Can Am Story

by Oliver Rill

  “Oliver, I am an interior decorator for houses. I do villas, terraced cottages and apartments. Not airplanes!”

  “Debbie, I can’t live without you!” I begged comically.

  “I know. All the men say that. What was the second thing?”

  “Can you use your womanly wiles on Ad’s lawyer? I need another green card for a foreigner. Maybe with your influence, he will do it? I know it’s a lot to ask, but you have such charm!”

  “Ha ha ha! You’re learning, Oliver. I will, because it’s Christmas. But don’t expect any suggestions before New Year. I’ve got family, as you know.”

  “God bless you, Debbie! You are the embodiment of generosity!”

  “I feel sick.” She said. And hung up.

  I took Daniel to the side and offered him the job of training and quality control of cabin staff to alleviate Aristo’s workload, since the stewardesses that Aristo had found had absolutely no experience or training of any use to us. He would have to start recruiting waiters, sightseeing guides and other people to put on our airplanes. He was delighted and accepted on the spot.

  I gave my mum a necklace and earring set of aquamarine stones set in silver. My dad was more problematic. I ended up giving him a voucher for Amazon. Otherwise it was the normal gifts for Christmas. I left my Fiat 500 with mum as before. We used the taxi all the time as it was easier since we were meeting people and alcohol was involved a lot of the time. I got catering in for MM’s mother, to save her some work and allow her some time to relax, when my parents, Marie, and a few friends gathered there for Christmas festivities. The Meiers lived in a nice middle class area in Spandau in a cared for, pretty detached house with an established, tidy garden surrounding a calming wildlife pond.

  A log fire gave a hearty welcome as you walked into the lounge. The tree twinkled in a stately manner in the corner and the beautifully laid table offered a sense of well-being and joy. There were three courses. Martin’s mum had insisted that she was the only one who could make the sides: a traditional beetroot salad and her own special salad, then devoured a prawn pasta and finally a pair of glazed ducks, displayed in all their glory on a bed of rocket and baby tomatoes.

  After we sank into the plump sofas for drinks, getting louder as the evening got longer. I extracted a promise from all of them that they would visit me in September or October next year. We could firm up the date when I popped back to Berlin. I would probably return before then for visit. My mother looked at me with big, worried eyes and told me I could come anytime. Anytime, she insisted, but sooner was better than later.

  We celebrated New Year in my old haunt GMF, the only nightclub in Berlin as far as I was concerned. Both Superdandy and Cesco were playing and it was great to finally be in that special Berlin club atmosphere. I hadn’t been out in Berlin for a whole ten months and I had missed it. Cesco and Dandy were glad to see me, but I couldn’t promise to meet them again, as we were due to fly back on the second of January. The club was packed with hot guys, some of whom even showed a passing interest in me. I flirted in passing, but my mind was on Matt. I missed him, when I saw the good looking, muscular forms.

  “Stop thinking about Matt and dance! Come on!” Aristo was right. I was here and owed myself some down time. And I owed it to Aristo too. I would soon have my nose to the grindstone again and so I pushed my Greek Adonis onto the dance floor and we danced until four.

  On New Year’s day I didn’t’ leave my room. I missed Matt, had a massive hangover and it was cold and wet outside. I was also feeling guilty about my father. I would have preferred to find him a job where he could pass the time without too much effort and improve his financial status a little. I could afford it, but I just didn’t’ have a job for him. On the other hand, I did want to save some cash and not spend so much. I didn’t know what was coming around the corner, whether Am Cam would continue to be profitable, if I would fail somewhere and have to bail it out. I would get another three hundred thousand at the end of the coming year, but then I would be on my own. In the end I struck a compromise and asked him to come over to dinner in the hotel.

  Daddy had spruced up for the occasion. He wore a red shirt under a red sweater and beige jeans. The jacket, however, was a little out of place. We sat in the restaurant and ordered.

