Chapter 29

That weekend I slept in, then decided to head on over to New Dawn. Becky gave me a hug when I went in, and we spent about twenty minutes talking. She showed me a new Yamaha keyboard she had gotten in, and I played with it a bit. It was a Yamaha Clavinova, and it was impressive. This was quite different than what I usually played, as it was a full eighty-eight key electric piano. And the action was just like a piano, and it looked like a short upright piano. But it was entirely digital so it could also do anything a synth would do.

But it also was around a hundred and fifty pounds, so I could never take it anywhere. And moving it into my apartment would be a nightmare. Plus the price, no way I could justify over two grand for it with my other keyboards. But it was nice to play with, and I could see using something like that if I wanted to do some serious scoring.

She was wiping it down after I finished, and said that Kris was in the conference room. So I gave her another hug, and said if we did another show I might try and borrow it. I headed upstairs, and saw that the light above the door was off. I could hear voices inside, so went ahead and opened the door.

And I am not sure who was surprised the most. Me when I went inside as I said hello, or the girls. Zoe was sitting on the couch on the far side of the room, her skirt pulled up onto her belly. And Kris was on her knees on the floor, with her head between Zoe’s thighs. I caught a glimpse of Zoe’s pussy as she frantically pulled her dress back down as Kris scooted away. And only then did I notice her breasts were visible as she used her other hand to pull the top back in place.

Both girls seemed startled and a bit scared, and Zoe asked why Kris had not locked the door. Kris said she went in first and thought Zoe had locked it. I quickly reached over and flipped on the light over the door, then pulled my head back out and closed the door, and went to head back downstairs.

I had just reached the landing to go down when I heard the door open, and Zoe asked me to come back. She moved back into the room and I followed, and made sure I locked the door behind me. The two were sitting on the couch next to each other, and looked both embarrassed and a bit scared. I sat in a chair and faced them, and softly said I would not say anything to anybody.

And the two of them took turns, and it seems that the last month of my flying and not calling them had basically caused them to turn towards each other. And after a few minutes Kris reached over and held Zoe’s hand in her own. I smiled at them, and asked if they were happy. And both of them nodded.

“Actually, we are. It’s nothing I ever expected, but we have been friends for years and this just brought us closer.” Zoe nodded in agreement, and said it was even nice as none of their parents thought anything if one of them spent the night with the other.

Finally we all exchanged hugs, and I headed on out. So once again I lost Kris to somebody else, as well as Zoe. But at least now I no longer had to worry about her telling anybody anything about what we had done together. Of course, now knowing about her mom and Mandy, I seriously doubted that her parents would be all that upset about her and Zoe.

It was almost the end of the month, and I went ahead and called Aunt Linda, and she told me to come on by. I gave Sherry a hug when she let me in the door, then picked her up and carried her into the dining room where Linda was sitting.

I bent over and kissed her cheek before I set Sherry down, and she ran back to the living room to watch more TV. I pulled out an envelope, and she smiled at me and counted the money. “You are just like your brother in this way, George. Always prompt in taking care of your responsibilities.”

“Well, I try to be. And it’s due in just a few more days so why wait any longer?”

She smiled and grabbed a book from the shelf nearby and filled out a receipt. “You know, you can always just ask Pavel to hold the rent from your pay. He would be fine with that.”

“I guess I could, but this makes it easier. No question he got paid, and it gives me an excuse to come by and see you and Sherry.” She smiled at that and gave me a hug before getting a cup for me and filling it with coffee before refilling her own cup. And as we were talking she reached into her purse and pulled out a pack of cigarettes.

Something caught my eye about the pack, and I reached for it when she set it on the table. I had never really paid attention before, but I saw it was the same brand that I had been hauling to the Bay Area for Pavel. I asked her if I could have one, and she raised her eyebrow at me.

“George, I didn’t know you smoked, but go ahead.”

I pulled one out and lit it, and it was rather strong. “I generally don’t, but I toke up at times, and a cigar on occasion. But I have been hauling cases of these, and thought I should at least try one.”

Linda laughed, and said that was one of Pavel’s sidelines. “These are from Armenia, and are considered a premium brand over there. He managed to get a deal to import them, and they are big sellers in the Russian community he said.”

“Well, it ain’t no Marlboro, but I’ve had worse. So is that why he has me fly them up there?”

“Probably. He has them delivered here, then sends them to other Russians.” I said I was flying them three times a week, and she said that was probably for a few dozen stores. She also asked me when I was going back to school full time, and I looked at her and asked if my brother told her to ask me that.

“No, although Mandy did mention she was worried you might drop out. But Pete said nothing, and Mandy did not ask me to find out. This is honestly my own concern. You have a great chance, and I just don’t want to see you blow it is all.”

“Well, I admit that most of this year I am taking off or only going part time. But next year I hope to return to a full schedule. If I mention to Pavel that I was wanting to fly only once a week for him, do you think that would be a problem?”

