I felt a flush of relief when I felt the thump of the wheels touching down. The little commuter prop plane had been moaning and groaning for nearly an hour, the passengers lit up by flashes of lightening outside over and over. There was just eight of us on board, plus the attendant.
Normally the flight would be full but obviously a lot of folks had canceled. For days the reports of the class 5 hurricane had been head line news, so here I was, feeling stupid.
"We need you down there if you have to walk!" Headquarters had told me.
Great.
We had long since lost the cabin lights, and every few seconds it felt like the bottom was dropping out of my seat, then we were slammed upwards.
I was grateful that I always keep my seat belt firmly in place when in the air, earlier we had hit a heavy stretch and one man further back had gotten sick and tried for the toilet, ending up face down in the aisle. Two other passengers grabbed him and kept him from more harm. He somehow managed to get strapped back into his seat, his head bleeding.
There was a spattering of applause when the plane lurched but then settled on the ground. The pilot had been very busy and his skill had gotten us on the ground in one piece, although at the time I wasn't real sure where.
It sure as hell wasn't Shrevesport. I knew that since we had diverted North that probably there wasn't much left of Shrevesport now. That had been one hell of a storm, we had even missed the worst of it.
The flight attendant's face was pale but she was doing her very best to cover it up, as she explained that a vehicle would be coming to take us all to some hotel.
I sat there waiting, thinking of my wife Mary and my two kids and how I wished I was home in my warm bed with her. I was the luckiest man in the world to have her. At my age of nearly 65, finding a pretty woman in her early 40's to love me was a blessing. We had been married for more than a decade, and two fine sons were the result of our union.
I know damn good and well that several times had I looked out the window I would have been looking straight down, but I couldn't see the ground anyway, everything was pitch black.
Except for the frequent flashes of light and the roar of the struggling airplane, it was like we were in a coffin.
I knew it had been very close to being exactly that. As we went down the ramp to the tarmac I shook the pilot's hand, he grinned at me but I noticed his face was soaked in sweat.
"Good job." I told him. He just smiled and nodded.
The "bus" arrived in half an hour, it turned out to be what looked like a repainted UPS van. Eight of us all held hands in a human chain as we made our way to the vehicle, the wind screamed by at what had to be close to a hundred miles per hour. I saw several men busy lashing down the airplane's wheels out of the corner of my eye as we all climbed into the van. The van was bouncing up and down but as soon as were started to move it got quieter.
I looked around at the faces with me, they were all looking shaken. I probably looked the same. No one said anything at all.
The "hotel" turned out to be a single story concrete structure, thank God it looked to be solid as a rock. There were some trees down out front, we made our way past them and inside. The rain was so heavy it was difficult to take a breath. Once again we held hands as we struggled to get inside.
I am pretty good size, 6 foot and around 220 pounds, so I held the door against the screaming wind as the other passengers made their way past.
Inside, it was much better, just the whine of the wind and roar of the torrential rain was all I could hear. At the counter, a skinny young lady was writing down names and giving the others their keys.
The lady in front of me looked to be a bit disheveled, her hair wildly askew and she was soaked to the skin like all of us. I had spotted her earlier, pretty, well dressed, obviously a Corporate type.
Corporate just like me, I head up a team of trouble shooters for my company, which is what I was doing on the damn airplane in the first place. I had tried to retire but the company would have none of that, giving me a large boost in pay and some stock options to stay on.
Now I wasn't sure where the hell we were and I didn't care, all I wanted to do was get into a hot shower, then go to bed.
I could still hear the storm outside, but this building was strong and it all seemed to be far away now.
The skinny lady finished checking the others in and had just handed a key to the Corporate lady, then as I stepped up to the counter she looked at me in chagrin.
"I am sorry, that was our last room, we can make up a bed for you here in the lobby, it's all we have."
I just looked at her, sighed. The other lady looked at me and then down to the key in her hand.
"Oh, no, why don't you share my room with me?" The lady said with a smile.
"I don't think...." Was as far as I got.
"I insist, it will be fine. We just have to make the best of this." She turned to the woman on the counter.
"Don't you have a spare bed you can roll in?" She asked the counter girl.
"Well....yes, we do, if that's all right." She flashed me a big grin.
"Great! Come on, I'm Jean." She reached out to shake my hand.
