Playful Cataclysm

They are now on the plane. Next stop Auckland.

David sits beside Gaius. Katherine sits next to Arthur.

And the lobsters are where?

They are stored in the overhead locker.

A flight attendant has closed the overhead locker.

It is dark.

Psst, says Captain Baudin. 

Psst, Dufresne answers.

Down below in the seats, only Arthur hears this, with his young ears.

Of course he ignores it.

He plans to sleep on the plane.

I won't disturb you, says Katherine. 

Thanks, says Arthur.

Unless you want to be disturbed when the refreshment trolley comes past, says Katherine.

No thanks, says Arthur. I've eaten about seven doughnuts.

Dear me, says Katherine. Seven. But I know how you feel. I ate three. What about water?

It is nice being cared about by Katherine, but it can be oppressive. 

Got water, mumbles Arthur. feigning near-sleep.

Katherine gets her book out.

How Proust Can Change Your Life.

Chapter One addresses the playful question, posed in a Paris newspaper, and which Proust attempted to answer, of what one would do in one's final hour if a global cataclysm was certain.

Not the best question to think about while on a plane.

Nevertheless, she thinks about it, with the caveat that she has landed.

Yes, landed in Auckland. An hour is not enough to make her way to the Resting Place of the Winds.

One needs a boat to get there.

And the long johns she has bought. Wasted.

She would, she thinks, put on one pair of long johns (the striped pair)  and walk around Auckland, sightseeing. As the last place on earth she will visit, it is bound to seem precious.