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"Your attention, please. This is your pilot, Captain
Brown. We are taking off via Gruman Goose to Prince
Rupert, Canada. We will be flying over the water at about
five-hundred feet, and will be landing on the water at Prince
Rupert in about one hour, provided that the weather conditions
are suitable. Alaska Coastal-Ellis Airlines hopes you have
enjoyed your stay in Ketchikan, Alaska, and we hope that
your flight delay has not too greatly inconvenienced you. We
will be leaving dockside in about one minute. Fasten your
seat belts, please, and observe the INO SMOKINGI signs.
Thank you. II

EARTHBOUND

Linda Phares

I dori't usually look UP at the sky. Oh, it was once a
common practice, as it is to 'you now. You know the feeling ..•
standing in an open spot you lift your face to the wind and
smile back at the sun or wink at the rain. And when itis a
.star- sprinkled black up there, well, it's holy. Hey, have
you noticed you'r-e not quite earthbound at these moments?
How those foolish daydreams and hopes and little joys are
carried up and flung by the wind! And part of you, the
deeper, more feeling part, is no longer standing in those
sneaker-clad feet. It's looking down at you with horizon-wide
eyes. The eyes laugh or tear or close in bliss. Sometimes
they search and look away. So, like I said, ,I don't usually
look up there anymore. I get lost too fast and too elatedly.
Or maybe I get too depressed. I figure it!s best to keep a
nose-level glance for a while. Things don't get as aesthetically
distorted that way, and problems dorr't disperse with the wind.
1111just tell myself that I can tell when things are sunny with-
out looking up to the sun. And, after all, you £Slll see a
c loud!a shadow on the ground. JIll just have to get used to
the darker hue. Yup , thatls the way I have to walk around
now--for a while. There are times I wonder if IIIl be able to
lift my head up again. Hey, have you ever noticed how little
room there is down here?

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