An amusing anecdote

Garry flew into Phoenix for the weekend. We enjoyed his presence immensely and it was hard to see him go home last night. I dropped him off at the airport around five. He called me ten minutes later, as I was driving back to my parents' house, to let me know he had checked in, gone through security, and was waiting at the gate. He planned to grab some dinner and settle in to wait for his 6:45 p.m. flight.

At 7:05, Garry called again. Noting the time, I answered his call by saying, "So you're a little delayed, eh?" He replied, "Yeah....something like that. I fell asleep in the boarding area and missed my flight."

What?

Just a few minutes before the boarding process began for his flight, Garry had dozed off in his seat. He slept right through all of the boarding calls and the sounds of a hundred or more passengers filing past him through the door to the plane. No one bothered to tap him on the shoulder and ask if he needed to get on the plane. Apparently sitting five feet from the boarding zone for an hour and a half and having a suitcase sitting next to him didn't tip anyone off that he might want to be on that flight.

Garry woke up at 6:45, the scheduled time of departure. The plane was still parked at the gate, but the walkway from the terminal to the airplane had retracted. Garry hurriedly explained his situation to the attendant at the desk, but she said it was too late to board the plane. That flight was the last one to Colorado Springs that night, so he'd have to take the 8:45 a.m. flight on Monday. And, since his excuse for missing his scheduled flight was "so silly," the airline couldn't put him up for the night in a hotel. That wasn't exactly his biggest concern.

So I picked him up at Phoenix International and brought him home. We all enjoyed another evening together, and then Garry packed up and headed to the airport again this morning. Do you think he was the first person on the plane this time?