He checked the time, and then compared it to the ticket in his hand. He'd be somewhere over the Pacific now, perhaps gazing down at endless ocean, dotted here and there by clusters of green - island chains, some hardly more than few feet high yet lush, surrounded by sandy beaches and those coconut trees...

He glanced beyond the balcony at the apartment block opposite. He spied a man and a woman, embracing by a window. Then they moved away. His mind though lingered in that embrace. Lingered on her, the too thin body, almost boy-like, no flesh to her - how easily she would fit within him! How she could well be lost in his larger frame. Hundreds of notifications and messages awaited him; he'd ignored them all for days now. And he'd hardly ventured out, choosing instead this strange to him hibernation. Morbidly counting down each hour - hours that would have one by one delivered him closer to her, until... until the image of her on another flight, flying to where she would await him filled his mind so much he wanted to scream.