  “Dad, I want to do something for you, but I don’t know what. And I would like to continue to help you in the future, but I just don’t know how it’s all going to develop.” Since I wasn’t going to be there for his birthday, I wanted to at least send him and his girlfriend, Angelica, to Asia on the holiday that they had been saving for, for over a year.

  “Book something really fantastic! Be extravagant, I’ll pay.”

  Dad’s brow furrowed.

  “The Amazon voucher already was so expensive! You’re spending money hand over fist. Go easy with it, son.” Of course he didn’t know how much I had.

  “Please Dad. Take it. I can do this now, but I don’t know how long I will be able to do it. Let me give you something back. Please take it.” He acquiesced with dignity.

  “How much did you spend in Berlin?” Asked Aristo. The sleep-masks always looked so strange on the flights, but they were needed just like the sick bags and the obligatory tomato juice.

  “Only around three thousand.”

  “Only three? You are rolling in it! That’s a lot of money. In Greece they are lucky to have 300 to spend.”

  “Believe me, it wasn’t a lot.”

  “Are you really that rich?”

  “Not rich. Just, well, well off.”

  “Come on, tell me. How much do you earn?”

  I avoided the question and blabbered on about the success of the airline and that my pay came through JB Homes. It was no good. Aristo was like a terrier with a bone, yet somehow, he was also like my little brother. I just didn’t want to tell him.

  “Enough! Trust me!”

  Matt. Matt stood there with his thick black hair gelled back. One solitary strand fell across his forehead. He wore a black T-shirt with a large V cut out. You could see where the breast muscles stopped and the sternum took over. His blue jeans hugged his legs giving form to the well-oiled muscles.

  “Oli. Your guy looks like a regular Adonis!” Was he really mine? This mega-cool guy. Matt took me into his arms and kissed me. Really kissed me. Right there in the very public arrivals hall.

  “Matt! Not here!”

  “Then let’s go home right away. We have two weeks to make up for. Aristo, I’m sorry, but the boss belongs to me today.” Aristo laughed.

  “Yeah, I get it. I’ll see you at breakfast tomorrow.”

  I was exhausted. I couldn’t tell if it was the late, heavy drinking on New Year or the long boring flight with the change in the middle. One seemed to merge in my mind with the other.

  “Anything new happening in the office?”

  “I think you’ve got to meet up with Alan. He says he can help us out again, but he wants to talk to you about it. I am just the assistant.” Matt lay next to me on the sunbed at the poolside with his eyes closed. He told me about his Christmas with his dad, how he spent New Year with friends and all I could do was ogle his beautiful body in spite of my tiredness. “Oli, I can feel you undressing me with your eyes, even with my eyes closed.” I was caught red handed.

  “You are just so handsome. I can’t help it.”

  “I’ve been doing extra training all weekend, just for you! What did you want?”

  I whispered it in his ear and he said “Go, fetch it!”

  Next morning, at breakfast Aristo told us to stop grinning as it was giving away all our secrets from the night before.

  We drove to the office together. In my meeting with Rebecca, I asked her to start advertising the new routes and allocated a small budget for it. Debbie called to let me know that the plans for the first class section were ready and waiting and she would like some feedback from me, if she was going to do stuff that weren’t really in her remit.

  In the packet fr
om Delta there was a magnum of Champagne from Edgar Sebastian, who would be taking the rudder in Delta from May this year. The handwritten note invited me for a drink.

  Let’s raise our glasses together sometime,

  Best wishes,

  Edgar

  Oh, boy! I didn’t have a good feeling about it. I had estranged Garcia from United already, Chambers from American Airlines was only helpful when it suited him. What was Delta going to throw my way? I called Chambers first and thanked him again for the great flight. I chatted freely with him for a while and he let me know that I still wouldn’t get any slots from him and that he was keeping his eye on me. He had no idea, so he said, what Edgar Sebastian was like.

  “Why don’t you come over to Atlanta and get to know me. Can I send you a ticket?”

