Downfall

It felt just so awful, the way the clock jumped back instead of moving forward as they crossed time zones to the west. And with every repeated hour of that endless night, Silvia felt she was losing all she knew and loved, to walk utterly alone into whatever the next days might have in store for her. She expected to feel that way, just like the irrational fear clutching and twisting her guts. She would’ve liked to be able to do something about her instinctive withdrawing into herself to muster her courage and breathe deep before such a leap.

To make it worse, she felt oddly confined in that luxury seat that had her walled up like a baby pen. She could connect with the whole damned world, yet she couldn’t look straight at Jim on the next seat without bringing her feet down from the box under the TV shelf, sitting up and leaning in, past the ugly thing all around her head with more plugs and stuff, and the little counter between the seats.

The moment she moved