Story: Back at the air yard

A slow but silent and steady stream of people enter the dim room, sit down, watch the television set, and slowly disappear into the darkness.You are surrounded by people but still alone. I've been here almost 4 weeks now. I walk up to the main room and call the attendant to the desk. "Can I help you?" an elderly gentlemen with white hair and a large bustling beard appears from behind the counter. He scowls angrily at the sight of me. "What's the status of my plane?" I ask him."Dang it, you asked me that same question yesterday, remember?" he said snapping the wrench against the winglet, leaving a dent. "Your old plane as you know it is gone. In a few days the components will corrode so badly it will be nothing but a shadow - memory, of what it once was. " I look closely and sure enough, the plane is actually slowly degrading before my eyes. Corrosion, once impossibly slow on the laminate metals, was sped up substantially. Holes were appearing everywhere. A tinge of sadness hits me.

"Tear not" the old man said. "Come over back this way" and he points to the southern corner of the airspace. I never knew this area existed until now. I could have sworn it was a gigantic desert with tumbleweeds yesterday. But now, in front of me by 30 meters, was an SR-71 blackbird on the tarmac. It looked strange because it was dark purple and gave off a dim blue glow near the edges. I move towards it and the old man stops me by grabbing my neck. "Hey! easy!" I yell.

"If I hadn't of stopped you, that plane would have absorbed you into it, and there would be no going back." I looked into his eyes. He was clearly high or mad, but I went with it anyway. He continued. "These planes are special and exist exactly at the time requested.No one knows how long it will take for your plane to be flight ready. We have had 747 jumbo jets appear in seconds after their old plane disappeared. The owner was literally sprinting to the new 747 with a smile on his face."

"Unfortunately that plane never went far, the owner had a heart attack while taking off and crashed into the far mountains over there" he said, pointing east. I caught a glint of metal in the distance.

I settle back into the comfy armchair and open a book.