MARCHING ORDERS

This is a story of a Greek who buys release from boredom by taking an airplane in exchange for an unpaid bill, and finding a sense of freedom in preparation for a flight. This secret life of his fills a crying need, but throughout there is a sense of impending doom toward which he is rushing. The setting is Paris, and up to a point the life of Paris, his success and the things it brought him and his family, were enough. Then with the plane -- and the promise of the woman aviatrix to accompany him -- life takes on a new zest. There is something of fatality in it; a theme vaguely suggesting Young Man With a Horn, but without the power of that unique story.