- releaseverbChapter 1 →
To let go of something held, or to free something from its attachment. Here it means the earth's physical and gravitational hold on a person, as though the ground itself chose to keep the speaker.
“The ground did not release me. I simply stopped belonging to it.”
- belonging tophraseChapter 1 →
Being naturally connected or attached to something, as a part of it. The speaker no longer has any claim or tie to the physical earth beneath them.
“The ground did not release me. I simply stopped belonging to it.”
- unbearableadjectiveChapter 1 →
So painful or distressing that it feels impossible to endure. Here it describes the anguish of seeing the living world carry on completely unchanged after the speaker's departure.
“Nothing below had changed. That was the unbearable part.”
- arrivalnounChapter 1 →
The moment of reaching an expected destination, especially one with ceremony or significance. The speaker had anticipated a clear, defined endpoint to death — a place or state one formally enters.
“I had expected arrival. There was only the interval, and it was enough.”
- intervalnounChapter 1 →
A gap or in-between period separating two states or events. Here it refers to the suspended condition between life and whatever comes after — neither fully one thing nor the other.
“I had expected arrival. There was only the interval, and it was enough.”
First FlightShort story by U. A. Fanthorpe