She said she did not think so, but I should at least see if I could find somebody else to take the other flights. “Knowing Pavel, he’s more concerned that the deliveries get made, and less on who does it. In fact, he already told me his partners are happier now, as they can get them faster and the cost has not changed much. He does charge more for you flying them, but I think because they get them a lot faster than having them trucked they are not complaining.”

Linda invited me for dinner, but I said I was going to head home as I had to get up early the next day and fly to Camarillo.

When I got there Ivan was waiting with the golf cart, and after shaking hands he had me grab the box in the back. The two of us took it into the plane, and it was the size of one of those large rolling garbage cans. And when he cut open the box, I saw it was a large blue plastic tank.

I assisted him as he pulled a screwdriver out of a tool box on the golf cart and opened a panel in the rear of the passenger compartment, and he showed me the hoses in there. And he was not kidding, less than two hours later the new tank was installed, and he had me activate the fuel pump as he checked for leaks.

He even hooked up some wires to it, then went to the cabin and I saw that the gauge for the rear fuel tank was now registering it at an eighth tank and filling up. He finished filling it, then got on a portable radio on his waist and soon a fuel truck was arriving and topped us off.

And he was not kidding, it did feel just a tad tail heavy but not unreasonably so. And as he had me take a loop up to Bakersfield and back, he reminded me to run off of the rear tank until it was under a quarter tank if possible.

“Is OK to land even with it full, but that will stress airframe more. So best if almost empty. What most do is learn how long it take to get to that point, then set alarm to remind them to check when flying. But with this, you can fly additional hour and a half, about a hundred miles. But remember, fuel will not go into tank at airport, you have to activate fuel pump to add fuel. Best if when land fill from wing tanks, then fill wing. Is extra step, and have some benefits. I know in Soviet Union, we always fill from wing after we land, is needed sometimes.”

I asked him why, and he laughed. “Oh, sometimes fuel was bad in Soviet Union. More than once get in air and is so bad engine die. So move to tail tank to continue and land. Not so much problem in military base, there is always good. But some other places they add water so big tanks last longer. Not problem in US, but better safe than sorry. But is good habit to change to main tank for few minutes after takeoff, to make sure fuel is good before drain tail tank.”

I shook my head, amazed at the things I kept learning from Ivan. And in hearing how bad things were from him in addition to my dad and Pete, I again shook my head. How in the hell could they have been so worried about a nation that seems like it barely functioned?

Finally we were back and Ivan made another call, and shortly a mechanic came over in a pickup. He checked over the new tank, then signed off on some forms and with a wave took off. Ivan had me add that to the packet for the plane, and with a handshake he drove off. And when I got back to Whiteman I filled the tail tank, then had them top off the tanks.

And the trip on Monday was a lot faster. Without the need to get fuel on the way it cut over an hour off of my trip up. The only problem was that apparently nobody had told the guys on the other end about this, so I was sitting on the tarmac for almost an hour until they arrived. But I told them to move the time forward an hour from now on, and soon I was fuelled up and returning.

And on Wednesday I was back in plenty of time so I went ahead and went to the game. I told them I still could not guarantee I would be back in time, but went ahead and played the mage NPC that time.

On Thursday I had downloaded some sheet music for “Stormy Weather”, and was working through it. And I actually liked how it sounded, a real old time blues number. I tried several variants, but particularly liked it with a straight piano and nothing else. I even tried it in other styles, and discovered it was rather flexible in how it could be played. I did a rendition as a rock song, new wave, even grunge and they all seemed to work.

I called Keith and had him listen in as I ran through a few of them, and he got real excited. “Oh, and I got the contract. They even managed to get the rights to a recording by Lena Horne, but I think some of those you just ran through will work great. You doing anything on Saturday?”

I told him I was not, and agreed to meet him at Becky’s shop. The next day I got back early once again, and was just getting out of the shower when there was a knock on my door. I yelled out I would be right there, and wondering who it was threw on some pants and went down the stairs to answer it.

What I did not expect was one of the gals from the front to be there. “Oh, I’m so glad you’re here! I forgot to turn off the headlights when I got here today, and my battery’s dead. Can you give me a jump please? None of us have cables here.”

I assured her I would be right over, and went to throw on some shoes and a shirt. Thankfully the Aztec had cables in the back, and soon I was parked next to her and we had her going again. I took a look, and she was around thirty, but still looked good. And after giving me a hug she took off, as the other two gals invited me to the pool for a drink.

And the thing is, they all looked familiar but I could not for the life of me say where I had seen them before. The brunette introduced herself as Mary, and the other girl as Dani. They were both in bikinis, and I was struck by their looks. Both were also around 30, but looked hot as hell. Dani was a rich dark black, several shades darker than Shawna was. Mary got me a beer, and I think they were both surprised I was a student and pilot.