Galway Review 8 - April 2020

who’d cheered when both he and Leo reached the
bottom step safely.
And soon Tikal would be ready for its tick, the final stop
on an adventure that had taken a lifetime to complete
and cost Leo more than he’d ever expected. He would
climb to the top of one of the temples there too, if his
legs held out.
‘Mate, hand me that water?’ The man in 5D twisted
round in his seat like a child playing peek-a-boo and
draped his arm through the gap to point at the bottle.
‘You on your way to the rebel base too?’ He began to
whistle a tune which Leo recognised but couldn’t place.
‘Star Wars….yeah? Tikal’s in the first one. A classic.
You seen it?’
Eager to cut off the flow of chat, Leo tapped his
hearing aid. ‘Forgive me but I don’t hear so well
anymore.’ He hadn’t missed a single word but being old
provided a litany of ready-made excuses that people
were generally eager to believe. He made a show of
noticing the bottle and handed it back.
As the minutes went by, the sky outside grew steadily
darker, but the first half of the flight was uneventful, if a
little bumpy. The seatbelt sign never went off so no one
moved around apart from the stewardess. Leo saw her
thrust a sick bag at a passenger near the cockpit.
Almost at once, the unmistakable smell of vomit spread
through the cabin. The sour smell made him long for a
tub of Vicks VapoRub. He never travelled without Vicks
– Ginnie always brought it along, claiming a little dab
under the nose was a lifesaver in stinky places – but this
was his first solo trip in decades and he’d forgotten to
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