He closed the laptop. On his real-world desk, a printed screenshot from 2004 sat under a magnet—a Carenado Cessna Cardinal parked on a rainy ramp.
Inside the virtual cockpit of that virtual plane sat a younger version of himself. Twenty years younger. The kid had a thick head of hair and wore a faded Aces High t-shirt. He was smiling, his hands on the throttle, ready to take off into the infinite sunset of 2004. FS2004 - Carenado Aircrafts
Other aircraft. Ghosts of the default Learjet 45. A static Boeing 737-400 with no landing gear. And in the middle of the taxiway, a Carenado Piper Seneca—his own livery—with the cockpit door open. He closed the laptop
The screen didn't go black.