Oh, you bitch! You beautiful bitch, Johnny thought. Pregnant with power like a goddess with a god's child. Bitch, bitch, bitch! I love you. I hate you. You kill me.
The crew-chief walked by his side. "Nice morning, Colonel," he said.
"Very," said Johnny.
I had a true wife but I left her ... oh, oh, oh. For you, you beautiful bitch.
"Say something, Colonel?" asked the crew-chief.
"No. Song running through my head," he explained.
"Yeah," the other man chuckled. "I know how it is."
They strapped him into the padded control chair, the controls arranged around him in a neat semicircle, easy to reach.
This is my day.
They left him. Alone. Once around lightly.