In Flight

Translation Notice

This article is a work of fiction originally written in Italian. It has been automatically translated to English using an AI tool. The rhythmic and narrative qualities may differ from the original.

Only a madman would have wanted to get a pilot's license with seventy years around the corner. Yet, Mr. Fabio, having reached the fateful milestone of retirement, thought it wouldn't be a bad idea to chase that dream, put away in a drawer when he was just eight years old.

It took several months and all the patience and commitment that Mr. Fabio had; but what satisfaction those first flights with the instructor!

Mr. Fabio couldn't wait to share that emotion with Adele, his lifelong partner who had always encouraged and supported him.

Needless to say, that day was not long in coming. Mr. Fabio had prepared everything: rented the ultralight and drawn up a flight plan. The highlight would be flying over the village of a nearby town, right where, many years before, he had taken his first trip out of town with his Adele.

After testing takeoff dozens and dozens of times, he was now calm. The plane rose slowly, without jolts.

Out of the corner of his eye he saw Adele wandering with her gaze, attentive to every detail passing beneath them. In a short time they were over the village. Adele squeezed Mr. Fabio's arm, tense with emotion. An emotion that quickly turned to fear when the plane began to vibrate, then shake, as if in convulsions. It didn't last long, Mr. Fabio had already faced some turbulence and quickly stabilized the plane.

They finally managed to smile and enjoy the view a bit, increasingly unfamiliar, increasingly opaque, dissolved, as if a cloud were enveloping them in a maternal embrace, or a cataract were falling thick on their pupils transforming the world into a milky and sticky mass, until nothing remained, only an absurd sense of estrangement in an immense white palette and a laconic carmine-colored text: "Game over."