Out of My Mind

Richard Bach, the writer who flew to success on the wings of Jonathan Livingston Seagull, once again returns to flight for metaphysical inspiration. Bach begins this journey with a quandary--how to customize his airplane, a small Piper Cub? For example, how can he keep his latch door from slamming shut in midflight? How to stop his oil cap from jiggling loose and disappearing? With each question the solutions appear; they are apparently delivered by a vision of a benevolent woman. Before long, Bach realizes that an aircraft designer from an earlier time and another dimension is tutoring him. Of course, Bach takes the ultimate flight into her parallel universe where he finds an old-fashioned aviation company that solves problems for troubled aviators. He also meets his mysterious muse Laura Bristol. This is a brief story (101 pages) that wrestles with the limitations of present-day technology and the grandeur of the early days of aviation. True to Bach's mission, it also wrestles with the choices we make in this time and this moment, and how they can change our life and our universe. --Gail Hudson