Night Flight to Frankfurt

Sunday the thirteenth of February 2005. It is ten minutes to midnight. It is ten minutes to Valentine’s Day. David James occupies the rear starboard window seat of a Lufthansa jumbo jet. The adjoining aisle seat is free. At 00.05 the jumbo is due to embark on a thirteen hour night flight from Hong Kong to Frankfurt. David begins to hope he that he will have the two seats to himself but it is not to be. At the last moment a young woman, diminutive, oriental, attractive, marches resolutely down the aisle and slips down into the free seat. “Hello,” she says with a smile “my English name is Sunny. We sit together, I think.” This is the lead in to a remarkable conversation, amusing, confessional, intimate and romantic, that continues deep into the small hours and then resumes through the final stages of the flight. At journey’s end, though there is an abrupt parting, forced by connecting flights, there can be little doubt that at some time in the near future there will be a further conversation elsewhere.