Hendrik stopped at row 2. He looked at Laverne Grier, who looked back at him, and then he looked at Garrison Yancey in 2B, and then he looked over at the galley curtain, which was open now, and at the captain sitting on the jumpseat with his hat in his lap.
"I don't want to make a scene," he said, to nobody in particular, in his flat plains voice, and by saying it made one. "I just want to say that's my seat. I paid for it. Paid for it with my own money. Six hundred and forty dollars. And I gave it to her. Nobody made me. If somebody's got a problem with her sitting in it, they've got a problem with me, and I'm right here." He looked down at Garrison Yancey in 2B. "Are you the problem?"
Yancey opened his mouth and closed it.
"Mr. Vandermolen," Billie said. "Thank you. The captain knows."
"Does he?" Hendrik looked at the galley.
Gunnar Vossberg stood up. He put his hat on the galley counter, upside down, beside the coffee maker. He folded the letter along its creases and gave it back to Billie without a word. Then he walked out of the galley, past her, into the cabin, and stopped at row 2, and went down on one knee in the aisle, which put his head below the level of the armrest of 2B, which put him lower than Garrison Yancey and just about level with Laverne Grier's tote bag. Billie had never seen a captain kneel in an aisle. She did not know if anyone had.
"Mrs. Grier," he said. "I'm sorry. The seat assignment's correct, and the shipment's been inspected, and you are exactly where you're supposed to be. I was wrong. I'm not going to take any more of your time right now, because I know where you're trying to get. I'll get you there."
Laverne looked at him for a long moment, and at his face, the face of a big, gray, tired man kneeling on a carpet that smelled of jet fuel and spilled ginger ale, and Billie could not have said what she saw in it. Then she nodded once. She did not say it's all right. She did not say thank you. She said, "All right, Captain," which was a different thing.
Gunnar stood up. His knee cracked like a stick. He turned, not quite to the man in 2B, and spoke at a level that the first five rows could hear and no more.
"Mr. Yancey, the customer in 2A is correctly seated, and the item has been inspected according to procedure. I've looked at it. If you're not comfortable flying with us this evening, the agent at the door will be glad to rebook you at no charge. But we're closing the door in about four minutes."