Date: Thu, 06 Jun 2002 16:18:05 -0400
From: TgrPaw@gmail.com
Subject: can-you-spare-a-quarter - 6

========================
Can You Spare a Quarter?
========================

Dedicated to "D":

   We didn't meet this way, it probably wouldn't have been anything like
   this if we had met this way, but if we had, I hope it might have been
   something like this.   {{{{ hugs }}}}

Disclaimer:

   Names of people, places, companies, and so forth are completely
   fictional.  While this story draws inspiration from real events which
   involved real people, it is nonetheless a complete work of fiction.

Copyright:

   2002; All rights reserved.

Comments:

   Email can be sent to TgrPaw@gmail.com

   Flames, hate mail, and similar things will be ignored.

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6. Taking Flight

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Jamie suddenly came awake and didn't remember where he was.  For a
brief moment he was scared, but then looking around the small room,
he remembered the previous day's events and relaxed.

Looking over to the other side of the room, where a single overhead
light still burned, he saw Graham seated at the table.  His head was
laying in the middle of a pile of papers next to a laptop computer and
he was clearly fast asleep.

Jamie felt bad because he had slept in the only bed in the apartment.
Graham had opened the bed up for him and clearly wanted him to use it,
but nevertheless Jamie felt uneasy at having deprived Graham of a proper
place to sleep.

He got up and walked over and stood next to Graham.  Placing one hand
on Graham's shoulder, Jamie spoke softly while shaking Graham gently to
get him to wake up.

"Graham, you can sleep in the bed," Jamie said gently.

Graham moved slightly and groaned as Jamie spoke.

"I don't need any more sleep, you should get in the bed now," added
Jamie a little bit louder.

Graham's eyelids began to flicker and he slowly began to raise his head
up off the table's surface.

"Oh!  Oh my goodness!  Oh my back," moaned Graham as he felt what seemed
to be every last muscle in his back and shoulders voicing their complaint
over their mistreatment.

Finally completely sitting up, he looked at Jamie and smiled.  Standing
there in a rumpled t-shirt with messed up hair, Jamie looked so cute
and innocent.  Graham had to remind himself that this was the same poor
little guy he'd seen only yesterday dirty and begging for food.

"How did you sleep, Jamie?" asked Graham.

"Oh, I slept great," replied Jamie, "but you really should have come to
bed too so you wouldn't get all sore like that."

"I'll recover, don't worry," said Graham as he staggered to his feet
and took a few tentative steps around the room to try and get his legs
working.

Graham saw that it was 5 o'clock in the morning, and decided he'd might
as well get busy and put together some breakfast for both of them.

"I think I'll just go into the office early today, and then I'll be able
to get out early too.  By the way, I don't usually have much breakfast.
Is just some cereal OK with you?" Graham asked.

"Anything at all is fantastic," replied Jamie.

"I promise I'll do better on the weekend," said Graham as he stumbled
into the kitchen and got out some bowls and put them on the counter.

Looking in the cupboard, Graham brought out a box of cereal and put some
in each bowl, and then he pulled a box of milk from the refrigerator
and poured some in each bowl on top of the cereal.  He then got out two
glasses and filled them both with apple juice from a container that was
also in the refrigerator.

Graham moved some of the papers on the table off to one side and made
room for the two of them to put their bowls and juice down.  Then he
and Jamie sat down and had their breakfast.  Both of them concentrated
on eating, and made short work of the cereal.

"I managed to get almost everything I needed to do done last night while
you were sleeping," began Graham, "but I do need to go into the office
this morning for an hour.  That way I can finish off a couple of things
and then hand it all to the boss.  However, after that I can leave,
and if you're able to, we could spend the weekend together.  What do
you think of that idea?"

Jamie thought for a moment that this was the signal for him to beat it.
However, the look on Graham's face, and the way he'd put things made Jamie
decide that there was a chance Graham was serious about allowing him to
spend the weekend here.  Although at first hesitant, Jamie decided that
based on what had happened, or more specifically what hadn't happened,
made it worth the risk of staying longer.

"Yes, that would be nice," Jamie replied after a pause.

"You can wait here if you like while I'm at work.  Sleep some more,
or watch TV, or anything else you like," said Graham.

"Stay here while you're gone?" asked Jamie with great surprise.
He thought that at best, he'd be might asked to wait outside.

