Chapter 2

My day starts at 05:00 with morning ablutions, a quick cereal breakfast and a drive over to the airport. It’s not very far; too far to walk but too near to drive. But I always maintained: Why run if you can walk, why walk if you can drive?

We, Jeff and I, were housed in a twin camper type wooden log constructed complex between Robberg Road and runway 12/30, about 500 meters from runway 12’s threshold and still on the airport property. Jeff had his own cottage, and I had mine: three bedrooms, lounge, kitchen and two bathrooms furnished with all the bells and whistles. Company supplied accommodation.

The drive consisted of me driving first west along the fence then turning on a 90-degree left heading past the start of runway 12, and then another 90-degree left heading parallel to runway 12 on the left and the hangars on the right, joining up onto the apron. Jeff and my prefab offices were right ahead.

I pass the creamy white bird of prey perched on helipad one. Early morning sunlight glinting off the polished fuselage. And wait for it ... I could not believe my eyes. Jeff was preflighting at 07:15! He usually got to the office after me, that with his early morning run and all. That was either a VERY good evening, or a solid blow-off.

I brake to a stop and get out.

“Top of the morning to you Louis!” Jeff greeted.

“And the rest of the day to you buddy!” I shouted back in good old Irish style as I strolled over to him. Okay, it must have been a successful evening after I left at 21:00.

“Bird’s A OK. But you can counter check if you want.” Jeff said as came up to him.

“Thanks, I trust you.” I took out my pipe and went and stood about forty meters downwind to light up. Jeff walked over to me.

“Main undercarriage tyres are a bit under inflated.” Jeff said.

“How much?” I enquired.

“Not much. Just a twitch.”

“Well okay, Jeff. Don’t worry about that. I don’t want the old girl jumping around if we have a little hard touch with hard inflated tyres. And by the way with all those toys on-board I’d rather hover taxi her at 3 or 4 feet. We’ll get more flying hours that way. Besides, she was made to fly and not drive!”

Jeff laughed.

“So, how did it go after I left last night?”

“I have to tell you, seeing we are like two peas in a pod, you and I. I’ll not hide anything from you. It seems like I hit it off with Sue. She seems to be interested ... not ‘jump in bed and get married interested’, but she, like me, needs a “talk to” friend. Someone to go out and do things with, shopping, sailing, swimming ... you know...” And he rubbed his left boot toe in the grass as he said it.

“Yes, I know.” I said softly. “You and me, we are friends. But there are things you need a soul mate for. Someone like Sue. I hope you two get along fine.” I placed my hand on his shoulder, and he looked up.

“Thanks Louis. You know we are the best friends, and I will still be around for braai (South African equivalent to barbecue.) and all that, but I need to get on with my life. I am not getting younger.”

“Jeff. Go knock them dead. You’re good. Let me get my gear and let’s roll. Maybe knock off early today.”

“Thanks Louis. Now, snuff your pipe get your gear and let’s roll!”

I went to the office and got my gear. On my way back I ran into Jenny who was just about to enter her office.

“Hi Louis. You’re geared up. Out to fly now this early?”

“Morning Jen. Yip. Early bird catches the worm and all that.” I greeted her.

“So. It’s morning. Any news?”

“Looks like old Jeff got himself, shall we say, an acquaintance. Nothing serious. As he puts it: a soul mate.”

“Yeppppeeeee! I knew it. I knew it.” Jenny squealed.

“Now, now, Jenny. He can see us. Calm, calm, hush down. Or he’ll never trust me again.”

“OK Louis. But I need a full rundown as soon as you’re back.”

“OK Jen,” and I turned around and went to join Jeff about fifty meters away at the helicopter.

Jeff had already started the checklist as I climbed into the right-hand seat. Most helicopters are flown from the right-hand seat as opposed to all fixed wing aircraft flown from the left-hand seat.

Together we completed the full check list.

After the normal procedure call to ATC (Air Traffic Control) we were airborne at 07:53 and climbing out to two thousand three hundred feet MSL, (mean sea level), we were sure to miss any high ground and man-made obstacles along our route. Although the construction site of the water purification plant was only about three minutes flying time from the airport, it was away from any roads and in a slight depression on the cliff side south-west of the airport.

We climbed out and stabilised at two thousand three hundred feet in a north-easterly direction. After stabilising the flight path, I doubled back in a gentle 180-degree turn to retrace our track and overfly the airport. Jenny was outside her office and Jeff saw her wave as we passed by.

