One winter years ago my husband, our 10 mo firstborn baby and I were in the
first class section of a jet from NYC to Barbados.  (The airline screwed up
our reservation so they put us in first class!)  A man got on late and sat
across the aisle from me.  He looked familiar, but I'm terrible with names
and faces.  I leaned towards my husband and said "Don't we know him from
somewhere?  Was he in college with us?" My husband just shushed me and didn't
answer.
It's a long flight.  The man read his in-flight magazine and then asked to
borrow the magazine I had brought on board.  My baby, who was a particularly
adorable baby ;-) started cooing at him.  He began playing peek-a-boo with
her.  I asked if he had children.  He said yes.  We got chatting.  He asked
if it wasn't hard to travel with her.  I said no, she was so young she was
easy to take with us and since we were breastfeeding (yes, I said this to a
strange man on a plane) we didn't have to lug a lot of stuff with us.  He
said "the mother of his children" (I thought it an odd phrase for him to use)
had breastfed, but that it was hard to get out at night when they are bf, so
she had weaned them at three months.  I said that was too bad.  We chatted a
bit longer and then our meal arrived.  Good food in first class!
When we landed in Barbardos he was met by a very attractive, pregnant woman
with long blond hair.  When I saw them it reminded me to ask my husband again
if he knew who the man was.  Did we know him from college?  From work?  From
our old town?  My husband just rolled his eyes and said "That was Mick
Jagger."
Cynthia D. Payne
In the Berkshires of western Massachusetts, where I don't read People
magazine