I had to find something to do when I got out of the military. Something that I loved, something that I wouldn't mind doing while I collected my military pension at age 40. Yeah, I know, retired at such a young age. But the military game is a young man's game and even with over seven thousand flying hours, youth still trumps experience in the flying game. As you get older your body just can't respond like it used to. As a result I just couldn't keep taking those high G maneuvers.
I convinced the bank that I was a good risk, purchased myself a used Beach King Air 200 turbo prop and set myself up as an executive charter service. Life was good. Business was thin. On more than one occasion I ended up sleeping in my own airplane rather than getting a hotel room, just to try and save some money. It's not easy to pay for a three quarters of a million dollar aircraft, fuel, maintenance and living expenses. To be quite honest, I was about to drown under that debt.
Welcome Amy. Amy called because of one of my business cards I'd left in so many airports. Amy was the executive secretary to a somewhat famous model. In her own words, she was a glorified baby sitter, helping Kimberly manage her multi-million dollar business of modeling and lingerie line and endorsements. Her current problem was that Kim had suddenly become afraid to fly commercial following a spate of terrorist attacks against aircraft. Her question was a simple one. Would I be interested in contracting to handle flying her around the country?
At that point I would have contracted to fly Beelzebub himself, if the price were right. Little did I know that six months down the road I'd feel as if that was exactly who I was flying.
Kim was gorgeous. Of course she was. She was a super model. At thirty she was on the long side of it, but then some continued to work well into their fifties, with the right skin care and constant workouts and such. Kim flitted from city to city, rarely spending more than two or three days in any one place. She had a beautiful twenty thousand square foot home, which she seemed to rarely be in. She could walk the walk and talk the talk and sell sexy little lingerie like she was selling snow to eskimos. Unfortunately her looks is where nice stopped. She'd started to believe her own hype. She'd started to think of herself as a diva and act as if those of us around her were beneath her. More than once her sweet lilting voice snarled from the passenger cabin that I was flying too rough, or making the plane bounce too much for her to sleep. As if I had any control over the air currents.
Amy was the constant. She was always there, inserting herself between Kim and whoever might possibly be around her. She soothed Kim and kept her empire on an even keel. But while the pace seemed relentless to me, Kim seemed to just eat it up. She loved the challenge as much as I loved flying. I suppose if I hadn't gone out on a limb after three months and updated my plane from a 1980's vintage to a reasonably new 2002, I might have even quit the contract. But with that new payment to cover, the last thing I wanted to do was kill the cash cow. I'd asked Kim more than once for a date, and always gotten the same answer, "we can fuck or we can work together. Which do you prefer?"
"X-ray Alpha Gulf Foxtrot Seven, rolling." I radioed the tower as I applied the throttle and sent the Air King accelerating down the runway. This was going to be a relatively short trip. Kim had some kind of a photo shoot in the middle of Missouri, at some lake called the Ozarks, out in the middle of nowhere. All I knew was it looked like a winding snake on the map and had one small airport close to where the shoot was that had just enough runway to sneak in if I went in light. In only a few short minutes we were climbing through ten thousand feet, winging our way from Chicago over the Midwestern landscape at nearly three hundred miles an hour.
"Adam!" I heard Amy call urgently from the passenger cabin.
"Yeah?" I called over my shoulder.
"Kim. She passed out. I can't seem to wake her!" She called, panic clearly etched in her voice.
"Is she breathing?" I called back.
"Yes, but it's very shallow and I can't seem to wake her."
"Okay. Check her eyes. Lift her eyelids and see if they respond."
"They seem too, but she still isn't waking up."
"Okay. Let me see where we can put down!" I called back to her. "Chicago center. This is X-ray Alpha Gulf Foxtrot Seven. Declaring a medical emergency."
"Roger X-ray Alpha Gulf Foxtrot Seven. State your situation." The controller radioed back.
"X-ray Alpha Gulf Foxtrot Seven. We have a passenger that is passed out. She is breathing at this time, but otherwise unresponsive. Requesting a Vector to the nearest airport with medical close by."
