Preface To Flight: The Last Time Anyone Was At An Airport

The last time anyone was at an airport, there was already disease in the air.

Were you at the airport then? the man who looked like a waiter asked the woman who looked like an actress from the nineteen-forties.

Oh no she replied We had already stopped going to the airport.

Because of disease in the air?

She laughed.  No, because we had found alternative methods of flight.

Some of the alternative methods of flight included time-tested practices such as drugs, imagination, & imaginative drugs.  Other methods seemed novel, like giant machines & home-made wings.  Some methods could be dangerous or downright frightening, like magic or futuristic science, which may have been the same thing.

You know said the man who looked like a waiter I have heard about these alternative methods of flight but I confess I love aeroplanes.

Looking slightly cross, the woman who looked like an actress from the nineteen-forties asked in response Are you going to take my order now?

If you feel at this moment somewhat embarrassed for the man who looked like a waiter, & perhaps even feel a bit of pity for him, please don't.  He looked so much like a waiter that he would often just go into restaurants, act as though he worked there, & steal the tip money from the actual staff.

He took her order.  She received it in a colorful to-go bag.  & then stepping outside, she looked up at the full moon, said a slight incantation, & flew away.

The man who looked like a waiter pocketed the tip money, told no one in particular that he was going to take a break, & he walked quickly away, into the night.