We returned to base at Plet just after 09:00. After putting up the heli and locking the craft, Jeff begged off to go do some shopping. He claimed he was running low on fresh eggs and some veggies.

I returned to my office and wrote up the logs and files regarding our test run. This kept me busy for a while. About an hour and a half later, I walked over to the main admin building. I was looking to buy the latest “SA Flyer” magazine and also to get some coffee from Jenny. I was running low on my coffee Recommended Daily Allowance.

Larry at the Flight Shop apologized sincerely for the non-delivery of his magazines and after some small talk I got to complete my quest for coffee.

Jenny was poised at her desk, pen in her mouth, and peering at an invoice. She looked up as my shadow fell across the floor next to her desk.

“Hi Louis. Coffee RDA running low?”

“You just know it, Lady!” I told her.

“Just park yourself in that chair over by the window. I’ll get you a mug. Can do with some myself,” Jenny said as she got up and started kitchen noises, mugs rattling followed by the clink of teaspoons hitting empty mugs.

“Where’s Jeff?” She questioned.

“Gone shopping.” I replied, as I lowered into the easy chair.

“That would be Jeff,” Jenny replied. “By the way, the shipping line called while you were out cutting holes in the sky. Said they will be bringing in a cargo of 20 meters by 60-centimetre pipes the day after tomorrow. Only problem is that the ship will not fit the harbour, so they will anchor off in the bay.”

“No problem,” I said. “It might take half a day to unload, if the weather holds.”

She handed me a mug of coffee, took her own mug and went back to her desk.

“So?”

“So, what?” I replied.

“What’s happening with Jeff?”

“We went to lunch yesterday at that lunch shop over on the other side of the runway. The waitress was a middle-aged blond woman, and Jeff seems to like her. She invited us for a drink over at O’Halley’s and so, last night we went there.”

“And?”

“Well, I left at nine, but Jeff stayed on. So, more than that I don’t know, except...”

“Except what?”

“Damn Jen! I don’t know all, but it seems like Jeff and that waitress are teaming up as friends. By the way, her name is Sue.”

“Hmm...”

“So, there you have it and don’t let on I told you. Let’s see how things work out. Okay?”

“Okay...”

“Good,” I said and sipped my coffee.

“You know...” she began, looking at me with a serious look on her face. “I need to talk to you about someone we know.”

“This someone has a name?” I questioned, taking a sip of my coffee.

“Yip. She will be coming through that door at about two thirty.”

I looked at Jenny over my coffee mug, blowing a little steam away.

You know, Louis, she’s not had any luck in the puppy love department. Although she does good at school, in the social department things ain’t so well,” Jenny looked down at her desk, fiddling with her pen.

“Why are you telling me this, Jen?”

“Because you should know that she lost interest in boys. Never goes out. Maybe once or twice with the two girlfriends she has, but never with boys, and if there are boys in the group, she shuts up like a hermit crab in its shell.”

“Now why should that be, Jen?” I asked and took a sip of my coffee.

“From about twelve or thirteen, she had the odd boyfriend, but after about a week, the boy dropped her for some new fancy. She took this hard. Then one day, when she was really depressed, she opened up to me, and told me the reason the boys dropped her. They wanted only one thing, and she was not prepared to give it up. And some of them were pretty ‘handsy’, and that scared her.”

“Jenny, she has her priorities right.”

“Yeah, and another thing that totally put her off from boys...,” and she looked at me before continuing. “One guy told one of Bobbie’s friends that she is a good-looking girl ... only that she has nothing in the chest department. She was too flat and looks like a boy.”

“Dammit, Jen! That must have been hard on the girl,” I exclaimed. “How cruel is that!”

“Yes, boys seem to go for girls with big tits...”

“Tits have nothing to do with building a relationship...”

“Louis, you know it, I know it, but when you were thirteen or fourteen, what were your thoughts about girls?” Jenny asked looking at me with narrowed eyes, and a half smirk on her lips.

“To be quite honest, Jenny, I was shit scared of girls. Maybe a bit nerdy. I only opened up to a relationship with a girl when I was around eighteen, or nineteen.”

“And?”

“We went our separate ways ... Greener pastures for her...”

“Sorry...”

“Don’t be ... It’s life. There were others after her...”

“Louis, I am trying to do what me and John can come up with. All I am asking you is to be nice to her. It seems that she took a liking to you. I mean that she never ever tried to be friends with any boys. She once told me all men are yucky. But ever since you and Jeff landed that big old bird on the apron out there ... she sort of, I don’t know how to say it, but it seems that she likes to look at you, and yes, at you Mr. Du Preez.”

