Summoned Again?

I kind of walked around on auto-pilot while the after-effects of Jenny's bomb settled into my head. I gave Crystal a light evening snack with some water, had her use the bathroom and brushed her teeth, then tucked her into bed with a kiss on her forehead. I even tucked Teddy in and kissed his forehead, too. That made Crystal laugh and I gave her another one and left her room with the night light on.

I went back out to the kitchen table and pushed the papers I was looking at aside, went to the fax machine and gathered up all the papers I would need for the morning, and sat at the table and stared at them. I just couldn't get my mind to work right and didn't read a single word.

In my head, I replayed the scene that had me scrambling to get away. The image of my dear and loving sister, at the time anyway, letting someone do those kinds of things to her was burned into my brain. It was mortifying to see someone that you loved so much, in that kind of compromising position, and completely out of the blue. I hadn't even known that she was seeing anyone and then I walked in on them like that...

...and now I knew that it wasn't Jenny. It was actually Kathy and I hadn't noticed that it was her being nailed in Jenny's bed. I had been too shocked by the scene of two bodies slapping together to bother looking closely. My mind had pretty much shut off at that point and I had to get out of there. I beat feet so fast that I had apparently wrecked the nice hardwood floors and the front door. I hadn't noticed at all.

I looked down at my hands and the gold rings there, then slowly raised my hand with the Mind spells on it and touched my forehead. I sat there for nearly a full minute before I decided that I had to keep that memory. If I plucked it out now, I was pretty sure several things since then, including my return and Jenny turning me in, would partially unravel and wouldn't make sense.

Even a couple of our arguments had been kind of centered around what happened and my responses to them had been greatly influenced by what I thought I had seen that night. Even a lot of the things that happened in the last world I was on had been influenced by it. At the time, I just needed to do something to get my mind off of what I saw. If I removed the source of that motivation, it would change too much of what happened.

I sighed and put my hand down. I couldn't afford to have my mind disjointed. Not now. I had too much to do and I needed to get to it. I equipped one of the new Clarity pendants to test it and I felt its effects as my mind cleared. The slight fog of tiredness in my mind lifted and I hadn't realized it was there. I could think clearly and set my cell phone to beep at four in the morning.

I dug into the papers on the table and stayed up for the rest of the night as I read through everything. The alarm went off and I gathered them up and put them into a file folder and stored them, then equipped the suit coat. I left the apartment and locked the door, then rode the elevator to the ground floor and went to the parking garage next door.

I drove out of there and towards a different airport than the main one. It only took me half an hour to get there, thanks to the GPS on my cell phone, and I parked near the main building. It was really early, so after I checked for security cameras, I stored my car and went inside.

“You must be Mr. Smith.” A man said as I approached the desk. “Six o'clock flight to D.C. and then Denver, Colorado?”

I nodded.

“Do you always show up an hour and a half early?” The man asked with a smile.

“I thought it was like the large airport and I needed to be here an hour early for security and for boarding. The roads were surprisingly empty and I hadn't planned on getting here quite this early.”

The man laughed. “That's usually why we try to schedule flights so early. It makes the mundane travel so much easier.” He stood up and waved to the desk beside the counter. “Do you have any weapons, guns, explosives, or anything else that could endanger the plane while in flight?”

“Just my cell phone.” I said as I stepped over to the desk and dug the money and change I had out of my pockets, my cell phone, and just for the heck of it, put my keys in the little ceramic tray as well. I walked through the metal detector and it didn't beep.

“Cell phone restrictions are for take off and landing, mainly because they don't want wireless signals interfering with communications with the tower and possibly the instruments.”

“It doesn't disrupt them during flight?” I asked and put my things back into my pockets.

“The electronics themselves are hardened. It's the internal and external transmissions that might be messed up if there are conflicting signals.”

“Then why aren't cell phones banned?” I asked.

“The population would rebel and refuse to travel if they couldn't use their phones in flight.” The man said with a laugh. “I miss the days when using a phone on a plane was a novelty and people would pay for the privilege.”

“I think those days are long gone.” I said. “Everyone has a cell phone these days.”

“Yes, it's both a great boon and a sad reality.” The man said and pointed to a door behind me. “You can wait in the waiting room. Someone will be by to get you when it's time to leave.”

“Thanks.” I said and walked over to the door. “You aren't going to ask me why I don't have a bag?”

“It's none of my business and you saved me a little bit of time checking for contraband.” The man said.

“What if I stashed it up you know where?” I asked.

“The scanner said you were clean, so... do you want me to check?” He asked with a knowing smile. “I'm sure that I have an old kitchen rubber glove around here somewhere.”

That image made me laugh. “No, thanks. It was a joke. That is an export only area.”

“Well, if you change your mind...” He said and gave me a smirk. “...my finger will be right here.”

I shook my head and went through the door into a very nice waiting area. I spent some time looking through the magazines, all current, and went to the vending machines and grabbed a snack. I pretended to get a bottle of pop as I took it out of inventory instead and sat down on a plush bench that was in the very middle of the room.

There were some large windows at the side of the room that showed off the runway and everything looked well maintained and taken care of. That was a relief, because it didn't look like they cut corners or skimped on anything. After a while, a medium sized plane taxied into view and I sat there as I watched them check everything over on the outside.