  I wanted to tell him that we had our own routes into Atlanta, but I didn’t. I didn’t want to put up a barrier, but nor did I want to get pally with Edgar from Delta.

  “Yeah, that’d be great. I haven’t flown with Delta for an age!”

  Rebecca rang three times while I was talking with Debbie, telling me she had to talk to me urgently. Right at that point I was more interested in Debbie’s plans. Both were really good. I called Matt in and asked his opinion. He liked the first one. Aristo, who I called next agreed. So the first class section had plans and I could give the contract out to someone.

  “Are you sleeping with both of them or just one of them?” Debbie enquired innocently.

  “I beg your pardon?”

  “A heterosexual man doesn’t have a muscular male model sitting in front of his door. Men don’t like rivals, you know? A hetero man has a Barbie or his Oedipus object sitting in front of his door, but not a cover boy. And certainly not two of them!”

  I laughed to cover my embarrassment.

  “Come on. Tell me, which one is it? The American or the Greek?”

  “I’ve precise instructions about what I am allowed to say and what I am not, Debbie.”

  “Should I take my first class plans away again and tell Daddy that you keep holding up my work with your stuff? Or should I sue you because you have stolen away part of my inheritance?”

  “I haven’t stolen anything!”

  “Come on! It will be our secret.”

  “Ok, ok. But if the press get wind of it, I will have to kill you. You know that, don’t you? It’s Matt.”

  “God! I knew it! I just couldn’t decide which.”

  “Have you got a dark and dirty secret too?”

  “Of course I have. But I wouldn’t go peddling it around like you! I have to go. Take care.”

  Debbie’s manner was brusque to the point of rudeness, but I had learned to take it with a pinch of salt, even to love it a bit. I looked after her, wondering about her deep and dirty secret. According to her, she didn’t have time for any secrets, let alone a deep and dirty one.

  Rebecca came in in a fluster.

  “I’ve spoke to Sharon this morning. We’ve got a problem, maybe two or three problems.”

  “Ok take a deep breath, Rebecca, then maybe I’ll understand what you are talking about.”

  “It’s our Hawaii route. Delta flies three times a day, American Airlines twice and United also has one slot a day.”

  “So what? Matt analysed it and said that there were enough customers. Let’s see how it goes for a couple of weeks then pull it if it doesn’t work.”

  “That’s not all. We’ve advertised it in press interviews, on our website, on Facebook and the other social media and bought into some co-advertising. There’s printed stuff in the pipeline too.”

  “So?”

  “Matt advertised it for $600! Economy!”

  “That does seem a lot.”

  “Everyone else does it for $400.”

  “Ah, ok, I see. We will have to calculate it again, maybe Matt got it wrong.”

  “Maybe Matt can walk on water.” Countered Rebecca.

  “What do you mean?”

  “We put the route online this morning and it’s sold out completely for the next two weeks!”

  “Well what’s going on? It there some kind of celebration down there? A surfing competition or something?”

  “No. Nothing like that. The following weeks are also filling nicely.”

  “Our flights that are $200 more expensive than the competition are being snapped up like hot cakes?”

  “Looks like it. Should I cancel the advertising campaign?”

  “No. We’ll add Kahului to it. We’ll make a few adjustments and increase the flights there. Thank you, Rebecca!”

  Matt found another couple of routes that seemingly were so much in demand, that we couldn’t turn the planes around fast enough and send them onto their next flight.

  “Matt, you are going to get a bonus. A big bonus! I’ll have to get more planes. The planes we have won’t cope with the rate we are growing.”

  A week later I flew to Atlanta. Edgar Sebastian reminded me a little of Mark, our sales manager. Big, blond and a genuinely nice guy. He had an aura that lit the room. He came across as curious, but not with malicious intent, more because of a real interest in what you said. His smile was less the Ernst Stavro Blofeld, more Winnie The Poo with a jar of honey. I found I had a massive respect for Mr Sebastian. Delta was the best American airline, as far as I was concerned. She was in the top three with United and American Airlines. My poor relations with the other two did not bother me, but I wanted to build a good relationship with Delta and count at least one friend amongst the giants.

