A brief overdramatization…
He holds her in his hands, and he watches as the whole of her shuts down, here in front of everyone, and for a moment he is vulnerable, disconnected, his eyes low, like a son watching his father step on to the 3:05 to some desert town, knowing that once that train turns the corner, he’ll never be sure when it’ll come back, and part of him is sad, because he needs her, he needs her right here, pressed up against his ear, telling him what he wants and needs, finding him when he’s lost and waking him when he’s not, and now she’s slipping away, her glow fading, and all he can do his clutch her and watch her leave him, and the voice comes over the speakers again, and it tells him to let her go, because he’s off to the Southland, and he knows that she’ll be back, and it’s time to let her rest, at least for now.
And the man watches her — watches her fade to black — and then he tucks her away into a pouch in his briefcase, and for a moment, he is unmistakably down, because he knows that for a few hours, on this flight from Baltimore to San Antonio, he’s not just disconnected from his emails and his business and his family.
His BlackBerry is off.
He is alone.