Several years ago, I found part of Steve Walker’s boarding card in a hotel room.
I had been surprised to find the stub on the floor of the large closet when I pushed open the folding doors. The room appeared to be spotless, with only this fairly substantial paper scrap on the floor. It seemed to me - in this new era of heightened security - to be a significant discovery. Steve, the passenger, had evidently stayed in this same room a few days earlier, and the stub confirmed that he had flown into town. I say 'confirmed' because of the hand-written number covering the printed data, indicating the positioning of ground crew at a point where they observed progression of passengers into the actual body of the plane, as the only physical alternative to either remaining in the Gate area or vanishing back into the airport with a boarding pass, intact or otherwise. Passengers with hand-written numbers on their stubs were presumed to have boarded the flight and disembarked at the destination.
The most likely conclusion to be drawn after finding the stub on the closet floor was that he had stayed in this room. The chances of someone else having acquired his boarding stub were slim. Printed data included his name, date, origin and destination, so I found a telephone number for a person of his name in the location of 'origin' and I called him. I didn't call him to have him either confirm or deny having stayed in the hotel; I called him to ask whether he objected to me posting the image of a boarding stub with his name on it. He could have suspected a scam or a call center and slammed the phone down, or he might have wanted to keep me on the line long enough for a trace. I had no way of knowing.
Instead, he listened to my introduction and said yes, he had a moment for a conversation, and no, that wasn't him in the hotel room, and he had no objection to the transfer of printed data which didn't actually refer to him. Steve was relaxed, uninterested in internet activities. He laughed, and bid me farewell with the words ‘take care.’
He was very friendly, and I could imagine him using the stub as a bookmark, perhaps leaving the paperback on his seat by mistake, or giving it to the person seated next to him, who then checked into the hotel and left the stub behind in the closet.
I had been surprised to find the stub on the floor of the large closet when I pushed open the folding doors. The room appeared to be spotless, with only this fairly substantial paper scrap on the floor. It seemed to me - in this new era of heightened security - to be a significant discovery. Steve, the passenger, had evidently stayed in this same room a few days earlier, and the stub confirmed that he had flown into town. I say 'confirmed' because of the hand-written number covering the printed data, indicating the positioning of ground crew at a point where they observed progression of passengers into the actual body of the plane, as the only physical alternative to either remaining in the Gate area or vanishing back into the airport with a boarding pass, intact or otherwise. Passengers with hand-written numbers on their stubs were presumed to have boarded the flight and disembarked at the destination.
The most likely conclusion to be drawn after finding the stub on the closet floor was that he had stayed in this room. The chances of someone else having acquired his boarding stub were slim. Printed data included his name, date, origin and destination, so I found a telephone number for a person of his name in the location of 'origin' and I called him. I didn't call him to have him either confirm or deny having stayed in the hotel; I called him to ask whether he objected to me posting the image of a boarding stub with his name on it. He could have suspected a scam or a call center and slammed the phone down, or he might have wanted to keep me on the line long enough for a trace. I had no way of knowing.
Instead, he listened to my introduction and said yes, he had a moment for a conversation, and no, that wasn't him in the hotel room, and he had no objection to the transfer of printed data which didn't actually refer to him. Steve was relaxed, uninterested in internet activities. He laughed, and bid me farewell with the words ‘take care.’
He was very friendly, and I could imagine him using the stub as a bookmark, perhaps leaving the paperback on his seat by mistake, or giving it to the person seated next to him, who then checked into the hotel and left the stub behind in the closet.
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3 comments:
I read your comment Sunday in the morning. And without delay I look for Steve Walker in Google because I have't idea how is that person. Now I know who is. I get great pleasure from his picture. Thanks for arouse my curiosity.
B
The grey text is really hard to read. This actually reinforces the feeling that the content is close to nonexistent--on purpose. But why?
Hello Anonymous-B: Thanks very much for your comment.
Hello Anonymous#2: Thanks for your response. There is no grey in the original 'thanks for calling' text/image, so I'm not sure which text you are referring to - would you care to say more?
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