Lost In New York, parts 4484 - 4487

  4484. Soon the fronds began to merge into a jumble of forms so chaotic that try as he might, his eye was unable to focus of a single leaf. The, suddenly the plane left the ground.

4485. As the plane left the ground, the landscape he had been looking at with an hypnotic fascination began to recede from view, and as it receded it seemed to drastically slow down.

4486. Those green leaves that had seemed to be moving along at a hundred miles an hour just outside his window, now seemed to be hardly moving at all.

 4487. As the landscape came to an apparent standstill, Coromo came to the only possible conclusion under the circumstances; he decided that the plane had stopped moving.

Lost In New York, parts 4480 - 4483

 4480. I can excuse myself about telling you about the pilot if you consider that I am like a doctor trying to uncover the root causes of an illness. The pilot was the beginning, and it expanded from there. 

 4481. Even though it may be irrelevant, I have more to tell you about the trip on the little plane. It was not a smooth trip; as a matter of fact it was full of difficulties. I am going to describe Coromo's experience as much as I am able. 

 4482. The strip of tarmac the plane took off from was not especially wide, and, since it was a tropical place, the strip was surrounded by dense vegetation. The vegetation was made up of an infinite jumble of huge palm fronds and giant leaves, all glossy and dark green. 

4483. What can the foliage have to do with Coromo's paranoia, you ask? It has everything to do with it, as you will shortly see. The aircraft sped up, the big glossy jungle of frond leaves began to speed by past Coromo's window at a tremendous rate. 

Lost In New York, parts 4476 - 4479

 4476. It was not always like that. One time, about ten years ago the engine, a single engine, shut off in mid-flight and did not come on for almost a minute while the craft slowly descended toward the water.

 4477. That made his hair stand on end, and forced him to say his prayers under his breath while gasping for air because of a shortness of breath.

 4478. He would have quit his pilot's job that day if it was not for his poverty, a poverty brought on by his obsession with gambling, and his constant drinking, but he recovered his wits after several years of patient suffering.

 4479. I apologize about all this detail concerning the pilot. What has the pilot got to do with the story anyway? Nothing I am aware of, at least not at the present time. He was the reason for Coromo's attack of fear, and that attack of fear will be an important factor in our story.

Lost in New York, parts 4472 - 4475

 4472. Long ago he became so accustomed to his little plane that when he was sitting in the cockpit he felt no different that a person watching the TV in their den in the basement. 

 4473. For the passenger the trip is fifteen minutes of the most intense anxiety it is possible to feel. Even those travelers who are on planes all the time, cannot manage to overcome their terror. 

 4474. It is the picturesque contrast between the pilot's serene state of mind, and the passenger's terror that inspires the captain to be so cruel. 

 4475. Also, it magnifies his sense of self-importance and he enjoys the fact that he appears to have immense courage.

Lost In New York, parts 4468 - 4471

 4468. He did not start the engine right away but turned to Coromo and began talking to him in an overly familiar way. The pilot said to Coromo, "My diabetes is driving me crazy lately, and I can't seen to keep my blood sugar under control."

 4469. Sometimes it flies up if I just eat a little candy-bar, and other times it falls down to nothing and I have to gulp down sugar water to keep from passing out."

 4470. He said this in all seriousness as if to elicit Coromo's sympathy, and then he began to laugh loudly, and turned his attention to the controls.

 4471. I know that pilot, and I have been in his plane several times on my trips home. He says thing like that to everyone just for a laugh, but also because it is his great joy to magnify the fears of his passengers.

Lost In Nerw York, parts 4464 - 4467

 4464. He had spent a lot of time painting pictures recently, and as he painted he became more and more involved in the project, but as of yet he had not begun to consider that the painting of pictures might be the undiscovered purpose of his life.

4465. To him it was rather like creating pictures was similar to doing crossword puzzles or playing solitaire; an activity that killed time while he waited for some other serious thing he was supposed to be doing.

 4466. Thinking all these thoughts Coromo forced himself, with trepidation, to get into the passenger seat of the plane. He had to wait about fifteen minutes while the pilot smoked a cigarette, and took a look at various things on the craft that needed his attention.

 4467. Then he got into the pilot's seat, slammed the door, which did not weigh anything, and emitted a groan.

Lost In New York, parts 4460 - 4463

 4460. They should come to their senses and place their own name on the line where it asks who the beneficiary is to be. It may sound absurd, but it is the only right thing to do. 

 4461. And further, not to belabor the point, Coromo did not want to think about the possibility of dying in the near future in an objective way. He assumed, like so many of us assume, that his life had an, as yet to be fulfilled, purpose.

 4462. What that purpose was he had, as of yet, on idea, but he was confidant that when he found his purpose he would recognize it immediately. Unfortunately, all he seemed to possess was an unerring sensation that he had not yet found it.

4463.  He lived in a state of low level anxiety, nursing the fear that a long time was destined to go by and the answer to his question was going to elude him.