Flight to the Horizon, page 2
The chief purser, George, walked into the mid-cabin galley. “Hi, Janine. Need any help with anything, honey?”
“No. I’m good, but thanks for the offer.”
“I have a few fresh flowers left, so I’m going to decorate the mid-cabin lavatories a bit. Would you like a red hibiscus for your hair? It’d look fabulous on you.”
“Sure. Why not? Thanks, George.”
He delicately placed the blossom behind her right ear. “You look absolutely gorgeous, Janine.”
She was uncomfortable at the compliment and turned back to busying herself in the galley.
She checked the mid-cabin lavs once more before the passengers started boarding, surprised at how beautiful George had made these common-looking restrooms. He’d whipped together tasteful floral arrangements on the stainless-steel countertops and made them look quite elegant. George Cato was famous in LA for going over and above his duties to give the passengers five-star service. He remembered the names of all the first-class passengers and how they liked their drinks. He always looked impeccable in his uniform and was the epitome of class and taste. She could learn a lot from him.
The passengers started boarding, and she helped people find their seats and stow their luggage. Soon the captain’s voice sounded over the PA system.
“Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. This is Captain Kerri Sullivan, and I’d like to welcome you aboard Trans Global flight 501, Boeing 767 service to Maui. Our flight today will be five hours and fifty-five minutes, at a cruising altitude of thirty-six thousand feet. Current weather in Maui is perfect, as always. They are reporting a temperature of seventy-five degrees, light winds, and a few scattered clouds. We have a great day over the ocean, and on behalf of myself and all the employees of Trans Global, I invite you to sit back, relax, and enjoy the friendly skies.” The captain sounded confident and professional, with a little mirth in her announcement, like she was happy to be flying. It was a nice change from some of the grumpy captains Janine had flown with. She liked the sound of Kerri’s voice.
* * *
Kerri was busy programming the flight computers, checking the fuel load, reviewing the departure procedure, and testing the radios. She was thorough and methodical in her preflight preparations, even though she’d done them more than a thousand times. She double-checked her first officer’s takeoff data, and she expected him to review her work. Catching each other’s errors, no matter how minor, was vital to working together as a crew.
As she moved her hands swiftly over the massive array of buttons, knobs, and dials, she had a brief flashback to the first Cessna 150 she’d learned to fly sixteen years ago. Smiling, she remembered her incredible journey to get to where she was today as a Boeing 767 captain.
“Here’s your hot tea with two sugars, Captain.”
“Thanks, George. How can you remember what everyone likes to drink? You’re amazing.”
“Well, I don’t remember everyone I fly with. But I certainly remember the good captains like you, Kerri.”
“Aw, thanks, George. I really like flying with you too.” She was always delighted to see his name on her crew manifest.
“Here are your water bottles. Let me know if you need anything else.” He handed each pilot a big plastic bottle with their name written on each one in beautiful calligraphy.
People interrupted her at least a dozen times, asking her questions, before they shut the cabin door for push back. These interruptions never flustered her or made her impatient. She simply stayed focused on her job and prided herself on treating all her coworkers with courtesy and respect. She glanced down at her crew manifest at the new name, Janine Case. What’s your story, Janine?
“Captain, we’ve got everyone on board and are ready to close up. Do you need anything else?” the gate agent asked.
“No, thank you. We’re all set.”
Kerri briefed her first officer on their oceanic clearance, the taxi route, the departure she would be flying, and the emergency procedures.
“Any questions, Joe?”
“No. I’m good.”
“Then let’s run the preflight checklist.” They were on their way to Hawaii, and a tingle of excitement raced through Kerri. I love my job!
Chapter Two
“Trans Global 501, cleared for takeoff, runway two-five right.”
“Roger, Trans Global 501, cleared for takeoff, two-five right,” Joe answered.