I was stunned again.

“Jen, she’s what, sixteen? Do you imply that...” I was at a loss for words to even finish that reply.

“Nope. She’s seventeen. What I mean to say is that she looks at you and sees a respectable, hard-working and smart man. Someone like John, and not a silly one-track-minded boy.”

“I can be a friend to her. But Jen, only a friend.” I said, taking a sip of my coffee. Jenny continued.

“Be a friend Louis. Be a friend that guides her along. I know that in about nine months or so you and Jeff will be out of here, and I shudder to think of where that will leave her.”

“You asked me to help her along with school homework. I will do that. I am a flight instructor; I just need to think on the level of a twelfth grader.” I said, draining my coffee. “But Jenny, I need your help too.”

“You know I will give you all my help. And John too.” Jenny said.

I sighed. Oh, what to do. “I’ll do what I can to put the smile back on that redhead freckled face.” I said. I got up and deposited my coffee mug on the side table.

“Jenny if you don’t have anything pressing for me, I am going to my office for a while and then I need to do a grocery run too.”

“By the way. That waitress,” Jenny said with a twinkle in her eye. “I know her. Jeff don’t know yet, and I will not say anything. He needs to find out for himself.”

“Not bad, I hope?” I asked.

“Nope. That Citation Ten in the big hangar over yonder. It’s hers. She is stinking rich. The Lunch Box, and O’Halley’s belong to her. Just a good old lonely rich girl, looking for, whatever...”

“And Jeff don’t know?” I was flabbergasted. You could have bowled me over with a dead fish.

“Nope. Let him find out in his own good time, and don’t you spoil it by saying something! She’s not the type to brag about her situation, and maybe she would like to let Jeff look at her as a woman, and not a rich bitch.”

“Nope. My lips are sealed. Oh, that sounded like a country and western song title.” Then I became thoughtful. “I wondered what Jeff meant by saying: ‘Someone to do things like shopping, sailing ... and such’.”

“The sailing part I can understand. She has a forty-foot blue-water yacht moored out in the harbour as well.”

“How old is she?”

“Sue? About forty-four or forty-five. Lost her husband in a tragic accident, about ten years ago...”

“Damn! That’s bad.”

“If things work out for the two of them ... I’ll be happy for both.”

“Jen, let me get going. Thanks for the coffee.”

“Any time, Louis. Catch you later,” Jenny said, and I left for my office.

I was in my little prefab kingdom, AKA my office, doing what pilots are supposed to do, reading up on the latest NOTAMs, (NOtices To Air Missions) and looking at the long-term weather forecast. I was also contemplating the things Jenny told me. Also, I would need to play it very safe around Bobbie.

It was just after two o’clock when ice-blue eyes companioned by a 1000-watt smile peered into my office door.

“Hi Mister Louis. Are you busy?”

“As always, but for you, I have time! I must take a break also.” I fibbed.

“Okay, goody. I need some help on my math,” Bobbie said, cocking her head to one side, doing that shy girlie thing that melts my heart to liquid mash.

“Right on, girl, drop your stuff on the desk. But first, I need to take a break. I’ve been holed up in this office for more than two hours. Let’s take a walk and get some fresh air,” and I got up and stretched.

Bobbie skipped into the office and dropped her school bag on one of the chairs.

We walked out of the office. Make that I walked out. Miss Sunshine skipped out ahead of me. “Can we go look at the helicopter, please?” she begged.

How can I resist such a request.

“Sure Bobbie. Let’s go see the bird.”

“Why do you call it a bird and every time you talk about it, you refer to it as a SHE?”

“Bobbie, that is just using terms that humanise mechanical things. A lot of people refer to cars, ships and aeroplanes as ‘she’. AND she flies. That make her a bird!” I answered the curiosity of Bobbie here next to me.

Giggle “Like she’s got a personality and can talk.”

I just love that giggle. I need to make her laugh more, smile more. And giggle. It seems to me while Bobbie is at the airfield she is at a happy place.

We reached the Puma and I, out of habit, started a walk around. Bobbie was never so close to the Puma, and I started to tell her about the different parts of the craft. I pointed out the different control surfaces and told her what each one does and how it operates.

She certainly had more questions, and as I answered each one, she nodded her head with those blue eyes as large as saucers. And then I realised that she not only understood what I was explaining in layman’s terms, but her questions were becoming more technical, and I had to put my instructor’s hat on.