Chapter 19A

Nikki’s turn:

You knew I couldn’t let Cindy-of-the-Sky get too far ahead. Dan and I scheduled our own trip out to Arizona to get our multi-engine ratings.

I know – retracing Cindy’s steps, but that’s okay. It’s not EXACTLY a hobby. I mean, we use airplanes all the time in conjunction with the business. We use the planes to move key people to meetings, to move technicians and equipment to sites too far to drive.

That big Cessna twin makes it nice, but I seriously want to fly it and realistically we need a couple more pilots in the pool to make its use a little more assured.

My Dan thinks I’m funny.

“You just have trouble letting Cindy get ahead of you.”

“Kinda, but no,” I told him. “She put in the effort. It shows. But I’d be on better footing to win the ‘who flies the left seat’ wars. And really, we do need a couple more rated pilots.”

“Just make sure that we get enough activity to stay competent,” he said. “That’s not something to be stupid in.”

“Yeah. We know.”

So we packed our bags, tossed ‘em in the back of our Mooney, and lit out for school. They didn’t particularly remember Dan Richards, but you KNOW that Cindy Richards, PhD, was engraved in their memories, especially after she’d called them back after her ‘engine out’ incident in Kansas.

I’d asked about getting James Carver, Cindy’s instructor, but I was informed that he’d left the training world for a job in the airlines. That’s a pretty common thing. A lot of instructors are building hours, biding their time, waiting to be called by an airline. Personally, I don’t think I would like that job, but hey! Different strokes, you know.

My instructor was Sammy Bayles, oddly enough, from Alabama.

“You’re doing it, too, right?” I asked him.

“Doing what?”

“Waiting for the call from the airlines.”

“Yeah,” he said, almost sheepishly. “Pays better. And in the aviation world, it’s got a certain cachet.”

“Lots of cachets. I think ag pilots are pretty cool, and I don’t even want to think about the military.”

“You. Fit. Got a degree. Smart. You could give ‘em a call...”

“Oh, yeah, let’s see how that plays with the guy up the hall. ‘Baby, I just joined the Marines.’ No, I’m hopelessly committed to being where HE is.”

The guy made me SWEAT. We went through the simulator, and there was NEVER a normal flight on it. I lost engines on run-up, on take-off, on climb-out, in cruise, landing, and then he put me into the left seat of a REAL plane and did it all to me all over again.

Two days before we got our tickets, I told Dan, “I think I’m taking up soaring. I never want to think about a failed engine again.”

“I distinctly remember you asking for this,” he reminded me tactfully.

“I did,” I admitted. “It’s just that it requires me to DO things. I’ve been doing pretty good with KNOWING things, but nobody ever walked up to me and said, ‘Okay, you want this Physics 500 credit, you need to sort and stack this small pile of sub-atomic particles.”

He laughed. “Only my Nikki would put it that way,” he snickered, rolling me over, kissing me.

Kissing me. The start of something wonderful. It’s been that way for five years now. I’m on my back, urging him on. Oh, yes, I come. Second one for me. The first one was in the midst of our foreplay. But this one ... AUgggHHHH!!! And I feel him splashing fire inside me and I make him STAY there.

“I’m not moving,” I said. “Let ‘em make a run for the goal, baby.”

Yep. It’s time to get serious about offspring again. I’d mourned the miscarriage. Dan and I both did. Truth be known, the whole community did. Dan was and is everything I dreamed of as a supportive mate, even from before I knew what to dream. He worried about me being traumatized over the loss. I told him that stuff happens, but he was still My Dan and I was still his Nikki and the community needed more babies.

I didn’t know it then, but I feel pretty sure that conception occurred that night as my body’s response to aviation-related stress.

There was another blip on the radar, though. Mom. Her sentence was coming to an end. Yes, we’d faithfully visited once every month or so. She might not have been the best mom, but there’s no way I’m responding in kind to that.

She knows that we live and work in Alabama. I talked with Dan.

“It could be tough, baby,” I said. “I wish I saw the light in her eyes that I saw in Mizz Donna’s when she showed back up.”

“I know. I keep wanting to see that myself. I dunno. I guess we – it’s incumbent upon us to give her an opportunity.”

Tara’s turn:

Kind of a “slow day at the office” today. I’m filling in at the 3Sigma reception desk, and I don’t think there have been four phone calls in the last two hours. Whatever -- at least it leaves time for Calculus -- integration-by-parts, in this case, and I’m starting to get a handle on it.

The front door opens, and a not quite bedraggled-looking woman walks up to my desk. She said, “I’m Alicia Domingue, Nikki Granger’s mother. Is she available?”