Kerri flipped on the exterior light switches and taxied the 767 onto the runway, slowly turning the small tiller wheel to control the nose wheel. The nose wheels were actually twenty feet behind the cockpit, so she had to make her body go past the runway centerline first, then turn to get lined up. This jet was so big she couldn’t even see the wingtips or the engines from the cockpit windows, so she used reference points in the flight deck to know where the wheels and engines were. She still felt like this jet was strapped to her body, just like she’d learned when she was an air force pilot, but now she felt like she was flying a giant building rather than a hot, fast fighter.
In many ways, piloting something this large was much more difficult than handling a smaller plane because the margin for error was so small. The Boeing 767 was an amazingly sophisticated machine with over a million parts and miles of wiring. Kerri found flying this jet endlessly challenging.
She pushed the throttles up to takeoff thrust, felt the low rumble of the engines coming up to full power, checked her engine instruments, and steered with her feet as she accelerated down the runway. “V-one. Rotate,” Joe called. Kerri gently pulled back on the yoke as the mighty aircraft gracefully rose into the air. A giant smile stretched across her face. Flying was nothing short of magic.
They received clearance to their coast-out fix and climbed to the cruise altitude. It was a beautiful day with blue skies, some high, thin, wispy clouds, and a smooth ride. Kerri looked down at the big ships in Long Beach harbor. From her vantage, they resembled toys in a bathtub. She thought of her dad when he was a ship captain in the merchant marine. The sun shone in front of them, slightly low on the horizon. She put on her Ray-Ban sunglasses and enjoyed the view from the best seat in the house.
Kerri loved looking at the ocean with the sun sparkling on it like a field of diamonds slowly undulating on the water’s surface. Few people got to see the lines in the ocean from the wakes of the big cargo ships. These liquid trails remained visible for hours and reminded her of the contrails jets made in the sky at high altitude. A radio call interrupted her sightseeing.
“Trans Global 501, Los Angeles Center, change to enroute advisory frequency. Aloha.”
“Trans Global 501, changing to enroute frequency. See you on the flip side, Center,” Joe replied.
Kerri leveled off at thirty-six thousand feet, turned on the autopilot, and ran the cruise checklist. She looked at all three altimeters, ranked the inertial reference navigation computers, and tested the long-range, high-frequency radios. All the mechanical systems were critical to helping her safely cross the ocean, and she verified that everything was exactly as it was supposed to be before they traveled too far from land. Kerri watched the first officer record their flight data on the paper flight plan. Even though they were flying a modern electronic jet with advanced navigation equipment, they still backed up their position reporting with a paper flight plan and an air navigation chart, just in case a problem occurred over the vast expanse of water.
She was out of the busy LA airspace, with its annoying radio chatter and aircraft traffic, and the sky beckoned her. The sunlight cast soft shades of gold and pink on the cirrus clouds above her, and the scattered cumulus clouds beneath her looked like white popcorn floating over the deep-blue sea. She especially loved watching the horizon, where the sea and the sky embraced each other endlessly. They were always next to each other, separated by a thin line, but never really apart.
A twinge of melancholy pierced her happiness. She wanted someone to share this with. A woman who understood her love of flying, who wanted to travel with her, a loving woman to come home to and to shower her love upon. It was the only thing missing from her otherwise great life, but it was a huge missing piece. She would never reach the horizon, but would she ever find the love of her life?
* * *
Janine heard the ding and saw the Fasten Seat Belt signs come on. She felt the airplane shake, held on to the galley cart, and heard Kerri’s voice over the PA.
“This is Captain Sullivan. We’re going through an area of turbulence and I’ve turned on the Fasten Seat Belt sign. Flight attendants, please take your jump seats.”
George and Janine strapped themselves into their jump seats.
“I love that Kerri always looks out for us,” George said.
“She does?”
“Oh, yes. She backed me up during a confrontation with a passenger and she’s stood up for us with maintenance too.”
