AustLit

'Newsagencies and souvenir shops hail goodbye on either side of the hall, packed with last-minute neck pillows and luggage padlocks and peanuts and boomerangs as final farewells. The plane is boarding now. The seats are over the wing. Stable and central, it's the best place to avoid being sick. My mother sits between me and my father. We quietly share comments about the bastards seated in front of us: 45-year-old men who leer at the flight attendants together while on their way to a destination famed for hospitality and courtesy, but also infamous for sex tourism and police corruption. The one in front of me leans back as far as possible in his seat and falls asleep watching a frat comedy.' (Publication abstract)