"Sure, I trust you," replied Graham surprising himself, "and I won't be
all that long anyway.  While I'm gone you can shower, get dressed in your
new things, and then we can go and have a little adventure this weekend."

"An adventure?" Jamie asked dubiously.

"You'll like it I think, but I want to surprise you, so no details right
now," added Graham mysteriously.

Jamie didn't really believe it was going to be something he would
like, but he was willing to go along with whatever Graham had in mind.
Things had been pretty good thus far, and with any luck, maybe it would
continue like that for a while before Graham got too rough with him.

"OK, so you go to work and I'll wait here for you then," said Jamie.

"Swell," replied Graham, "So I'm going to get washed up now, then I can
go to the office.  I should be back around ten o'clock or maybe eleven
at the absolute latest."

Graham headed for the bathroom.  As he looked in the mirror and shaved
he wondered what he was getting himself into.  Letting a street boy stay
in his place while he wasn't here?  That wasn't like Graham at all.
Likely he'd return and find the place destroyed or cleaned out, but
something about Jamie suggested to Graham that everything would be fine.
This boy was very quickly growing on Graham, and there was that nagging
feeling that something was coming together in Graham's mind.  He still
couldn't put his finger on whatever it was though.

Showering quickly, Graham put on a fresh shirt along with his suit and
tie and soon emerged from the bathroom.  Going over to the kitchen table,
he collected up the papers that had been his pillow during the night
and put them in his briefcase.  Turning off and unplugging the laptop,
he added that to the top of the pile and then shut the briefcase.

"I don't have a spare key to give you," said Graham, "do you think you'll
need to go out for anything?"

"No, I don't need to go out," replied Jamie, now fully believing that
Graham didn't mean to dump him, at least not right away.

"OK, that's great.  I'm sorry to have to run, but you know how it is,
if you don't keep the boss happy, he gets on your back," joked Graham.

"It's OK, I understand," Jamie replied.

As he walked towards the door Graham said, "So I'll see you in a few
hours then Jamie," and then he opened the door and went out, closing
and locking it behind him.

Jamie looked at the closed door and was surprised once again at this man.
How did Graham know it would be safe to leave him alone in his apartment?
How did Graham know he wouldn't steal something?  Jamie knew himself
that he wouldn't, but how did Graham know that he could trust him?

While he pondered the mystery of Graham, Jamie picked up the remote
control for the TV set and began to flip through the channels to see if
he could find something to watch.

                               *** *** *** ***

Graham decided to take the car to work rather than the bus.  Since he was
planning on it being a short day, he didn't want to waste time standing
in lines waiting for transit to get back and forth and the introduction
of Jamie into the equation added to that view.

The early morning traffic was very light, and before long Graham was
pulling into a parking place in the parking garage beneath the office
tower.  With any luck he'd have the report finished quickly and could
then deliver it to his boss and be gone.  Graham normally worked a short
day on Fridays so that he could catch the afternoon flight out of town,
and he was planning on today being even shorter than usual.

Graham went up the elevator to his floor and headed for his desk.  CSI was
the same as all companies these days, and Graham had to thread his way
through a maze of cubicles in order to find his own spot.  He knew it
was a more efficient use of available floor space, but it didn't mean
he had to like living in a glorified rat's maze.

Sitting down at his desk, Graham opened his briefcase, pulled out the
papers, and the laptop.  He inserted the machine into its docking station
and started it up, and shortly was greeted by the Windows start up screen.
'The world's best known warning label' Graham thought to himself with
wry amusement as the system gradually made itself available for use.
Graham couldn't wait for the day he could say good-bye to Microsoft and
it's collection of bugs collectively marketed as what passed for an
operating system.

As others gradually arrived at the office, Graham continued working away
at the keyboard.  He put the final touches on the report regarding the
deal he'd completed yesterday.  Then he carefully proofread it before
printing it out.  By the time his boss had arrived at 9am, Graham had
finished the report, three-hole punched it, and had inserted it into
a binder.  After giving his boss ten minutes to get settled Graham went
to see him, the report carefully tucked under his arm.

"Good morning, Mark," said Graham cheerfully as he walked into the
boss's office.

"Ah, Graham, good morning.  What have you got there?" replied his boss.

"This is the final report on the details for the deal with Acme Food
Distributors," answered Graham.

"You've got it all wrapped up?" inquired Graham's boss.

"Yes, it's all here, revenue versus cost projections, service level
descriptions, response time agreements, the whole thing," said Graham.