"Roger that X-ray Alpha Gulf Foxtrot Seven. Hold one." The controller said before pausing for a few moments. "X-ray Alpha Gulf Foxtrot Seven turn two four zero. You are cleared to five thousand direct. ST Louis should be fifty miles. Contact St Louis approach on one three two point one two five. Have a good day."
"Thank you Chicago." I answered before changing the radio and starting a decent toward St Louis.
The decent and landing were as normal as they could be, touching down less than twenty minutes after making the initial call. I taxied to the executive terminal and shut down, the ambulance quickly coming to the side of the plane as my turbo props spun slowly down to a stop.
As much as I disliked Kim, I was concerned for her well-being. Clearly Amy was as well, and I did my best to comfort her on the taxi ride to the hospital. By the time we got there, Kim was awake and back to her normal bitchy self, though the doctors and nurses seemed to be flitting in and out with uncommon frequency. Twenty four hours later and who knows how many tests she was ready to be released.
"Now look. All I can do is warn you," the doctor said with a stern look on his face. "You were lucky. You can't treat your body this way. My prescription is two weeks away, at least! No stress. You need to find someplace to relax and decompress."
"No fucking way. I have too much to do!" Kim argued.
The doctor turned to Amy and shook his head. "If you can't get her to take it easy a while, she's going to be right back here again. And next time she may leave toes up!" He said emphatically before turning back to Kim again. "I mean it! No phone, no computer, no stress of any kind. Your blood pressure was through the roof and you're just damn lucky it wasn't a stroke! Find a way to do it. And find a way to do it frequently, or you're going to be leaving us all too soon."
"I'll make sure she does!" Amy said giving Kim a stern look. "Thank you Doctor."
"Your welcome young lady. I hope she listens to you better than she's listening to me." He said as he looked over and saw Kim texting on her phone again.
"She will. If I have to tie her up and drag her off." Amy said sternly to Kim.
"Good luck with that," he said, shaking his head as he walked away.
"Come on." Amy said, leading Kim from the hospital room. It was little more than two hours and we were back at the airport, the turbines warmed up and taxying for takeoff. The plane practically leapt off the tarmac and into the air as we headed back to Chicago, soaring into the air.
"You know. I don't know how you're going to get her to have any time away," I said to Amy as she sat in the right hand seat, Kim sitting in the back alone, still angry with the doctor's orders.
"Yeah. I know. She can be difficult," Amy agreed.
"Glad I'm not going to have to deal with her," I said, shaking my head.
"No? Ohhhh. That's right. You're going away for a couple weeks," Amy said, nodding as she remembered that next week started my promised vacation. "Where are you going again?"
"A little mountain lake in Colorado," I said with a smile. "Just me and some really good fishing. Sit back, catch a few trout, watch the sun set on the mountain side looking over the valley below. It can't get more idyllic than that!" I said with a sigh.
"Sounds like a perfect get-away!" Amy said, leaning back and looking at the cockpit ceiling. "No phone, no demands on your time, just relaxation for two weeks? God I envy you!" She said with a sigh.
"Could have been yours too." I said with a grin, reminding her that I had invited her to come along, only to get the typical answer. "The bed is big enough for two, though it would be a bit cozy!"
"Yeah. I think we covered that one," she said with a smile. "Though it does sound tempting."
"Can't say I didn't try." I answered her with a shrug.
"So how do we get Kim to go on a vacation like that?"
"Not my problem," I said with a smirk. "I lined this up months ago. You know how hard it is to find a place like this? Isolated? No phone no modern utilities, nothing?"
"Yeah, it has to be tough." Amy said as she looked out the window at the ground far below. "Hey. I know. Take Kim!"
"What? Are you nuts?" I said in surprise. "First off, her idea of roughing it not having her manicure on time. Can you imagine her out in the boonies without even a flush toilet?"
"Oh lord. That would be something to see," Amy said with a laugh.
"Yeah. She'd go nuts in half a day," I said with a shake of my head.
"So, how much does this little vacation cost you?"
"Oh, fuel, food, cabin and all? About seven or eight hundred. It'd be less if I didn't fly this gas hog there, but the only real way there is by plane or a long drive up from Denver."
