A safe flight

Ivan is a pilot. His extensive training ended with one firm decision. He would be in public transportation, a part of this big system that makes our world a better place. He would help people reach their goals, find new emotions and return safe home. He was waiting for the day he would fly that plane full of passengers that rely on him to get them through.

I met him some time after his first commercial flight. He was sitting on a bench in the park, staring at the people that ran or skated by. It didn’t take too many words for him to break down.

“I was trying to taste the responsibility. I wanted to feel the burden of it all, to realize the joy of landing them all safely down. I couldn’t. It didn’t matter that somewhere there behind me, the plane was full of people. It wouldn’t have made any difference if I were alone. I’m scared now. I think I have been lying to myself and I cannot fool myself into believing in the lie again.”

Paper

Jim and John used to read the same local newspaper. They both started submitting articles for a discussion column. Gradually, issue after issue, they got involved in a fierce word fight. Sometimes they could hardly wait for the delivery boy to give them the paper in the morning. Thinking of great arguments and reading the answers became the greatest amusement and goal of their days.

One evening Jim and John walked into the same bar. Soon they spotted each other and their hearts almost stopped beating. They were standing there, staring into each other’s face, trying to make their tongues move. They couldn’t. Not a word got through. Not a word was there to. None of them could think of anything to say. After what felt like ages, Jim turned back and stormed out in the street, running to the newspaper’s building. He dropped a note into the mailbox at the door with just one sentence in it: “I hate you, John.”

Unfortunately for Jim, John never read this. He stayed that night till late in the bar and got seriously drunk. When the bartender told him that they are closing and he should leave, John said to him:

“Dude, I love you. You are so real. You are who I think you are and I don’t have to think about who you are for you to be that man. Now please, call for a taxi.”