"What do the financial's look like?" asked his boss.

"Payback for the client is after eleven months, and after six months
for us," said Graham.

Graham's boss thumbed through the report and smiled broadly, "This is
superb!  This is going to make both sides happy, and it's going to give
a nice boost to the numbers for the department just before the year-end.
I'm not going to forget this when it comes bonus time in a couple of
weeks either."

Graham smiled and said, "Thanks very much, I appreciate that."

Graham knew that all manager's pay was directly tied to the financial
results of their divisions.  With Graham closing one more deal just
before the year-end, his boss was going to get a larger bonus than he'd
been expecting.  Graham hoped that the boss's happiness would result in
more than just a 'thank you' when the regular staff's bonuses came out
next week.

"You deserve it, I can always count on a thorough job when you tackle
something and that's why I give you the tough accounts," Graham's
boss added.

"Now that this is out of the way, I need to ask for a bit of time off,"
began Graham, "I've a bit of a personal situation that needs attending
to, and I'd like to advance my Christmas vacation so that it starts now
if you don't mind."

Graham's boss leaned forward in his chair, and asked "You've got
everything tidied up, no loose ends anywhere?"

"No, this is the last project and it's all complete now," answered Graham.

Knowing Graham to be a man of his word, and always meticulous, his
boss agreed, and shortly Graham was back at his desk.  He put away the
scattered papers, some going into file folders which then found their
way into the cabinet next to him, others going into the blue recycling
bin under his desk.

Once everything was put away and the desktop cleared, Graham reached
for the phone and dialed.

"Yes, is David Greene there?  Dave?  It's Graham.  Bumped into anything
with that plane of yours lately?  Oh, so you're getting better are you?
Well I'm sure the insurance adjusters will be pleased to hear that.  Me?
No, I've not sold any shoddy computers this week.  Maybe next week if
I'm lucky.  Dave, reason I called is I was wondering if there's any
chance I can get a second seat on the flight today?" Graham asked.

"Well, you see, my sister has dropped her kid off with me, and he's going
to spend the weekend with me, so I need the second one," Graham continued.

"No, he's not big, maybe a hundred pounds at most, and no you don't need
to worry about luggage.  Well, maybe he could sit up next to you, if
you've got a full load.  Yes, I know, but maybe the other passengers might
appreciate it if you had a co-pilot to keep an eye on you," Graham joked.

"OK, so I'll see you at the regular time, and you can add it to my bill.
Thanks a lot Dave, see you in an hour or so," said Graham as he hung up.

Graham looked at the cleaned off desktop for a moment.  Then for reasons
he didn't quite understand, he reached into the top drawer of his desk
and removed the mug he had his tea in.  The mug went into his now empty
briefcase, and he closed it.

Putting on his overcoat, Graham picked up his briefcase and took a couple
of steps away from his cubicle.  He paused for a moment and looked
back at his spot, then turned on his heel and strode to the elevator.
When it arrived he got in and punched the button for the parking garage.

                               *** *** *** ***

Back at the apartment, Jamie was getting ready to give up on the
television set.  It was true what they said, ninety-nine channels and
nothing on.  Morning television didn't exactly provide a lot of choices
that were interesting to a twelve year old boy.  Between political pundits
ranting on about how they would solve the latest mideast crisis, Oprah
interviewing yet another author, and lesser fare encouraging people to
humiliate themselves publicly, it was pretty bad all around.

Jamie had finally settled on a detective movie that was on one channel.
It looked a bit old to Jamie, but it also had a lot of humour he found.
The main character was this rather odd and shabbily dressed policeman.
He drove a beat-up old car, was soft spoken, and seemed to have the
strange ability of being able to trip people up by just using his wits.

Suddenly the image of Graham flashed into Jamie's mind, and he realized
that this strange character on the TV reminded him of Graham.  He puzzled
on the seeming contradictions that Graham had exhibited, and wondered
what else lay beneath the surface.

As Jamie was considering the situation, and watching the movie on
TV, he heard a key in the apartment door and jumped out of the sofa.
Running into the kitchen area to hide, he peeked around the corner to see
who was coming through the door.  When he saw it was Graham, he relaxed,
and came and sat back down on the sofa.

"So, how are you doing?" asked Graham.

"Pretty good," said Jamie, "I found this funny movie and I've been
watching it."

Graham glanced at the set for a second, and then putting one hand to
his forehead, said in a strange voice, "Ah, just one more thing Sir ..."

