Night Flight

[rejectomorph]

The first birds chirping and the occasional sound of an early commuter's car passing and I realize I've stayed up all night and will see the sky turn bright before I can get to sleep. In the middle of the night, I heard a small plane passing overhead. Someone likes to fly at night. I have heard this plane before, and have come to recognize the sound of its motor. I wonder what this landscape looks like from up there at night? There would be the large cluster of lights in Chico, and the smaller clusters of the other towns. Paradise would probably be the least bright, since there are very few streetlights here. In between the towns would be vast dark spaces, with a few isolated lights. Perhaps, one would see the moonlight reflecting off of the lakes. The forests of the mountains would be no more than a dark shimmer. I imagine that flying at night, alone in a light plane, could create a profound sense of loneliness, with all the visible world sleeping below. I find that very attractive. I wonder who it is?

Comments

[daisydumont.livejournal.com]

this is beautiful. i can almost see the view from above, the lights as you describe them, the shimmer of moonlight on water. nice! (wait, i'll go do a websearch for antoine de saint-exupery... night flight?) ok, enough from me. but thank you for this.

[rejectomorph]

Thanks, and you're welcome.

Saint-Exupury's book is one of those I have long meant to read, but somehow never got around to.

Well, not somehow. I never got around to it because I'm one of the most disorganized and absent minded people on earth. For all I know, I have a copy of the book somewhere in the house, and just haven't come across it recently enough to remember it being there. But I do know I've never read it. That, I would remember.