The gray-stained Airbus is slowing down and taxiing, the pale gold halo of the runway lights rendering its belly. It pauses, then restarts. The cabin aisle was full of people. It turned slowly, turned again, and finally stopped. He was sitting with his body slightly sideways, looking through the porthole at the airport shrouded in boundless darkness amid mixed light and shadow. On the slender wings, the small rivet holes next to the black number no longer vibrated. There was a smell of soot from the hatch. He imagined that the stewardess with a serious expression was trying to open the heavy cabin door, her body was bent backwards, like…