Barney straightened his tie, smoothing it as he dropped his hands to his belt, making sure his shirt was properly tucked in, his “gig line” straight—Old habit from his time in the Navy. He sized up the young man he was in charge of training.

“The job is pretty easy, really. We help people.”

“Help them with what,” young Eric asked.

“With whatever they need help with.”

“How will we know what they need? Wait for them to ask us?”

Barney smiled. He’d been through this same thing so many times before. Though, it seemed to him that the trainees were getting younger and younger every year.

“Sometimes. But most of the time, you just know. You just have to, well, here, like this pleasant looking lady here. What do you think she needs at the moment?”

Eric looked at a woman in her mid-fifties. She was standing, her left leg sort of bouncing, while she looked around. “I don’t know. Is she waiting for someone?”

“Maybe. But that’s not what she needs. Hold on one moment.”

Eric watched as Barney walked over to the woman, they exchanged pleasantries, and he pointed her toward something. They said quick goodbyes and Barney walked back.

“What did she need?”

“What does anyone need after a long journey on a crowded plane?”

Eric didn’t know what to say, so Barney let him off the hook.

“A bathroom, my man. C’mon, you could have guessed that yourself.”

“You say so.”

Barney started to walk their assigned gates. He keyed the radio clipped to his shirt. “Bin service requested for 4B.”

“Bin service?”

“Sounds better than ‘hey, someone take out the trash!’ Don’t you think?”

“I guess.”

They walked their area, Barney stopping frequently to inquire as to how someone was doing, if he could help with anything, provide directions, carry a bag, etc. Eric watched the older man do his thing.

“How long you been doing this?”

“Working this job? Oh, well, I’ve been here since ‘77, so how ever many years that is,” he said with a laugh.

“Seriously? That’s the year my dad was born.”

“Oh, now, don’t tell me that,” he said, laughing harder.

Eric smiled. The old man’s laugh was fantastic. It had a sort of high-pitched overtone laid over a deep belly sound that made it impossible not to smile and laugh along with him.

“Wow. You must really like it here.”

“Oh, yeah. Yeah. I do. I love it.”

“You never thought about doing anything else?”

Barney stopped walking and looked at his watch. “Thirty-six minutes. That’s a new record.”

“What record?”

He smiled at the boy. “Every new person I hire asks me that question. For some reason, they just can’t believe that I would stay at this job for so long.”

“I mean, it is a long time.”

“Is it? Who decided that? What is it about you young people that you always need something new. Something different. You spend money you don’t need to spend to get a new phone when your old phone works just fine. You lose money buying a new car when your old car works fine, too. And don’t get me started on how you all ‘hook up’ with each other. You know I’ve been married to the same beautiful woman for almost fifty years?”

“Wow. Hey, I didn’t mean to—“

“It’s okay, son. I know you didn’t mean anything by it. I’m just curious, that’s all.”

They started to walk again.

“You don’t get, you know, bored?”

“Bored?! No way. You understand what this job is, son?”

“Yeah. I mean, we, like keep the area clean, help people and stuff.”

“You got big plans, dontcha, kid?”

“Yessir. I’m doing this to save up. I want to go to law school.”

“A lawyer? Well, alright. That’s a good job. Important job. Don’t you listen to what everyone says about lawyers,” Barney said, again with the infectious laugh.

“Yeah, yeah. I know.”

“Why you want to do that, be a lawyer, all that school and all that work? What do you see in it?”

“I don’t know. I think that I can help people, you know, keep them from getting screwed by the system, all that. And I can make some good money at the same time.”

“That does sound good.” Barney waved at a toddler who smiled and waved back. “You don’t think you’ll get bored doing that?”

“I don’t know. Maybe. The paperwork and all that. But probably not for a long time. And, like I said, I can make enough money to buy fun stuff in case I do get bored,” Eric said with a wink.

“Ah, yeah. Like a jet-ski, huh?” he said, with a playful elbow to Eric’s side. “Always wanted one of those.”

“Yeah. I guess.”

“Well, that’s the thing. I don’t get bored here. Not ever. What you see as a mundane job I see as magic. See all these people milling about? I probably won’t see ninety-nine percent of them ever again. That means that, over the course of my decades on this job, I’ve seen, talked to, and interacted with hundreds of thousands of people from all over the globe. Now, tell me, how many people can say that? How many jobs let you do that? Let you go home every night knowing that all over this beautiful world of ours there are thousands and thousands of people who, while they were here, in this small area, I made their lives slightly better? It can’t be many people do what I do. Maybe me an’ ol’ Walt Disney.”

They both laughed at that.

“Looks like Tulsa’s coming in six minutes early. We better get over there.”

They walked toward the gate in silence.

Barney put his hand on the young man’s shoulder and said, “Hey, so what do you call a lawyer with a really, really low IQ?”

“I don’t know… What?”

“Your Honor!”