"One more second of this heat and I'm going to pass out," Lela thought.
The temperature inside of the aircraft hangar felt every bit of 98 degrees, and that was in the shade. Beads of sweat seemed to form on her forehead and dissolve immediately. The humidity was thick, too. This was the type of heat you could cut with a knife.
As Lela climbed out the aircraft cockpit and walked over to the water fountain, she thought to herself, "I wish I was still on that cruise."
She had really enjoyed that Tom Joyner cruise, all the locations, the old R&B groups performing, made her feel like she was twenty something again. Even though most of the men at work didn't know and wouldn't believe it, Lela had recently turned fifty-two.
"Well at least this is Friday," she thought to herself as she bent over to take a sip of water.
As the cool water touched her lips, there was a tap on her back that startled her. She turned and noticed one of her supervisors, Dave Kolinsky and a young black man, standing behind her.
"This is Kevin Johnson, Kevin meet Lela Brown," Dave said as he introduced the two, "Kevin is our new mechanic."
"How you doing," Kevin said as he extended a hand to her.
"What strong hands he has," she thought, "but damn, he's just a baby, let me stop thinking about him like that."
Dave notified her that Kevin was going to be working with her, helping her inspect and fix some of the minor discrepancies. "Give him a tour and let him know who to avoid," Dave said as he walked toward his office.
Turning to Lela, Kevin asked, "What did he mean by that."
Lela chuckled and said, "don't worry I'll tell you all about it," and they walked over to one of the electric carts, used to commute from hangar to hangar, and began the tour. Almost an hour had passed, and since it was just about time to leave Lela decided to start getting cleaned up.
As they swept the floors around the aircraft she had been working on, Kevin asked her about some of the things they discussed while she was showing him around.
"You said it's only twelve women working here. Does that make you uncomfortable knowing that you're one of four women who actually does maintenance on the planes here," Kevin inquired?
"Not really," responded Lela, "you know I've never really paid attention to it."