Late One Night

By David Reed

 It's 1985 and I find myself in north Florida fresh out of the Navy and with the flimsiest of flying jobs. I am 31 years old, and hopeful; I just couldn't hardly pay the electric bill. I wasn't sure this flying idea was going to work at all.

The people I worked for, this couple, they had a really nice airplane, called a Beechcraft Baron 56TC. In the small airplane world, it's a rocket built like a tank. The business was called Capricorn Aviation because the owner was into astrology. Now, we had this contract with some other business that, if one of their airplanes broke down, we'd fill in for them. Didn't happen very often, but when it did, I could pay part of one bill.

One Saturday night, everyone is gone to the party restaurant, while I'm finishing up at the airport, the on-call guy. That's means no drinking, you. I'm sitting in this small trailer, doing paperwork, when the phone rings. It's the boss, Mrs. Fletcher, at Bennigan’s.

"Sunstrand wants us to take some stuff down to Orlando Executive, Kale Aviation. It's coming to the airport, be there in maybe ten minutes. Take the Baron if you want."

First thing I do is file a flight plan. Here to Orlando Executive Airport is less than an hour, plenty of gas, get on the desktop and file it. Second thing was something else. See, there was this girl, Karen Fisher. She was working on her private pilot license thanks to dear old Dad's money, and I was her instructor at Capricorn Aviation. Flight plan filed, I next called Karen on her cell phone. She answered. I told her what I was doing and "...if you want to go along, you gotta be here in like ten minutes."

Shot in the dark for me, for sure. I never thought for a second she would show up. For one thing, she was only like 18 years old and it was a Saturday night. Still, if she wants to seriously become a pilot then this is a great opportunity. Or not. As I'm pre-flighting the Baron, this car comes racing up, screeching to a dusty halt a few feet behind the airplane. Holy cow, it's Karen! I'm......speechless.

We shared a smoke, then sure enough this little truck pulls up and hands us a small box. Off we went, flying in clear skies down to Orlando Executive Airport. In about 45 minutes (too soon- Karen was always a funny girl to be with) we landed, taxied to Kale Aviation. Some guy in a small truck took the box and we were done.

I showed her where we get free coffee in the crew lounge. I sat in a big Lazy-Boy chair, so nice! Suddenly she's sitting in the chair too, wiggling in with me. I froze of course, not a clue what to do next. We rocked back and forth a little, then got up. Ended up just walking out to the airplane. I suddenly remembered I hadn't filed a flight plan home, but the skies were clear and warm, so the heck with it, we'd just go by ourselves. We started up, taxied that beast of a machine out and took off for home. The sound of those two big engines is beautiful indeed.

Soon as I leveled off at 3500', Karen turns to me, headset on. "Wanna play a game?"

"Uh, um, ok..." I said, not sure what to expect next from oh-so-good-looking Karen. A full moon lit up the sky behind her. She leaned over, said into my ear without the microphone, "I'll kiss you, but you have to let go of the controls while I do. See how long we can go."

Yes, my eyes were as big as saucers. I'm kinda laughing, holy cow! I paused. Wait, ok, eighteen is legal, right? But this night, the hormones won in a landslide victory. I said, "Ok, sure!" She took out her gum, leaned over. I moved my microphone away, let go of the wheel and she proceeded to kiss me. I watched the panel out of the corner of my eye, as the 'other thing' was happening between our lips. Talk about distracted! As the airplane started to tilt, I stopped kissing, righted it back to level, and presto. We went right back at it again.

Second time, I'm just really, really enjoying this. But seriously, who wouldn't be? When I start to reach for the control wheel again, she instead grabs my hand and presses it firmly against her right breast. What airplane? I nudged the right rudder with my toe a little, helping things stay put. Our passionate moment lasted just a few, several, ok, many seconds. Finally, we stopped, I landed with this huge grin on my face. We went our happy, separate ways.

Then a day or two later, a job suddenly popped up that I just couldn’t afford to refuse. A week later I left Jacksonville. Never saw Karen again. But Karen, I sure do remember late one night with you. 💕