“All remaining passengers are invited to come forward for boarding?” With that, Helga put her book away and moved towards the boarding desk. She had been travelling with her friend Michelle across the States for three months now, and travel had become second nature. They laughed and joked with unmistakably British accents as they showed their passports and boarding passes. "We’re the last row. It’s like being back on the...

Helga had just finished a very long and dull two-day conference. It had been a long, hot summer, and today was a sultry, humid day in London, the kind when the air feels thick. She rushed down the steps to the platform for her train, only to find it already overcrowded. Her skin glistening with humid frustration, she managed to squeeze onto a carriage. The heat in the carriage had rendered everything silent, her pale blue...