One plane. One program. One thousand games. One instant he could not alter.
Blonde hair. Blue eyes. A slender, athletic physique that had been sharpened by years as a weekend warrior with Taekwondo. He wasn't premium grade, but he wasn't slouching around either. To all the others, he was just a decent guy— unless today, he wasn't.
Backpack carried sloppily on one shoulder, stainless-steel canteen in special container at his fist, he strolled unruffled by crowds of humanity through the airport. Nothing but a nod to the stewardess, he presented his ticket with unthinking uniformity of a muscle habit pattern.
"Basic Plus." Nothing to spare, but that was his norm.
He sat down, donned his older wired headphones, and launched a new app off of his phone—a dubious-looking games library that contained "1000 offline games."
First one went to market with no issue. Just a bare-bones flappy-bird copy product. He smiled and drummed to himself as plane began to take form. But when he went to try out the other 999, reality hit him.
"Internet connection/cellular data to download required," reads this message.
"Rip-off" he snarled at first. Then loudly: "WHAT A SCAM is this?"
Faces turned to stare at him. With raised eyebrows, with smiling faces. He blushed.
He sat back into his seat, to pretend that he did not feel anything. The game was boring with one hour having been played. Twelve hours still to go.
He tried to sleep, and he did for half an hour. But his body did not keep pace—too restless.
He stretched and lifted the curtain up from the plane window. Light flooded in. He gazed out into clouds, something or other drawing his head off somewhere far distant.
One scream did exist. "SHUT THE CURTAIN!" The falsetto yell followed behind him. "THE SUN'S GETTING IN MY DEAR LITTLE ONE'S"
He being twelve years of age and feeling embarrassed, concealed his face with embarrassment while his mom gripped his head like a kid.
The blonde young man groaned, dropped the curtain half down as a sign of commiseration with the boy, and complained, "Should've stayed home."
But the truth was that he could not choose.