I’m still recovering from my flight last night. There should be laws about redeye flights. I’m not sure what the laws would say, but I would feel better knowing that there were people thinking about it. At around 2:30am, I woke up somewhere over the Midwest and started sketching Sam (who I later renamed Henry to avoid confusion with Stan)—a character that was unluckily sitting across from me in the cabin. His snores, well, we’ll get to his snores in a moment.

Henry was the quiet one. He snored terribly when he slept, sounding like a buzz saw cutting through concrete. He had the uncanny ability to sleep anytime and anywhere. When he was awake, he rarely spoke. His laugh was infectious, however, and it took little to get him started, turning what appeared at first to be an unfunny story into a rip-roaring professionally produced and written diatribe of extreme cleverness. When Henry spoke, those around him listened carefully. He was not smart in the traditional sense, but he carefully thought through whatever it was he wanted to say and spoke only when he (i) felt he had spent enough time examining all the angles of the statement; and (ii) gave the thought a sufficient amount of time to stew and soften to make sure it was important enough to share with the group. More often than not, this created an awkward moment when the listeners tried to figure out which part of their last hour’s discussion Henry was referring.

His face was round in the front, and his large nose pulled his face outward in a smooth curve. His chin was weak, absorbed into his neck. His eyelashes long, giving his eyes a sleepy, almond appearance. The edges of his ears bent inward, causing his ears to appear that they were in the process of closing. As far as anyone knew, Henry was either gay or asexual. He never spoke about girls and nobody knew him to have dated anyone. He did not act effeminate but something in him raised questions in everyone he met.

There will probably be one other character, preferably another male, leaving Karen as the only female of the group. The four characters will walk a long way. They’ll start from one of their houses, and head in the direction of the airport, stopping along the way at cafes and bars to relax and properly hydrate and ingest the right amount of sugars from their alcoholic beverages. They were a fun-loving group whose goal was to meet up at the house of Stan’s mother. Throughout the trip, she called in to check on their progress, offering to pick them up and drive them the rest of the way. That would defeat the whole purpose, Stan would respond. What was the good of driving when there was perfectly good sidewalks to walk along.

While walking, the group will meet mop-man. He was picking through a large pile of garbage in front of a school. He saw a mop sticking out from the pile and examined it, trying to decide if it was worth taking. Stan gives the play-by-play as the man examined, tested, and decided to take it with him. He cleaned the mop in a puddle as walked home. Karen crossed the street to talk to the mop-man and find out why he took it, what he hoped to do with it, etc.