American Airlines flight 2972, Minneapolis to St. Louis. I occupy aisle seat 12D.

Man in front of me: middle aged, red hair, goofy smile, Southern accent like Foghorn Leghorn. Before takeoff, he stands and yells to a colleague, seated much further back in the plane, "What aah yew doin' tonight?"

Colleague yells back, "Having dinner with Richard and the gang. Are you coming, too?" He does not have a Southern accent.

"Ah asked Richard if he wuz doin' something for dinner, and he said no. Ah guess ah'm not invited." Surprisingly, this does not dampen the goofy smile of the man in front of me. He sits, launches the opening volley of a flight-long assault on the man next to him: "Hey, have ah seen yew before? Yew look famillyir. . . ."

Man next to me: about my father's age, reading a book called Is Jesus Sick?, and carrying a fiction book with a cross on the cover. We ignore each other until he places a napkin on the seat between us. It has a realistic drawing of a demon on it, and he orients it toward me. Rather well done, actually.

He sees me looking at it. "I just found that. It fell out when I opened my tray table."

I tell him I thought he had drawn it. He gives me a look. I sip my orange juice and return to my book about Mary Magdalene. He eyes it but says nothing. People who are very interested in whether or not Jesus is sick do not seem to be interested in Mary Magdalene.

Later, I notice him place the demon back behind the upright tray table for the next person to find. I think that demon has been flying the friendly skies for a while, popping out to surprise passenger after passenger.

As we disembark, a woman who looks like Tipper Gore swoops in and begins a conversation about Christian books with Mr. Demon Napkin. They have read the same series about the end of the world and find no end of delight in this topic.

Unnoticed, unnerved, Mary Magdalene and I creep away.