He could feel the man trying to shake him free, but it couldn't be done, Jack was holding on for dear life, would hold on forever if he had to because if he didn't the man would throw him out the window, too. Up close, the man's smell was even worse, it filled Jack's nostrils and made him nauseous, and the man was shaking even harder now, and pulling Jack's hair, yanking his head back, but Jack knew he'd never let go. There was nothing this man could do that would make him let go.

Then the shaking stopped, and Jack thought somehow maybe he'd won, but then he realized, no, there's no winning here, and suddenly Jack felt his insides explode. The man was beating him on the back with his fists. Slow, brutal blows hammering away at him. He felt like he might break in two, but still he wouldn't let go. Couldn't let go. Five minutes earlier he was pressed against the window, wanting to fly. Now he was crying and holding on to a madman's leg because he knew that flying was impossible. It was a fantasy, a dream, and not the dream of a little boy having fun with his mother or of some make-believe superhero saving the earth. It was a nightmare that had no happy ending. It was not the glorious Icarus but the Icarus with wings melting, high above the earth on a flight that ended only with an excruciating fall. With failure. With the sadness and fear he saw on his mother's face. And with death.

The man dragged his leg over to the window and Jack thought, What's he doing, what now? Then he could feel the man's leg kick forward and Jack's eyes widened as he realized what was happening. He tucked his chin into his chest as his shoulder and then his back and then the side of his head slammed against the thick glass. Jack remembered hitting a baseball once, shattering a window in a first-floor apartment; that's what he felt like, that baseball, because he was being skewered by new pieces of broken glass. Jack felt sharp stings in his arms and neck, he watched more glass tumble and fall, then the man gave one more kick. Again Jack was flung against the glass, only now he felt wind rushing by his face and…