Airplane People

There was a community of apartment homes right next to the runway. The road curved up from town beside them and terminated at a traffic circle outside the airplane hangar.

The couple had breakfast on the balcony beside the road. The sun rose up from the mountains behind them. The jagged red rocks jutted up all around the valley. The rising sun cut across them, drawing shapes and shadows down the mountain.

A sound is heard, not unlike that of an approaching car. But instead, out of the clear blue sky, an airplane sputters in over them, constructing an acute angle over the buildings. It seems to be landing on the road. Instead, it hovers toward a mound of dirt just above them. And, seconds before it seems ready to reach it, the sound disappears from the engine, and it is dropped silently onto an invisible runway.