Two Positions

An airfield on the American east coast on an autumn afternoon, low golden sun from the side, the nose of a wooden monoplane painted red and white seen obliquely from the front, its fuselage plain and unmarked, its round engine cowling smooth, on the shaft a still two-blade metal propeller two metres seventy-four across, two long narrow matt silver aluminium blades with rounded tips and fine scratches, at the centre a compact polished steel hub with flange rings, bolt heads and a small cylindrical cap pointing forward, a woman pilot's gloved hand in a brown leather jacket sleeve resting at one blade root, a hangar soft in the distance.