Chapter 16

“I just packed my bag and came straight here,” I summarized, leaving out the unnecessary details of my dilly dallying over coffee, which was looking a lot like a tactical error as I watched that airplane recede stubbornly into the distance. Despite my adherence to a general policy that one shouldn’t ask questions to which one doesn’t want to hear an answer, I again requested information about Schatzie’s whereabouts.

“We tried to wait for you…” she croaked, confirming my fear without actually answering.

“That’s you, isn’t it?” I asked. Not that she could see me pointing to the diminishing tail.

“What?”

“I’m watching a World Wind airplane taxi out. That’s you, isn’t it?”

“Fox, there will be others. There have to be.”

Maybe the shoeless faggot wasgonna cry. “I dunno, Schatzie. There’s no one else here. Like, literally no one.”

“That’s impossible.”

“But true.”

“What about another airline?”