Jamie laughed, and said, "Yeah, that's him."

Graham chuckled, and said, "I've loved those shows for years.  He kind
of reminds me of me in many ways."

"You know, that's just what I was thinking too," said Jamie.

Graham smiled at Jamie's comment, and said, "We'll be able to go soon,
I just need to pick up a few things first."

Jamie looked back at the television as Graham went to the closet and
pulled out a small suitcase.  For the next few minutes, Graham went
around the apartment and collected various items and deposited them into
the suitcase.

"How was work?" asked Jamie.

"Not too bad.  No job is great, but this one is fairly tolerable," Graham
replied as he headed into the kitchen to tidy up the dishes from breakfast
that he'd forgotten in his rush to get to the office that morning.

As Graham entered the kitchen he saw that the cereal bowls, and juice
glasses had been washed and dried and placed on the counter.  Graham's
eyebrows went up, and he took them and put them back into the cupboard.

"Thanks very much for washing the dishes, I wasn't expecting that,"
said Graham with a smile.

"It's the least I could after everything you've done," replied Jamie.

"Well I've not done that much," said Graham feeling a bit uncomfortable.

"To me you have," said Jamie with marked sincerity.

Feeling a bit on the spot, Graham changed the subject and asked,
"So are you ready go on our weekend adventure?"

Jamie wasn't sure he was, but replied, "Sure, what are we going to do?"

"Well, how about you collect your things, and then I'll show you,"
said Graham.

Jamie picked up his old clothes from where he'd carefully placed them,
and brought them to Graham.  Graham took a plastic bag out of the closet
and put the clothes into it and then placed them into the small suitcase.
Then Graham pulled out a second plastic bag and Jamie put his old running
shoes into it.  These then followed the clothes into the small suitcase.

Taking a final look around the apartment and not finding anything,
Graham shut the suitcase and locked it.  Placing it next to the door,
he turned back towards Jamie.

"So, anything you need to do before we go?" asked Graham.

"No, I'm ready any time," said Jamie as he shut off the television set.

"OK, let's get going then, we don't want to be late," said Graham.

"Late for what?" asked Jamie.

"You'll see," said Graham with a grin.

Jamie accepted Graham's comment but still felt a bit concerned about
what Graham was planning.

They headed out of the door and Graham locked it behind them.  Graham and
Jamie got into the elevator and when they arrived at ground level,
they went out to the car.  After stowing the suitcase in the back,
they both got in and Graham soon had the car heading out onto the road.

"So, where are we going?" asked Jamie.

"Well if I told you, it wouldn't be a surprise now would it?" replied
Graham with mystery.

Graham saw the concerned look on Jamie's face and added, "Don't worry
Jamie, you'll like it, really you will."

Jamie decided to wait before making up his mind.  Things with Graham
had been reasonable so far, actually far more than just reasonable,
Jamie had to admit.  The question was, how long they would remain so
before he would have to run?  He knew all too well that, no matter how
good things might appear, they would eventually change - they always did.

Graham drove the car in, around, and through the traffic, doing his
best to get from the side of town where the apartment was, to the other
side with a minimum of delay.  It seemed to Graham at times, that there
were traffic lights almost every block, but gradually they made their
way through the maze of cars.  Eventually Jamie recognized the suburb
they were entering, and was puzzled.  What was out here that could be
classified as an adventure?  Then Graham made one more turn, and Jamie
saw the big blue sign hanging down from overhead pointing the way to
the airport.

"We're going to the airport?" asked Jamie with surprise.

"Well, kind of," replied Graham somewhat cryptically.

The car shortly made another couple of quick turns and Jamie saw that
they were approaching a small building that was adjacent to an inlet.
Graham turned off the main road and pulled into a parking lot next to
the building.

"We're here," said Graham.

"Here?" asked Jamie, "There's nothing here."

"Oh, I think there is," said Graham with a big grin.

Graham went around to the back of the car and pulled out the suitcase.
Coming back around he locked the doors and then pointed towards the little
building that Jamie had seen as they arrived.  They walked the few hundred
yards from the car to the building in silence.  As they approached the
building, Jamie looked above the door and saw an old sign that said
'Eagle Airways'.  It certainly didn't sound like any airline he'd ever
heard of and the rundown look of the building and its sign didn't exactly
inspire confidence.

Graham opened the front door to the building, and waited for Jamie to
pass through.

