- looking out the window -

Eastern NT, CX138, 2:08am, 4 December 2006

It wasn't long after I had finished watching Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest. I was lethargic after my meagre meal of steamed fish and potatoes so I fell asleep with the headphones still on. The plane had on its usual roaring sound that became part of the white-noise after a while.

I woke to my tray cleared and my neighbours fast asleep. The whole plane was dark except for the lighted signs spread about the cabin. My window blind was not drawn so I could see out into the black land as we sailed across the Australian sky. A tinge of red attracted the corner of my eye. I looked out farther toward the front of our flight path and saw this. Slivers of orange were simmering their way through the darkness as if they were forming rivers of embers... There were curls upon curls of them that lit up the ground like distant torches. I was pressed against the pane as I gasped at the utter beauty and delicate grandeur of the flames.

I wasn't aware that there were bushfires in that region, and I was wondering if it were the remainders of a burn-off. But it kept reappearing a number of times and disappearing out of my view as I tried to capture more of the fleeting beauty before me. After the last ones disappeared, I stayed up for a while longer expectantly until we had flown past Katherine and into the Arafura Sea.

I wonder if it weren't the most beautiful thing I had ever seen.