Rumours
Chris Anderson is a great pilot and a great guy. His relationship with Flight Attendant Tamara Wilkinson is progressing at an amazing pace and all is right with his world until hidden obligations crop up that require an unannounced absence. Rumours are part of human nature and can take on a life of their own. VisionAire is not immune to that human flaw which threatens dire consequences.
Hello, it’s me, Telma. Everything is fine at VisionAire, business as usual with the sole exception of poor Captain Anderson. It’s really a shame you know, what happened to him. We all share a little of the blame, but there really was no malice in what happened, it was just rumours and idle gossip and never should have gone so far. In our close knit aviation life, gossip can be a problem. It’s a sobering thought that just a few harmless words can have near tragic consequences. We say things every day without thinking, never realizing that words can also be weapons that hurt even though they were never intended to do so. Did you ever stand idly by and watch something really stupid happen? Did you wish later that you had intervened, even though you knew that anything you tried to do would probably have made things worse? I have and now I have to tell someone, because I feel so guilty so I’m writing to you about it. Chris Anderson was a new hire, but he fit right in and everyone quickly came to adore him. He was just as handsome as Grant and some of our other pilots…but in a totally different way. Just a tad older than the others, he had the rugged good looks of an action adventure movie star. With a craggy face, he looked like the wrong guy to tangle with. The only time I saw his lethal potential was at a restaurant in New York when he first came onboard our airline. Charles Stross, our CEO and chief hunk at VisionAire, had offered to buy dinner for the whole crew at the beginning of a four day mandated crew rest. The entire crew (Captain Grant Edwards was doing Captain Anderson’s flight checks) was taken to an expensive restaurant in Manhattan. As we approached the entrance, We heard screams from across the street, and saw a flamboyantly dressed man slapping a young girl who was obviously a prostitute. It was a brutal beating, and Chris excused himself from the group. He cros sed the four lanes of traffic in just a few strides, catching the out flung hand of the pimp, who was about to strike the girl again. Grant (Captain Edwards) started to go to Chris’s aid, but Charles held him back. “Trust me Grant,” Charles said, “the only one who needs any help is the pimp.” Charles smiled and we looked at him in amazement. Then there was another cry from across the street, to our shock it was that of a man. The pimp was on his knees and begging Chris to let him go. Chris asked the girl to leave, and stood watching as she reluctantly fled the scene. We never saw what actually happened, but the pimp excited stage left in another direction. When Chris returned, Charles smiled at him. “You know she’ll be right back with him in an hour, right?” “I know,” said Chris, “but he won’t hit her where I can see him anymore. Shall we??” suggested Chris, holding his arm out for me, he was totally unruffled. His dinner jacket wasn’t even mussed. Chris proved to be a charming dinner companion, and had a large stock of funny tales about people from around the world that kept us all laughing. Charles let him select the wine for dinner, he had a particular fondness for Argentine varieties. Charles challenged his knowledge of the wines, being the true connoisseur that he is, but Chris proved up to the task and we all got an interesting explanation of why Argentine wines are so delicious. He went into great detail, describing how the vines had been transplanted from France, and how the acid soil of the foothills of the Andes was the perfect place for wine grapes to be grown. It was an entertaining discussion, and it changed the way I order wine forever. There was no further mention of the pimp or of Charles’ strange comment about the pimp needing help. Chris was single, and it wasn’t very long before one of our lovely attendants managed to entice him to her bed…We spend a great deal of time away from home. It’s only natural that the unattached women (and some of the attached ones) take comfort where they can find it on our grueling schedule. Of course, there is no escaping the gossip that ripples through the organization, it’s human nature and not one of the things we really condone…but how does one stop it?
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