When one is flying in a plane while the night is alive, looking out of the window does the darkness no justice. The most visible thing is the paint streak glare of scattered reading lights throughout the cabin, a mirror reflection of the seats in the row above. Merely lifting the cover allows the atmosphere’s cold air to radiate inside. It’s uncomfortable, seeing one's own sleep deprived reflection, featuring eyes sewn with red thread, and an almost visible smell emanating from a body that has sat in recycled air far too long. Staring makes one crazy, taking to calling the stewardess for help, yet, by the time she reaches the scene, all is forgotten, a glass of hot water is ordered instead. But one is tempted to look again, far enough from the pane to create a necessary distance, but close enough to see the same alarming figure, now accompanied by rising steam curling like fresh smoke. Moments pass, a stare down fills the time, the urge to call the stewardess back, with a bat, to bash in the creature on the wing floods the mind. But if one puts their cheek onto the mimicking thing, and focuses wandering eyes onto nothing, the reflection scatters like a flock of birds threatened by a thrown stone. The stars, they arrive, hung by the imagination, or by unimpressed God, and, if one focuses enough, they’ll notice a metal wing, and perhaps ponder the sensation of being out upon it, that high in the sky, hanging from a string like a star among flashes of electrical light, experiencing the cold of the wind, perfect skin turning black and falling off (for the temperature is past the requisite to preserve life), so with a ragged smile, comparable to that on a hermit crawling out of his cave and into the sun, one bears their teeth and one by one they drop, canine and molar alike, until only pink gums and charred lips remain on a featureless face.
One may, at this point, wish they had never put their cheek to the glass or lifted the cover, but none may decide what is best for another human’s experience.