Easy answer, but instantly a complicated problem. “No ma’am, actually she’s in Arizona at the moment, at a flight school with her husband. If you’ll have a seat over there, I’ll get someone to help you. Would you like something to drink? Water, soda, or fresh coffee?”

“Coffee would be great -- just black, please.”

And at that moment, Mizz Donna walked in, heavily pregnant, and holding some (obviously) insurance papers.

“Hi, Mizz Donna -- c’mon back.” I got up and started up the hall with her. As soon as I got around the corner, I whispered, “I need to see you for a minute.”

She looked at me, questioning. I guess my tone must’ve given my nervousness away.

We stepped into Nikki’s office. I said, “Mizz Donna, that lady out there is Nikki’s Mom, and I need to quickly figure out what to do about her -- you know Nikki’s out in Arizona.”

Donna said, “If you’ll take these papers back to Beck, I’ll talk to Tina. I suspect there are some issues with the lady -- I could smell cigarette smoke on her.”

“Yes, ma’am. Gosh, thank you.” I got coffee for Mizz Domingue, took it to her,
and then took Donna’s papers back to Mizz Beck.

Donna’s turn:

Stepping into Tina’s office, she was on the phone, and held up her index finger at me. I sat down to wait until she ended the phone call, which took less than a minute.

Tina said, “Good afternoon, Donna. What’s going on with you?”

I said, “Actually, I just got back from the obstetrician, and had to drop off some insurance papers here. I feel like I’m shoplifting a watermelon.” I sighed. “But Tina, we have a problem sitting out there in the reception area. It’s called, “Nikki’s Mom” -- I suppose she just got released from prison.”

“Nikki said that’d be any time now. I would’ve hoped SHE would be here.”

I continued, “Yeah, would’ve been nice. Or not. This is a situation. I smelled cigarette smoke on her, which instantly tells me that she hasn’t dropped all her bad habits. I think either you or me need to deal with this. What do you think?”

Tina said, “Just dealing with the basics, I’ll call Nikki a little later -- I’m pretty sure she’s up to her elbows in flying right now. But we can’t just give her a key to Nikki’s house without knowing more. And she’s going to be closer to your age, so she might feel more comfortable talking to you than she would to me.”

“I think you might be right. I mean, I was ready for y’all. Cindy sort of filled me in, and I was really really ready for a change. If this lady isn’t...”

“Donna, why don’t we just take it a step at a time. If you don’t mind, maybe you could take her over to your place, get her fed and get her a shower...”

“Good idea,” I said.

“Talk to her some, and see whether you’d be willing to put her up for the night. If not, we’ll get her a hotel room in town. But see what she has to say, and follow your instincts. And I’ll bet Bill will have an opinion when he gets home, too.”

“Good idea, Tina. And we’ll figure out tomorrow based on what Nikki says, and on what Alicia has to say.”

Dan 2.0’s turn:

Whew! Long day of training, and I’m wondering how Cindy does it, DID it, actually, and she makes it look so easy. It’s not, but I’m pretty sure Nikki is doing much better than me. I have to work at it, but like most things, Nikki and Cindy just INHALE this stuff.

Back at the flight line, filling out the log books, and just before heading back to the car, Nikki takes a phone call, gets a worried look on her face, then closes the phone and walks over to me.

“Dan, we need to talk. Let’s go see about dinner somewhere.” And then, she’s quiet.

A quiet Nikki is a troubled Nikki, at least until she processes some data.

Getting into the rental car, she said, “Dan, my Mom showed up at the office this afternoon. Tina says that Donna is taking care of her right now, but it doesn’t look good, at least initially.”

“Whew, Nikki. If we didn’t have to fly in the morning, I’d suggest a Scotch or two, for this one. What do you think?”

“You know I prefer margaritas.” She’d tried them. Still not the legal age to drink in most states, but in the safety of our community, she tried and liked margaritas.

“Dan, I don’t know. If she’s ready to change her entire life, I’m ready to help. But if it’s gonna be the same old shit, I think we need to send her away. She’s my mom, but she treated me like shit, and I’m not going to accept it again.”

“Makes sense to me, darlin’. But what do you think we should do right now?”

“You know what? I think I’m willing to let Donna make that call, if she can do it. And I think we ought to support whatever she decides. Let me make a couple of phone calls.” And she whipped out her phone.

Nikki’s turn:

“Donna, it’s Nikki. Don’t say my name if Mom can hear it, OK?”

“Gotcha,” Donna answered.

“Look, Tina told me that you have Mom with you, and that there may be problems. It’ll be three days before we get back, but I want to lay a big burden on you. Does that make sense?”

“I’ll do my best, hon,” Donna replied.

“Here’s what I’m thinking. When you showed up in Auburn, you had already decided to change your life, and you did, and we all supported you, right?”