Once again, I was relieved that they weren't half-assing it or potentially putting my life in danger by not checking everything properly. I mean, it was still in danger, because I was travelling in a machine designed to defy gravity and travel at great speed to go to far away places. At least they did their best to make sure that it was as safe as possible.

While I was watching that, three people came into the waiting room. I turned to look at them and saw two men and a woman. The men were dressed as pilots and wore decorated suits and the woman was dressed in a matching outfit without any insignia and had a skirt instead of pants. Their conversation stopped when they saw me.

“Mr. Smith?” The woman asked and seemed surprised to see me there so early.

I smiled at the coincidence and walked over to her. “Miss Carlyle.” I said and held a hand out for her to shake.

She took my offered hand and shook it. “How do you know my name?”

“My broker must have thought it was funny to book a private flight on a plane that I wanted to buy.” I said and her eyes widened. I let her hand go and held it out to the first pilot. “Mr. Johnson.”

“Mr. Smith.” The man said and shook my hand.

I did the same to the other man. “Mr. Hudson.”

“He really did provide our personnel files with the plane.” The woman whispered.

“Derek said that the previous owner wanted to ensure that you worked for at least another year.” I said. “He was also eager to sell, thanks to his wife putting her foot down.”

The two men chuckled and the woman sighed.

“That wasn't quite how things came about.” Miss Carlyle said.

“It's all right. You don't have to tell me all the dirty secrets he had until the sale goes through.” I said and my cell phone beeped at me. I checked it and nodded. “Which will be as soon as we get to D.C. and I sign the papers.”

“You're actually buying the plane?” Mr. Johnson asked.

“With us along with it?” Mr. Hudson asked.

“For at least a year?” Miss Carlyle asked.

“Did you practice that or was it all natural?” I asked with a laugh. “If you want it to be longer, I'm fine with that.”

“Wait, what?” Mr. Johnson looked surprised.

“I'm not going to bother looking for new people to take over if you are willing to stay on for longer.” I said and they exchanged looks. “I'm sure Derek has the employment contracts for me to sign, so I'll just have him add in a clause for automatic renewal or something.”

The three of them stood there and watched me typing on the cell phone.

“There we go.” I said. “You can opt out whenever you want, as long as you give me enough notice.”

“Did you read the contracts?” Miss Carlyle asked.

“Last night.” I said. “It seems reasonable for a salary; but, I haven't slept since yesterday morning. I could be misreading them.”

I stood there and we discussed the details and they agreed that they were accurate and I had read them properly.

“Then there's nothing to worry about.” I said and stood aside. “I assume you have work to do before take off, so I'll let you get to it.”

“Sir, you don't have to wait here.” Miss Carlyle said. “It's your plane... or it's going to be in a couple of hours. Please come on board and enjoy the amenities it has.”

I glanced around the waiting room at everything that I had already explored. “I've been here for almost an hour now and there's nothing left to see, so sure.”

The two pilots went first and Miss Carlyle waved me to go ahead of her.

“It's going to be difficult for you to welcome me onto the plane if you're behind me.” I joked and she smiled at me. We left the small terminal building and the door by the cockpit of the plane opened. The stairs folded down from the opening and one of the maintenance men came out and saluted the pilots as he descended the stairs. The pilots returned it and walked up the solid looking steps. I followed behind them and didn't bother saluting.

“Welcome to The Gander.” Miss Carlyle said from behind me as I stepped into the interior. “Take off and landing seating is in the middle, the flight couches and reception area are in the back, and the galley is here at the front.”

I walked through the fully stocked galley and passed a curtain into the seating area with a dozen normal airplane seats. Another curtain was there and behind that was the reception area.

“Please have a seat and I'll get you something to drink. When the pilots finish the onboard checks and we're cleared for take off, we can move to the front for a few minutes and then return here.” Miss Carlyle said and left me there to relax.

The place was both spacious and comfortable, so it was easy to relax. She came back with a glass of chilled champagne and a small tray of appetizers. I gave her a skeptical look as she offered them to me.

“I can tell that you're not used to being treated like you're rich.” Miss Carlyle said and put the tray down on the coffee table in front of me. “We have a lot of things stored on board to cater to almost any food need.”

“Do you cook?” I asked and looked at the appetizers.

“Not here on the plane. I can only heat and prep already cooked meals.”

I nodded and asked her what the things on the tray were and she told me. A few of them I tried and had to drink some of the champagne to get them down my throat.

“T-tasty.” I said and she laughed.

“Some of it can be an acquired taste, so don't force yourself.” Miss Carlyle said. “Relax and enjoy the comfort. I'll be back when it's time.”

I nodded and sat back on the couch as I tried another appetizer and sipped the champagne. She came back a while later and I had to move to the proper airplane seats for take off. We were up and into the air so quickly that I thought she was joking when she said we were okay to go back into the reception area.

“Don't worry, sir. Soon, you'll be so used to travelling like this that you won't want to travel any other way.” Miss Carlyle said with a huge smile. “We'll be landing in D.C. in less than an hour.”

“Thank you.” I said and she left me to my own devices after showing me the hidden call button.

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