Left Behind

I stared at the tiny screen in front of me. The woman seated beside me was eager to close both time and distance to our common destination and watched the numbers closely as they tumbled.

From time to time, she would look out the window and murmur expressions of awe in Chinese under her breath. My eyes remained fixed on the screen, as I wondered how hubby was doing back home.

There was turbulence and the numbers started to plummet. Altitude. Ground speed. Time to landing.

I continued to stare at the map on the screen. A small plane hovered over its destination, but a thick red line kept it tethered to what seemingly had been left behind.