The Tuesday October 22nd, 2019, front page and my book |
The opening story in 'A Gift of Wings' |
Life with my Guardian Angel?
I bought 'A Gift of Wings' secondhand in a Byron Bay bookshop in 2015 when I was walking around Byron with my eldest son when we went down to see a show that night at the community centre.
But I hadn't started reading it until after I had read 'Life with my Guardian Angel' about a week ago.
I remembered thinking it was kind of synchy that a plane taking off from Brisbane Airport was on the front page when I put down my book on top of the paper that morning, but then when I picked the book up again it wasn't long until I was reading a story titled 'There's Always the Sky' that seemed to me rather eerie from a 2019 perspective.
This book was published in 1975, so I would imagine the short story would be at least a few years older again.
The story was about Richard walking around in Manhattan and feeling depressed and trapped by the tall buildings surrounding him, until he did something he claimed people rarely do in Manhattan, and that was to look up and observe the sky.
When Richard wrote, "What do you know, I thought. What do you know about that. No matter how tangled and twisted and distressful goes the life of an airplane pilot, he always has a home, waiting." I couldn't help but think of the events of 2001, rather than the time Richard was referring to while looking up into the Manhattan sky.
I wondered if Richard had almost recalled a nightmare of the future to come when walking those Manhattan streets, which he may have dreamed one night in his past, but couldn't pull from those waking ten seconds after opening his eyes.
The day after 9/11 there were no planes to be seen in the sky over Manhattan after they were all grounded ... only sky.
There's always the sky? |
The story was about Richard walking around in Manhattan and feeling depressed and trapped by the tall buildings surrounding him, until he did something he claimed people rarely do in Manhattan, and that was to look up and observe the sky.
When Richard wrote, "What do you know, I thought. What do you know about that. No matter how tangled and twisted and distressful goes the life of an airplane pilot, he always has a home, waiting." I couldn't help but think of the events of 2001, rather than the time Richard was referring to while looking up into the Manhattan sky.
Manhattan skyline panorama |
The day after 9/11 there were no planes to be seen in the sky over Manhattan after they were all grounded ... only sky.
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