I got another crack at pane (no pun intended), thanks to oneword. This one definitely came out, um, differently.

Email applications generally have three panes. That’s usually two too many. Why do I need to be distracted by all the other messages in my box? Software should get out of my way and let me do what I do at the moment — communicate.

I post onewords in the interest of full disclosure and posterity. Even the best writers can’t be afraid to drop a clunker here and there. I’ve told myself that I’m going to post them all, no matter how bad they suck. This one is the first to really test my resolve, so I’d better pull the trigger on it now before I chicken out.

My head crashed against the window pane. Looking through the chill glass, breath frosting over and obscuring my vision, I didn’t want to see through it anyway.

He tried the door. Locked. He gave it a savage kick, and succeeded in stabbing his toe with pain. That memory was not going to come out from behind that door without a lot more coaxing.

She glanced at her hair in the mirror. Sideways was as close as she could make herself inspect it. She could barely remember stumbling into the salon. Did she really beg for that awful shade of blonde?

A word floated at the edge of his memory. Obscure though it may be, it was the perfect word for the situation, the way he was feeling. If only he could chase it from the back of his mind and onto his tongue. What was that word?

His face was streaked with tears. She lifted it.

“What’s the matter?”

“Nothing that your touch didn’t just fix.”

She smiled.

She took the order ticket from the cashier, punched it savagely onto the spindle. This guy always ordered the same thing. Stupid frapped drinks that took 5 minutes to make.

Free space on the screen wants filling up. He didn’t know if he was the right man for the job. The white expanse taunted him. He could always shut the laptop and try again tomorrow. No joy.

The fog obscured most of their faces, but as I peered around the square I could make out details here and there. A strand of red hair drifting across one squinting eye; a hat knocked askew by the drifting rain.

My brain was partially unoccupied at the moment. The area between my ears was a blank slate when the jolt came — an interruption that cleared the remaining wisps away.