Peak August At The Border

They arrived on the same plane. They walked the same corridor. At the fork one group went left and was in a taxi by twenty past. The other stood beneath a sign that said 'All Other Passports', a phrase that has done more emotional work in the last few years than any other three words in aviation.

Five gates displayed a red cross. Two worked intermittently. The eighth accepted a passport, thought about it for a while, and then declined to give it back, requiring a member of staff who had clearly done this several times already before lunch.