I still can’t believe I got a seat on the overbooked Friday night flight coming home. I was on standby in a busy Denver airport hoping to get home to my injured wife. The lady at the desk told me I had almost no chance of getting on because it was already way over booked.

I watched as all the passengers got on. I then noticed that there was still ten or so of us sitting there hoping to get on. They kept calling this one guy’s name and he wasn’t there, so they finally decided to let one of us on in his place. I held my breath, but the name they called was not mine. A lady got on the plane and they were done. Door at gate closed. Game over.

A minute or so later the guy showed up they had been paging, so they pulled the lady off the plane. She wasn’t happy – understandably. Now there was really no chance for me. They were pulling people off who were already on because there were no seats. It was really all over.

The guy got on the plane and they checked all the seats again. Amazingly, there was now an extra seat. Someone had had their baby in the seat next to them instead of holding it on their lap. The airline employees looked for the lady who they had just pulled off the plane but she had left angry.

“Who else is on the list.”

“Harmon…Harris”

“I am Harris”, I said. Harmon probably should have gotten on, but since I was right there and had heard the whole conversation they said, “Well, just take Harris”. I grabbed my carry on and was on the plane. The last seat in an over booked flight. A seat that should have been at least two other people’s.

I held my breath until the door was sealed. They could still come on and pull me off like they had the first lady. But no, the door was shut. The cabin was pressurized and I was on my way home.

I immediately called my wife, who had torn a muscle in her back the day before and couldn’t walk, stand, or even hardly move. She was quite relieved. I was too.

I still can’t believe I got on that plane.