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DICEY BROWN MAGAZINE January 11, 2008 IN THE AIRPORT by Mazie Louise Montgomery The ring-tailed lemur from Madagascar is sitting in an airport. New York. JFK. The airport is dirty. And loud. There a good many people sleeping. She does not think they are tired, just bored. She is bored herself, reading a "ultra-simple" diet book her mother let her borrow the day before. She will try it when she gets home. She will not like it. The food will be very bland and she will get a headache from the lack of caffeine and sugar. But for now the ring-tailed lemur is eating a 'Three Muskateers' and drinking a 'Pepsi.' For now she does not have a headache and the sun is shining through a large plate glass window onto her face. Her daughter is tracing paper-doll fashions onto origami paper with a black ink pen. Outside the shuttle takes people from one set of gates to the other. Outside there is construction work. Orange sparks fly into the air from a welder's torch. Her daughter smiles. "Look, mommy" she says. "Isn't it beautiful?" A woman sitting across from the lemur is wearing blue plastic glasses and a green coat with a floral pattern. Her hair is in a bun. She looks very neat, like she has an important "New York" job. She has two sons who are watching a DVD. They are wearing 'Tony Hawk' t-shirts and going to see their father. The plane is an hour late and the woman is nervous about her boys flying alone. "It's the day after Christmas," says the man sitting across from her. "What do you expect?" He is carrying a dog in a bag. It is sitting on his lap and barking a little bit. The woman in the floral coat nods and says yes, she knows, but still. The ring-tailed lemur feels a dull ache, high on the wall of her chest, crushing and heavy, like a light falling quick through a pane of blue glass.