The Shimmering Bubble

The Narrator, a Physician, is tired and emotionally burned out as he boards his flight home from a meeting in California. A lovely flight attendant greets him. Scotch and fatigue lull him to a fitful sleep after take-off. He doesn't sleep well. Ghosts from a hidden past cause recurring nightmares. His wife's untimely death has compounded his problems. He mutters names as he sleeps. The Attendant overhears him. He awakes, she queries him, but curiosity threatens to reveal things he can't expose, or shouldn't. She has an unexpected layover. On impulse she calls. Would he like to see her before she leaves He invites her to dinner and she accepts. At the cocktail party his colleagues discuss the role each plays in his life and why he is significant in theirs. Between the Prologue and Epilogue he tells their stories, some poignant, some tragic, as memoirs gleaned over the last thirty years, but he must eventually face and divulge his own past. And that will reveal secrets long kept hidden.