"You'd better hurry, you don't want them to leave without you," Graham
said.

"What kind of place is this?" asked Jamie with some concern in his voice.

"Just a moment and I'll show you," said Graham.

Graham went up to a Dutch door with the top half open, and announced
himself.  A female clerk inside the small office recognized Graham.

"You're here finally," she said.

"Yes, we're here, sorry for the delay," replied Graham.

"We were starting to wonder about you, you'd better head right out" said
the clerk as she checked off Graham's name on a list that she was holding.

Graham motioned for Jamie to join him as he headed for a door on the
opposite side of the little building.  Opening the door, Graham let
Jamie go through first.

As he stepped through the door and into the daylight outside, Jamie
found himself looking at a float plane sitting in the water tied to a
dock just below the level of the building.

"We're going in that?" Jamie asked.

"You can't get to where we're going in an ordinary plane you know,"
replied Graham with a smile.

A large burly man came up to Graham and Jamie as they stood looking
at the plane.  The man nodded to Graham and took the suitcase that he
was carrying, then walked back down to the plane and placed it in the
cargo hold.

Graham and Jamie walked down to the dock the plane was tied to as the man
stowed the suitcase.  Graham climbed into the plane first and then reached
back and helped Jamie to get in.  Graham took the only remaining seat
and Jamie looked around but all the other seats appeared to be occupied.

The large man who had just put the suitcase away climbed in as well and
pulled the door shut after him.  Jamie couldn't see how this was going to
work.  With the man in the plane now, there was hardly even room to move.

Winking at Graham, the big man knelt down next to Jamie and said in a
deep voice, "Excuse me young man, will you come with me?"

Jamie looked towards Graham for support, but Graham appeared to
be completely engrossed with a sheet of paper he was looking at.
Concerned about not having a seat and confused, Jamie followed the man
to the front of the plane.

"You sit there," said the man gruffly, pointing at the co-pilot's seat.

"Me?  There?" asked Jamie with shock.

"Well you're not going to be much use to me sitting back there," said
the man while nodding towards the back of the plane.

Jamie was beginning to get worried but after looking back towards Graham
again and seeing a big smile on his face, Jamie realized that this must
have been the plan all along.  Jamie sat in his seat and seeing the man
buckle himself in, Jamie did the same with his seatbelt.  Then he looked
at the various gauges and switches on the console and wondered what they
were all for.

Calling out loudly to the people on the plane, the man said "OK, everyone,
I'm Dave and I'm your pilot.  We're lucky today to have a co-pilot, so for
a change when things go wrong today, I'll have someone to help me out."

Jamie blushed as he heard the chuckles coming from the passengers behind
him, but he was still pleased to have such a good seat.  He wondered if
Graham knew that he'd never seen a plane up close, let alone been inside
one.  Whatever Graham had in mind, it was certainly starting to look good.

Jamie started to look out the plane's view screen, but when nothing seemed
to be happening, he looked over at the pilot curious why everything
was quiet.  Jamie was puzzled when he saw the big man was just sitting
there with his arms folded and looking at him.

When Jamie finally turned in his direction, Dave said, "Well nothing is
going to happen until you start the engine you know.  After all it is
the co-pilot's job."

Jamie's mouth opened, and he didn't know what to say at first, but
eventually he managed to say in a small voice, "But I don't know anything
about flying a plane."

"What?  I thought you were a certified co-pilot?" said Dave with shock
in his voice.

"No, I don't know anything at all about planes," said Jamie getting
concerned.

"Well, just press this button here," said Dave pointing at the console,
"and let's just hope there aren't any inspectors around from the
International Brotherhood of Co-pilots."

Realizing now that the man was joking with him, Jamie reached over and
pressed the button Dave had pointing to and the engine roared to life.

Dave took hold of the controls and called out, "Hang onto your hats
everyone, here goes nothing!"

Jamie looked back towards Graham who grinned at him and winked, and
Jamie relaxed.  He was starting to realize this Dave, their pilot, was a
bit of a character.  Despite his strange manner, he seemed to know what
he was doing, Dave was carefully steering the float plane away from the
dock and into the central area of the inlet.

As Jamie looked back towards the front of the plane, Dave was throttling
up the engines to full and the plane began to pick up speed rapidly.
In a matter of less than a minute the plane was soon skimming along the
water at high speed.

"Oh wow!" Jamie exclaimed as the plane finally rose up from the water
and pulled up and headed out away from the coast.