Chapter 2

Charles awoke to the annoying buzzing of his alarm. Seeing it was just after 5AM he awoke Sasha. “Sash, come on. Gotta get up.”

Mumbling in her sleep she replied “too early, few more minutes.”

He pulled the comforter off her and shook her determinedly, “Come on. We’ve got security to get through, and a plane to catch.”

Charles understood her hesitation. He wasn’t enthusiastic about less than five hours of sleep either but there would be plenty of time to sleep on the plane. With a chuckle he reset the alarm for two minutes and left the bedroom to get a shower. After his shower walking back Charles saw her sitting at the end of the bed, semi-awake, the alarm still buzzing. He turned the alarm off stepped back and began pulling her up by her hands.

“Shower now, we can both get some more sleep on the plane.” He mischievously swatted her behind, “Go!”

“Hey!” she protested more awake now. Twenty minutes later she returned and began dressing, Charles was taking their luggage downstairs for the cab. After finishing some coffee and removing perishables from their fridge they were ready to leave.

At 7:15 a limo pulled up, the driver, a roughly six foot, muscular, black man knocked on the door. “Mr. Jones?” he asked.

Charles hesitantly replied “Yes?”

“Very good sir. I’m Hans and I’ll be driving you today. Once I verify your identification, we can depart at your convenience.”

Charles handed him the fake passports asking “Hans huh?”

The man, a pretty decent judge of character, smiled and replied “the name came with the suit, the car, and the job. Company says it’s more stately than Jerome.” Handing the passport back Hans asked “Is there any more luggage sir?”

Charles told him “just these six and a carry on. I’ll get the Mrs. and we’ll be ready to leave.”

Hans nodded and began carrying the luggage to the limo. Charles found Sasha in the kitchen washing out their coffee cups. He spoke “limo’s here. Are we ready?”

“Yep. All cleaned up.” She asked, “Can you grab the carry-on on your way out?” Charles grabbed the carry-on from the kitchen table and helped Hans with the remaining luggage.

Later in the limo Charles nudged her in the side, “Hey Sash, don’t sleep yet.” Nudging her again “Hey come on, don’t sleep yet. You’ll be more tired. Try and stay awake until we get through security and are at the gate, then we can get another couple hours or so.” Seeing as he was being so ineffective he decided to up the ante a tad. Preparing himself for if she started flailing, he reached across and tweaked her nipple.

Oh boy, was she ever awake now. “HEY,” she started and began winding up for a tirade.

Charles seeing her about to get fired up tried placating her. Smiling he told her “The privacy barrier is up, calm down.”

She scornfully replied, “I think you need to calm down. How about some of that champagne ice down your pants?”

Charles knew she’d do it too. He grabbed both her hands in one of his and used the other to pat hers.

Continuing before she could get too worked up. “Believe me Sash you’re going to be grumpier getting these little cat naps. It’s a fifteen hour flight and we have a stop for fuel in Panama City. We can sleep damn near the whole flight and be rested when we get to Santiago, but if you keep this up, you’ll be awake the whole flight and miserable when we land because then you’re definitely not going to get any sleep.”

Sasha knew he was right but was still perturbed about the nipple twisting. She relaxed back into the seat. Charles seeing her relax, relaxed himself. Suddenly she elbowed him with a decent jab in the ribs. “No playing with the girls in public buster!”

A placating, “Yes dear,” came from Charles.

Traffic to Dulles had been nuts. NUTS! Absolutely, positively, nuts. Hans had used the I-95 toll road and even that hadn’t helped much, the drive taking a good two and a half hours for what should have been a simple two hour trip. They did arrive in plenty of time though. Hans had grabbed a cart and loaded their luggage onto it. Wishing them pleasant travels Hans began to depart when Charles slipped him a twenty and his thanks saying “Be careful out there!”

Hans laughed and replied “it’s not so bad once you get used to it. Good day ma’am. Sir.”

Charles wheeled their cart to the airline check in desk. They were both fairly nervous standing in line waiting to be helped.

“NEXT!“ The desk clerk called. Finally, it was their turn. Their apprehension had been growing while standing around. Sasha handed over their passport and tickets as Charles unloaded the luggage and pushed it into the pass-through. Sasha kept the carry-on. The desk clerk checked their tickets and passports. Having processed the ID and tickets she slipped travel tags onto their luggage.

Smiling, she handed back their documents with a pleasant “Thank You. Have a nice flight.”

Sasha hesitantly asked the girl “What about the luggage fees?”

The desk clerk still smiling, showed Sasha the code on their tickets explaining “your luggage fees are being paid by your resort as part of your trip. We’ll bill them separately. Anything else I can help you with ma’am?”

“No, that’s all. Thank you,” Sasha replied relieved. It would not have been good to pay with a credit card whose name didn’t match their tickets or passports.

Getting through security was more of the same. Hurry up and wait. Eventually they did make it through uneventfully. Sasha and Charles had managed to buy some ridiculously overpriced bottled water, make a stop at the restrooms, and have a short rest in the waiting area seating before Business Class was called for boarding. The flight attendants had given their spiel and demonstrated the safety positions. The captain performed his announcements and was off the intercom. They were finally on their way.

As a flight attendant had passed by, they both had received a pillow and warmed blanket. They finally managed to get some more sleep. They were awoken by the flight crew to re-position their seats for landing. The fuel stop in Panama City was quick and they were back in the air. Charles had traded some of his neighbors for different magazines and kept himself occupied reading for the remainder of the trip. Sasha kept her thoughts to herself and just watched the landscape pass by. The captain had come on and announced the fasten seat belt indicator would be on in about forty-five minutes and the plane would be landing in about an hour. Once the rush had died down they used the sad cubby hole that passed for a restroom to freshen up and relieve themselves.

This landing was a bit jerky due to the cross winds in the mountains. After snagging a cart and retrieving their luggage they passed through customs. Once cleared through customs, they went outside to hail a cab. Being in the southern hemisphere their seasons had reversed. The cooler, drier mountain air was quite the change from coastal low lands early summer they left behind. At least there wasn’t any snow.