers with lowered heads whose mouths and both hands were busy had finished their lunch and were sitting still with heads up. And the readers may imagine how I must have felt, still not given my lunch.

I looked round again. At that moment three to four stewardesses were rushing out from the cuisine, smirking. Among them the broad-faced woman was holding out a lunchbox in her right hand, standing over at the end of the third row in the aisle by the cuisine.

At that moment she was holding her head back and laughing cunningly, with pleasure like an animal. She had run away when I called "excuse me' then reappeared after 20 minutes holding out a lunchbox to me. I had not asked her for a lunch. It was at that moment that I was deeply shocked and my limbs were shaking but I tried to look calm. The JAL woman with the broad face must have ignored people like this, as a habit, succeeded in doing this elaborately, deliberately, intentionally. In order to get at the lunch box which was being held out from a distance I got up from my seat.

I brought it to my seat and the minute I opened the lid the announcement rang out, : We will shortly be arriving at Kimpo international airport, Seoul, please make sure everything is in its place, and check your seatbelt..."

A shiver ran through my heart.

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