Janine appreciated a captain who tried to be considerate. She’d flown with so many male captains who talked down to flight attendants, like they were lesser human beings. A few male captains were downright rude to her. She’d also encountered the ones who hit on anything in a skirt, like cavemen who thought flight attendants were there for their own personal amusement. She’d crossed paths with a couple of male pilots who refused to take “No” for an answer. One guy had even stalked her, and she’d had to report him to the company. They just transferred him to another base.
She’d flown out of LA for only a few months, but she got the scoop on the problem pilots from the “stew underground.” Fortunately, out of eight hundred pilots in LA, only a handful were real jerks, and everyone knew who they were. These guys got off on abusing their positions of power over other crewmembers, and she avoided them. When they had a captain who really supported them, communicated with them, and understood their jobs, the flight went so much better. Kerri Sullivan seemed like a good captain.
After the turbulence, she’d completed her first service, and the passengers were quietly reading, playing video games, or watching movies. With a few moments to herself, she sat in her jump seat and looked at her flight schedule. They would land at six p.m. Hawaii time, then depart the next evening at ten p.m. She had twenty-seven hours to explore Maui and wondered what she’d find. She’d heard a few of the other flight attendants talk about going to get Maui tacos for dinner, and one woman said she enjoyed renting a bike at the hotel. These were nice, long relaxing layovers and a welcome break from issues back at home she didn’t want to deal with. She gazed out the small window in the aft door at the blue sky with pink clouds. What did Captain Sullivan, uh, Kerri, like to do on her long layovers?
* * *
After two hours of flight, Kerri rang the cabin call button. “Hey, George. Can we get set up for a restroom break?”
“Yes, Captain. I’ll be right there.”
George arrived at the flight deck to allow Joe to step back to use the lavatory. “How’s everything going, Kerri?”
“Good. We’ll be about fifteen minutes early and should have a smooth ride for the rest of the flight. How’s Doctor Michael?”
“Oh, about the same. Thanks for asking. He has good days and bad, but he generally remembers who I am.”
“Are you working the return flight tonight?”
“Yes. That way I’m only away from home fifteen hours. Our niece spends the night at the house, and I’m home before Michael wakes up. We have breakfast together, and then I go to bed.”
“I don’t know how you do that, George. I’d be a zombie on that all-night return leg.”
“I’m used to it, and it works for Michael and me. After forty years together, I need to be with him as much as I can.”
“I get it. Doctor Michael is a very lucky man.”
“Oh, Kerri, I’m the lucky one. He’s still my dreamboat after all these years.” George’s voice caught as he spoke those last words.
Kerri changed the subject. “What’s the story on the new flight attendant, Janine?”
“Oh, you noticed her, did you?” He laughed with his deep, baritone voice. “Well, she’s fairly new to LA. Transferred here from Chicago a few months ago. No one knows much about her, and she kind of sticks to herself on the layovers. She’s pleasant and very professional, but some people refer to her as the Ice Queen. I like her, though. What do you think of her?”
“I think I want to invite her to join all of us at the hotel pool bar. Maybe get to know her a little bit.” Heat rose up Kerri’s neck.
“Uh-huh, I bet you do, Kerri. Well, good luck with that.” He laughed at her as he let Joe back into the cockpit and returned to the cabin.
* * *
Kerri’s voice sounded over the PA. “Ladies and gentlemen, this is Captain Sullivan again. Our flight attendants will be handing out the cards for our Halfway to Hawaii game for all you aspiring navigators out there. In a few minutes, I’ll give you our takeoff time, the distance in miles of our flight, our true airspeed, and the average wind component for this flight. Your job is to calculate, to the nearest hour, minute, and second, the exact time we will cross the midpoint of this flight to Hawaii. The person who gets closest to the actual crossing time will win a prize. Good luck and have fun.”
Janine heard that mirth in Kerri’s voice again. She clearly loved doing stuff like this silly game with the passengers.