"I'm Dan. Are you sure? I don't want to..." I shook her hand, it was soft and perfectly manicured. Even with her hair everywhere and her makeup running, the lady was very pretty and very young.
"Oh, sure. It's no problem, this storm is really bad and we are all in it together. Let's just make the best of it." She said again, flashing that confident smile.
"Well. OK, thank you." I told her.
We made our way down the hall, there was a courtyard in the rear so we had to go outside but the walls kept most of the wind off of us. We did get another soaking though, but since we were both completely wet it didn't matter.
Jean got the door unlocked and we went inside. There was one medium size bed, a TV set that very likely wasn't going to work, a table and a chair. The single room had a tiny bathroom with a shower off to the side, plus a small cooler that had a lock on it, that was it.
"Oh, wonderful! We got the executive suite!" Jean said, laughing. She set her purse down, began going through it, using a small hand towel to wipe everything dry.
All I had was my laptop in it's case, and the clothes on my back. I found another towel and wiped off my case, then I dried my face and hands.
"Our suitcases are on the airplane and I will bet they aren't going to show up." Jean said.
"Not very likely." I answered, listening as a particularly heavy wind gust hit the building.
The lights kept flickering, I realized that the building was on generator power.
"We better clean up and dry off as soon as we can, we could lose all power any moment." She said.
"Where do we....?" I asked, looking around. All there was was four walls, sparse furniture, and the tiny little bathroom. There was no real place for any privacy at all.
"I think we just have to make do, do you mind turning your back?" Her hands went up to the buttons on her blouse.
I flushed, realizing, but I turned the chair away from her, draped a towel over it and sat down. I heard the rustling of clothing, then the door to the tiny bathroom closed and the shower started.
"We have hot water!" I heard her call out. "I will be quick so I don't use it all up."
After a few minutes I heard the shower shut off, the door opened and she came out.
"Are you decent?" I asked, still sitting with my back to her.
"That's what they tell me." She laughed at her own joke.
"You can turn around, I have a towel on."
I glanced at her, she had a small towel wrapped in her hair turban style, and a larger bath towel wrapped around her body. It was big enough to do the job but barely. This was surprising, she seemed to be completely relaxed about being all but naked with a total stranger in the room.
She was sitting on the edge of the bed, rubbing her hair, the towel was tied across her bust and hanging there somehow. There didn't seem to be any hint of sag, she looked to be slender and in shape. I noticed the muscles of her upper arms were well defined, she obviously worked out.
Yes, very pretty, I noted, and in shape. I took a deep breath and averted my eyes, after all, I am human.
"Everything is soaked, I stacked the towels on the counter in there and used the towel racks to hang them up to dry out. I left space for...yours." She looked me up and down, my face flushed slightly and she grinned at that.
"I...well, I guess I should shower." I started to take off my shirt, hesitated.
"Please, let's just relax, I have seen men before, I am married." She said, looking me up and down.
"Me too. Can you..?" I asked, suddenly shy.
"Sure." She turned sideways on the bed, went back to drying her hair. The towel slipped down slightly, baring her right breast for a moment, she tugged it back into place. I slipped off my shirt, then stepped into the bathroom and stripped down the rest of the way, it was awkward because there was barely room in there to do it. There were two towels lying there, I saw her clothing hanging from the towel rack. A totally sheer thong hung from the metal bar, I didn't see a bra. I hung my clothes up also, hopped in the shower and soaped up.
That was as far as I got, the lights went out and the shower stopped running. Apparently the water system ran off of a pump somewhere.
"Shit!" I exclaimed.
The bathroom door opened, there was a bit of light from outside but not much. There I stood behind the shower curtain all soaped up, no way to rinse off.
"I thought this might happen, she said, so I ran some warm water in the sink." She picked up a washcloth and dipped it, slid the shower curtain back and handed it to me. Then she picked up one of the drinking glasses and scooped up some water, poured it over my soapy head. It was so close to dark in there that I knew she could barely see me.
After a half dozen repeats of that, most of the soap was off of me. Then the lights came back on and I was blasted with a shot of cold water and some air came shooting out of the nozzle as it built up pressure.
"Shit!" I yelled again.
Jean giggled, then reached over and picked up one of the larger bath towels, held it up for me. I wrapped it around my waist, hers had slipped down again so she tugged it back up and went into the other room.
"Sorry." She said over her shoulder.
