An Eerie Page 487

A friend who was on his way back from from Sydney sent me a SMS, asking if he could grab something for me at the airport or on his way to the airport. I told him, thank you, that was so kind of you but that won't really be necessary. But if you insist, I guess, a book will do.

"Any writer or title in particular?" He asked. "No, nothing in particular. Maybe you could just grab the one nearest to you," I said, and thank him for his thoughfulness. That was in 2002.

A few days later he handed me a paperback version of John J. Nance's "Blackout", with a tagline on the front cover proclaiming Nance as "The Master of Airborne Suspense". Oh boy, didn't I tell you I am Aviophobic? I can't be reading books like this, I'd be dead from the stress. But I bit off the remark before it burst out. How could he know. And besides, it might be good to read such a book, for a change.

At that time I was reading Stephen King's "Dreamcatcher" and as soon as I finished it, I summoned all my courage to begin reading "Blackout". It was full of suspense, as promised but what stands out from among the fast-paced, whirlwind plot, was someting said by one of characters on Page 487:

What spooked me most was the fact that the book was written and published in 2000, a year before the Sept 11 terror attacks on the World Trade Centre in Sept 2001 and there I was reading about a jetliner impacting the WTC.

I got this feeling that somehow, somewhere, I and whoever was behind the Sept 11 attacks, had stared at same Page 487 of Nance's book at one point in our life.

Now Nance has came out with another book "Skyhook" (published in 2003) which promised another hell-raising plane rides. I am still thinking whether I should read this one. Clearly, Nance's "Blackout" had affected me in more ways than one -- because it has somehow managed to enrich my imagination of things that can happen to a flight. If you are Aviophobic, your worst enemy could very well be your own imagination. The more vivid it is, the more formidable the foe would become.