  “Oliver, I must say, it’s amazing what you’re doing here. I haven’t a clue what strategy you’re adopting. Your routes are a bit obscure in that regard. You’re flying here and there, but there’s no definitive network pattern.”

  “We’re just not going down the usual classical routes like everyone else, that’s all.”

  “Sooner or later you’re going to have to go down those routes. Hey! I wanted to meet you, because I like what you are doing. You know, we’re in Skyteam and can’t share codes with you, but, well, let’s see what we can do together. I’ve already heard that you’ve blown it with United. Ha ha. You have to have a thick skin in this business.”

  We chatted in Edgar’s enormous office. It was at least 500 square foot. I could imagine him never leaving it. He probably had a bedroom and a ‘wellness’ pool behind one of the doors. I carefully probed Edgar about planes or at least waiting lists at Boeing. He didn’t make any promises, but he said he would see what he could do. He wanted to stay in contact, in any case.

  After chatting for a couple of hours, I flew back home. I still wasn’t sure if Edgar was my new best friend or just more cunning than Chambers.

  In L.A., everything slowly settled down. The planes were delivered either one by one or in the groups I had ordered them. Now and then I was able to opportunistically grab a 737. This week I asked Boeing for an appointment and wanted to push again for an order. I wanted to raise our plane stock from 76 to 150. They didn’t make it easy for me. After all, they had other contracts to service too.

  “Mitch, I know that I can’t frighten you with threats of running to the competition, but I really want another 24 Dreamliners and 50 737s. That’s a substantial order I’m considering here.”

  They offered me a good price, but the delivery dates were unmoveable.

  “The only thing I can do for you, is put you on the cancellation list. When someone cancels, you take their place in the waiting list, but we can’t put back delivery deadlines that have already been agreed. And if we do make a concession or two for you, you have to keep it under your hat.”

  I left it with Mitch that I would send them the signed contracts as soon as the collateral was clarified and he put the orders straight through to the production team.

  “How about a 747-8? We can do a quicker order on that one.” Mitch asked.

  “Let me get back to you on that.” I needed an appointment with Ad and Alan wanted to speak to me. The 747-8
was the queen of all passenger planes and I was desperate to get my hands on one. I just had to have a bigger feeding fleet to service her. A Jumbo took around 400 passengers and to send 400 passengers on a long haul flight, we needed feeder flights to bring the passengers to the Jumbo. I didn’t think we had enough transfer passengers yet to fill the 747-8. On the other hand, it was the Rolls-Royce of planes. It would make a massive statement ‘Hey, look at me. I made it!’ Either that or we would fail horribly and it would sit humiliatingly on the tarmac decomposing while I made desperate attempts to get someone to take it off my hands.

  Ad was a little reticent. He agreed the collateral for my orders and said he would guarantee further collateral in this year, but from 2018 he wanted to pull out of Can American altogether.

  “Oh God, Ad. Do you think Can Am can make it on its own?”

  “Take your finance chief out to dinner. He will tell you how it works and on what basis. I think it will though. Don’t go overboard on ordering new planes. You have to grow in a healthy manner or you’ll get choked up.”

  “Ok. Ad. I get it. Thanks again for everything.”

  “I can’t wait to see how this year goes. The end of this year will be a telling one for you and the company.”

  I felt the burn of pride in my chest as I left his office. He had shown more belief in me, than anyone ever had and I vowed never to misuse or abuse that trust. Should I trust myself to a massive leap forwards or should I approach my goal carefully and steadily? An airline of 150 planes was no longer a small airline.

  “Alan, what’s going on?” My friend Alan was almost the only person in the branch that liked me. The others were all hostile or mistrusting. Alan’s approbation was now going become blindingly clear.