She and the other flight attendants handed out the game cards while some passengers came up with calculators. Who brings a calculator on a trip to Hawaii? Some passengers took this game very seriously as they worked hard on the navigation math problem. After Kerri gave them the information, many of the passengers handed her back their game cards covered with calculations, while some people just made a wild guess.
Janine carried all the cards up to the front of the plane. “Here are the game cards, George.”
“Why don’t you take them to the cockpit, Janine. I’m about to start my dessert service.”
“Okay.” Janine rang the cockpit.
After Joe let her in, she stood quietly just inside the cockpit door, looking at all the instruments and lights. The flight deck was so complicated. How do they remember what all this stuff does?
The view out the big windows was spectacular, and she bent down for a better look. The expanse of dark blue water around them was endless, and the sun near the horizon made the sky glow with golden light.
“Hi, Janine. How’s everything going?” Kerri asked.
“Here are the game cards.” She handed Kerri the stack of them.
“Thanks. You sorted them for us?”
“I just arranged them in order of their time estimate. I hope that’s okay.”
“Sure. It saves me from having to do that. Have a seat.” She pointed to the fold-down jump seat behind the captain’s seat.
Janine sat down and looked around while Kerri sorted through the cards. Black button circuit breakers covered the back wall of the flight deck from floor to ceiling. The roof had more circuit breakers, plus columns of switches and lights labeled Fuel, Hydraulics, Pressurization, Ice/Rain, Electrical, Fire, Air Conditioning, and Lights. It was a dizzying array. The forward instrument panel had six big electronic screens and smaller dials, with a center console between the pilots filled with radios, more screens, keyboards, and the two big engine throttles. Radio calls came over the cockpit speakers, with pilots of other aircraft rattling off their positions over the ocean. The cockpit intimidated and fascinated her. What kind of mind does it take to fly this? She wanted to ask Kerri what each button and light was for.
Janine watched Kerri’s hands as she sorted through the game cards. Her fingers were long, her hands tan and strong, with prominent veins on the back and pale-pink nail polish on short nails. She looked at the back of Kerri’s head as she worked. Her neck was slender under her short, dark-brown hair. Janine admired broad, muscular shoulders under her white uniform shirt, with four gold captain’s stripes on each epaulet. She looked up, and Kerri was staring at her. Busted.
“Here you go, Janine. The person in twenty-five C won, eight E was second closest, and fifteen A was third.”
“Thanks.” Janine suddenly felt nervous and left the flight deck.
* * *
After Janine left abruptly, her perfume lingered in the air. Kerri recognized the scent—Aromatics, by Clinique. Very few women could pull off wearing this perfume. It was spicy, with a bit of musk. It could be overpowering on some women, but it seemed to fit Janine. Kerri didn’t memorize perfume scents, but this one was special, and she remembered it from a lover who’d worn it several years ago.
That lover had been beautiful, like Janine, but she’d been a liar and a cheat, and their affair didn’t last long. The best thing about her had been that perfume. That woman was one in a long string of lovers and failed relationships. Kerri had always been attracted to beautiful women, but she’d never been able to figure out how to make a hot attraction turn into a real relationship.
Some of the women she’d dated were looking for a sugar mama who would support them in luxury. Others were used to being admired for their beauty but didn’t have anything else to offer, such as the ability to carry on a conversation. Still others were impressed by what Kerri did for a living and used her as a trophy. Most of the women she’d been involved with were pretty but vapid, or completely self-centered.
After her last ugly breakup, which cost her a great deal of money and angst, she decided to take a break from women altogether for a while. She’d spent a lot of time trying to figure out what was really important to her in a life partner. After much soul-searching, and several months of therapy, she finally realized she wanted a woman who accepted her as she was, and who was sincere and honest. Kerri had changed her perspective. She was through wasting her time with women who were only flashy and hot. She longed to meet a lady who was attractive but also kind and loving. And, of course, great in bed. That was a must. Where is all this coming from? It was Janine’s perfume—a sense memory filled with possibility.
