Airports
Instructions for Anesthetized Travelby Noah Rozzell
Many people get nervous when traveling. The feeling of impending doom starts to bubble up, and images of lost bags, missed connections, and crashed pl...
Featured story
by Catherine. Dube
The Red KiteMilo found a red kite tangled in the old mango tree behind his house. Its tail was torn, and one wooden stick had snapped. He almost threw it away, but something about its bright color made him carry it insid...
Read story
Points of departure
28 stories match your filters.
Airports
Instructions for Anesthetized Travelby Noah Rozzell
Many people get nervous when traveling. The feeling of impending doom starts to bubble up, and images of lost bags, missed connections, and crashed pl...
Airplanes
Something Special in the Airby Gina Forberg
The tray table is in its upright position and the seat belt light screams red and I would like nothing more than to go to the bathroom, but the flight...
Airplanes
Flight Crewby Alex Ehrenzeller
Despite my advice, Captain Juanito felt prepared to take a midnight flight. It was dangerous enough just standing in the stockroom. Why my cousin deci...
Airplanes
Flying Soloby Sandra A. Miller
I boarded the plane and settled into 26A, a window seat next to an empty one. And that’s the first time I felt it in my gut—the uncoupling...
Airplanes
Pour It Onby Stirling Noh
I've given up trying to sleep on airplanes. A cat nap here and there? Sure, and they come easily if you drink the way I do. But the whole theatre...
Airplanes
Indian Air Plane Glueby James Moran
Of the throngs of humanity sleeping on cots by the heat-blasted roadside our flashing honking careening bus disturbed not a soul. We had witnessed thi...
Airplanes
Class Mattersby Neal Pollack
I’m betraying my age by revealing this, but I’ve always loved the Saturday Night Live film from the early 80s where Eddie Murphy goes unde...
Airports
Behavior Delayby Nathan C. Martin
I remember passing a Nalgene bottle—a popular outdoor accoutrement in the West—full of Red Bull and vodka around the car on the way to Sal...
Airports
Security Check and Mateby Jeff Hawthorne
Passing through TSA security checkpoints has become like a Stanley Kubrick film, with partially clothed adults meeting randomly for moody conversation...
Airplanes
Ready to Landby Maria Cruz
We were on our night flight back home when I noticed that after the fasten seat belt sign went off and the stewardess started to serve drinks, this re...
Airplanes
Sisters of Charityby Eileen Brunetto
Sprawled out in coach, I settled next to my husband as he rooted through his stack of unread New Yorkers. Contemplating the tiny bottles of chardonnay...
Airplanes
My Czechoslovakian Plastic Surgeonby Tarn Wilson
He sat in the window seat, immersed in a magazine. I registered little about him other than he’d crossed his legs, he wore cuffed business slack...
Airports
Airplane Drinkingby Sara Elle
My name is Sara and I’m an alcoholic; I did some of my best drinking on airplanes. By the time I was eighteen, I had a fake ID, a rich boy...
Airplanes
It Happened One Bastard Winter...by Pearu Unga
I hate flying. My two-hour and ten-minute flight to Prague seemed to last for at least half a day. But then I had been awake all night and your brain...
Airports
It All Happened With Courtesyby Jess Stoner
It was 2000, and I had arrived at Reagan National Airport with enough time to have a beer before my flight. It was only a few months after the Music C...
Airplanes
Strangers in Coachby Kelly Bergin
The first hour is anxiety. The pot she smoked in short-term parking is wearing off and the panic becomes physical when she realizes that her medicine...
Airports
Returning to the Waterby Marisa Mangani
It’s August and I’ll be fifty in nine days. We’re at the Tampa Airport, checked in and sitting at the bar for a breakfast rum drink...
Airports
Writers Inside a Bag / Parabolic Urine Flowby Alex Pruteanu
I took Hemingway and Bukowski and Palahniuk and F. Scott and Hitchens with me, and we crossed the border into Canada like the hooligans that we are (F...
Airports
An Airport Idyllby Christopher Schaberg
It was warm coming down the concourse even in the late evening. The moon lit up the taxiway around the blinking lights and illuminated the planes. It...
Airplanes
Extreme Turbulenceby Bryan Batt
Over the past several years, I have become quite the frequent flyer, more so than I ever would have thought given the history of my fear of flying. La...
Airplanes
Never Drink When You Flyby Ian Ferguson
I had a great job that involved visiting our offices in Asia on a frequent basis so I became very familiar with the Trans-Pacific Business and occasio...
Airplanes
Macaroni & Cheese for 6Cby Chella Courington
I take another half an Ativan, finishing my second cranberry and vodka with soda. The steward comes to the back row (it is a Monday), takes my glass a...
Airplanes
Petsby Len Kuntz
Seated next to him, the girl keeps herself busy drawing pictures of dismembered pets—dogs, cats, rodents with collars. He pretends not to notice...
Airplanes
Albuquerque to Denver, Frontier Airlinesby Sandra Vallie
I could fall the distance between the plane and the ground in a bit more than two minutes. I have no wish to do this, but it’s good to know I ca...
Airplanes
Civilisationby Edward Pinnegar
The sun struggled through the patchy grey sky to glint off the yellow tail fin, on which the logo of a puffin in flight seemed strangely motionless. A...
Airplanes
Free Beerby Thomas Gibbs, MD
I was flying back from my mother-in-law’s funeral. My wife had stayed behind. Finishing a Heineken and ready to order another, I noticed the man...
Airplanes
Accidentally On Purposeby Susan Perl
There was this one time I flew from Detroit to Miami and back to Detroit in one day. I won't say what I was doing. It wasn't exactly illicit,...
Airports
Flight Benefitsby Tony D'Souza
My mother worked reservations at United Airlines in Chicago before all those jobs were sent to India, and not having any clue how fortunate I was, I g...
Have a story to tell? Share your story.