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.Through a haze of smoke, she watched the small planes taking off and landing every few moments, scorching past her so closely, in fact, that her body vibrated enjoyably.Amidst the deafening noise, the employees stood quietly in lines, some nearly naked, some wearing thin gray woolens or other haphazard-looking clothing.Stepping past an old mechanically driven clock that leaned crookedly, she realized that at this time of day employees generally left their work shifts for other, longer, more complex work shifts that would last far into the night and for days beyond that.In one of the lines she observed a man of young middle age wearing only a tan, collared shirt and socks, the skin of his scalp mottled and exposed.He grasped anxiously at his thighs, squinting in the murky air, then, hesitating, he stepped over and reached out to tap the elbow of the woman next to him, who was older and wore dark kneesocks and a tattered coat.The man smiled at her and over the noise called loudly, “I see you’re tired, probably bone-tired, and I just want to say that I feel that way, too! It looks like life is hard for you right now, and I hope that’s true —I mean, I hope you’re just like me, but I can’t presume.Or can I?”The woman, face terse, blank, stared ahead.“What are you talking about?” She turned to look at him, and he ducked and smiled.“Here comes your airplane,” the woman said loudly.“Go on with the others!”The man called out, “I always say the wrong thing!” “The wrong thing?” the woman mocked.“If you think I’m saying you’re wrong and I’m right, then you’re imbuing me with authority I don’t have! I’m nobody’s mother.Now, walk over there to that little plane!”“Oh,” the man said weepily, stepping up to her.“The truth is, I’ve never flown to a new worksite before—I’ve never flown at all!”“Is that right?”“Yes! And now, my Administrator has expelled me for eating—eggshell, that is, and I have to go away on a plane! She doesn’t want me anymore—that’s the point.I should have fought her, I should have refused to leave, but I didn’t!” he said, bending to one side, as if with a cramp.“In the most crucial moments, I always fail to act!”“Of course you fail to act,” the woman said, a hint of gaiety in her eyes.“I don’t want to fly! I’m afraid of disaster, but I’m also afraid of diverting disaster!” the man said, letting forth a gulping, nervous laugh, his face filling up with bright pink.A plane rose into the air nearby amidst deafening noise, then floated away.“Isn’t all of life an accident, anyway?” the woman said mildly.“I may sound unreasonable, but my nerves make me this way.It’s just nerves,” the man said, looking around.“We all hate to fly,” the woman said.“Oh, how we hate it, but we fly anyway, don’t we? ‘We fly to work, we fly onward,’ as the saying goes, and as another saying goes: ‘If you don’t mind waiting in line for a plane, I doubt anyone else does either!’ ”“When is the right moment to state my demands? What is the best moment to disagree with someone?” the man broke out.“I can’t seem to find that moment, yet it must exist! Is it best to refuse another person’s ideas point-blank, with no room for discussion? Perhaps in the case of parties, I should leave quickly, before they ever start!”A small plane rolled toward their line, bumping past, engines gunning.The man cried out, terrified, and tried to turn away as the woman pushed him forward, shouting into his ear, “That’s your plane! Stop fighting it, will you? It makes me sick to see people like you, so without dignity.”The man staggered toward the bright body of the plane and fell to his knees, crying, as the woman stepped back with a smirk, her fist clenched in the air in a gesture of goodwill and departure.“Goodbye!”The man turned beet-red, screaming uncontrollably as a nimble pilot leapt from the plane, laughing good-naturedly and waving to the woman.He hauled the crying man into the plane’s compartment and slammed the door.Appearing in the window, the man motioned to the woman in panicked gestures that she should come toward the plane, but instead she stood rocking on her heels as the plane shot down the runway, bumping and bucking until it lifted from the roof and into the haze.By now, most of the employees had gone to their next work shifts.Standing near the runways, breathing in deeply the black waste of the planes, Dra—, hair blowing stiffly back, watched the woman stroll away, hands in pockets, head down, smiling to herself.In the distance, planes landed, then rolled toward openmouthed tunnels near the edge of the roof where they paused, then plunged, heading for small, lighted stations so far below they were nearly invisible.From a stairwell door, two well-dressed women emerged.They walked across the roof holding hands, speaking intensely and zealously to one another as if they had recently spent a close period of time together and guarded the experience viciously.Sitting on two summer chairs alongside a cement pillar, the women squinted in the dust as they discussed some third party, and Dra— modestly moved out of their view.“I know who you mean, and she’s a terrible liar,” the thinner woman said, sitting on the edge of her chair.“Yes, yes, I know! I don’t really like her, either, but that’s just me, I suppose,” said the other.“Well, you’re nothing like her, Marla, not at all.You’re as far from her as you can get from the moon, except you are fiercely loyal as a friend.I’ve heard that she is loyal, too.”“Oh, she’s not loyal, I bet, not at all—she’s just a big tub of nothing!” the first woman said, grinning hugely.“You’re so different from her, Slim! You’re clever, you have such spark!”Her friend smiled.“Clever—yes, you have described me.I also happen to know that she, for all her loyalty, has not a fraction of your native talent, Marla.”“Oh, you’re flattering me!” the stockier woman said, blushing.“I’ve loved this entire day! I love being with you, Slim [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]