Exam day

My flight has just landed in San Francisco, on schedule, at 5:15 p.m. In this twilight zone I am convinced that before I reach my final destination for this day, it will become dark.
When I boarded the plane earlier today, I was so full of expectation. Before I left my home this morning I had placed a copy of my will on my kitchen table, another in my NIV Study Bible on the bookshelf above my desk. I brewed a pot of coffee that I poured into a Thermos, and put it together with a bag of nuts and fruit, a couple of USB sticks, my passport, and my laptop, in my backpack. I zipped my brown carry-on bag, which was packed to the gills with all the reference literature I thought I might need for the exam, since we are not allowed to connect to the Internet. I locked both locks on the door to my apartment, and started out, wheeling my little brown bag after me down the street to the subway. A wonderful translation (Anne Born) of Out Stealing Horses by Per Pettersson kept me company on the subway, at the gate, on the plane. I felt I was prepared.
The first leg of the flight went well, though I made a formatting error (forgot to double space and leave a 6 cm margin for comments) on the legal part of the exam and had to add a note to the Examiner.
When I boarded the second leg of this long journey between Stockholm and San Francisco, via Chicago, I happened to stumble over another passenger who mentioned that he was on his way to his mother’s funeral. When I offered him words to the same effect his reply was simply “I don’t want t to talk about it”, which made sense to me. I proceeded to take my seat on the other side of the aisle.