Suddenly, the plane shook rather harshly.

Instinctively, Victor braced himself and grabbed hold of his chair’s armrests as tight as he could stand to. His knuckles were as white as the passing clouds. However, those clouds remained calm and still outside the window. Jack, conversely, was bracing himself, but maintained an air of unshakable calmness. Suddenly the shaking stopped, and once again the plane was at ease. Victor released his grip on the armrests and was gradually relaxing.

“Sure are thankful for time, aren’t you?” said Jack.

Victor, with uneasiness still in his voice said, “What?” Then, “Oh, yeah, thank God that passed.”

Then Jack said, “Very true.”

Not exactly understanding what he meant, Victor continued, “I’m not particularly a fan of flying. You didn’t seem all that afraid.”

Jack said, “Oh no, I am. I’m not so big on the idea of being suspended 30,000 feet in the air, but I have faith we’ll make it.” Jack laughed to himself.

Victor replied, “You seem to have a lot of that.”

“What?” questioned Jack.

Victor responded, “Faith.”

Jack smiled, “I was going to be a priest, you know. I was a year away from being ordained when I decided it wasn’t for me anymore.”

Surprised, Victor said, “What made you quit?”

“I didn’t quit anything,” said Jack. “I just came to the conclusion that it wasn’t the thing for me.”

Then the two men fell silent. Both Victor and Jack took a moment to appreciate the potential setup for a joke: "A scientist and a priest are sitting next to each other on a plane." Victor looked across the aisle and saw a small boy looking out the window, presumably trying to figure out why the plane had just shook, and the boy’s mother reading a Nora Roberts book. Then Victor smiled to himself, but did not know why.

...

This is getting pretty deep, right? I hate to be the wannabe novelist who thinks he's some philosophical scholar pontificating on the nature of religion. I mean, after all, we all know what happens when you die, don't we?