I was looking out the window at the birds flying in thick soupy whisks low and higher, in spirals, coming back, disappearing, i never seen so many of them together before in my life. It felt like they were trying to tell me something, that i will fly, that we are all going to fly. That I am also a bird. For a moment in the air, we are, all of us at the same time, flying as one. The guy next to me moves frantically, shaking, shivering, pulling his hoodie over, putting on his jacket, taking his jacket off, leaving for the bathroom for a long time, returning, with two or three bottles of water. Staring into the opening of the bag, only sitting still for brief moments.

I say

#You’re more likely to win the lottery if you buy a ticket tomorrow than you are to be in a plane crash. It happens every day.”

He smiles into the air between his teeth and the seat in front of him,

“I like that, he says. I like that. I should buy a lottery ticket every single day.“

He says thanks maddam, british he is, so polite, i hope he fared well on his tour to Italy, which was to be done by car, he said, it got worse every time he flied, he liked driving though, cause he’d be in control then.

“Maybe you should be a pilot.”

He smiled again.

He liked that idea.