Can Am Story

by Oliver Rill

  “Ha ha ha. I don’t see any reason why not, but with an age difference of ten years, I wonder if you’ll find me as attractive. Especially since you’re going training every day with hot perspiring athletes, who worship the ground you walk on because of your beautiful body.”

  “I’ve told you already, they just want to tick another one off their list. Nothing more and I’m not interested. True, a few of them are good looking and are quite nice, but I know what’s behind it all. So stop talking trash.”

  Gradually the table filled. They had all washed and dressed for dinner and as Marie, the last straggler sat down, I cleared my throat, stood up and rang on the side of a glass with a knife edge for attention.

  “So welcome aboard the … oh no, we’re at my house! I’m really glad you could all get here and spend a few days with me. You know Aaron from last time you were here. Well, Aaron and I are now very happily together. Aren’t we Aaron?”

  Aaron laughed and stood up. He put his arms around me and gave me a long hard kiss in front of everyone. Everyone clapped, except Jason.

  “Why him? I met you first!” Laughter broke out all around him and he had to laugh too.

  “Aaron, you pulled him right under my nose, and that’s something you will pay for, but hey! Good luck to you both.” He said ruefully.

  “Thanks Jason. I appreciate that coming from you.” I said.

  “You’ll turn to me eventually, Oli. I know it and you know it.” Aaron gave him a mock box around the ears and warned him to keep his hands off me.

  We got various comments from around the table during the evening. Martin said something about a ‘Porno Daddy’ and Mom told me to follow Aaron’s example and do more exercise, but others were quite ok with the situation.

  At one point Mom took me to the side.

  “Oliver, if you’re earning so much money …” She started then corrected herself, “Did you earn as much this year as you did last year?” She asked.

  “Even more.”

  “So, if you earn so much money, you should think about donating some. Not to me or your father, but charities. But take care what you chose, there are all sorts: Cancer Research; HIV, rape victims, kids suffering from hunger. There are so many children who don’t have anything to eat, let alone clothes or toys. You superrich have an obligation. Most donate about ten percent of their income. Have you thought about that?”

  My mouth fell open. My Mom had called me one of the superrich. I knew I had a lot of money, but to hear myself labelled by her was a shock. I didn’t feel any different.

  “You’re right. I have thought about it. At the moment I’m considering other avenues.”

  “Which ones?”

  “I can’t say right now. I’ll let you know when I can.”

  “And you don’t have anything to spare to help those poor people in need?”

  “I don’t know how much it’ll cost yet, so I’ve got to hold off a while.”

  “Don’t wait too long. There are people out there who are hungry.”

  Mom’s words brought my conscience to the fore. I almost felt bad, earning so much money. It wasn’t so much the 300 thousand salary as director, but the company profit came on top of that. I couldn’t forget that that flowed directly into my pocket as I owned the company. I didn’t have shareholders to share it out with. I did however, plough the profits directly back into the firm so that it could expand and increase in capital.

  Thinking about what she said, I grabbed my cell phone and walked around the house to the other side, dialing my lovely friend’s number. “Aristo? We have to talk. I’ve got an idea I’d like to try out.”

  “Oh, Oli, I’m in New York with my girlfriend. I’ll be back in work on the 3rd January.”

  “Where? In New York?”

  “Yeah, and then I think in L.A. on the Friday.”

  “Hmm.”

  “Is it important?”

  “It’s so important that either you come here for a day on the 3rd, with or without girlfriend, or I’ll come to New York.”

  “My God! What’s this about?”

  “Try to think of an absolutely trustworthy and really good man in Athens. I’ll tell you the rest when I see you.” I said, then hung up.

  The next morning more or less all of us were sitting around the table at breakfast time. Gavin hat made some great pancakes and there was juice and fruit. All very healthy and tasty, but I didn’t really feel like any coffee. Suddenly Aristo appeared with a pretty young girl on his arm. I sprang up and threw my arms around him.

  “What a great surprise! Sit down, help yourselves to something to eat.” Aristo’s girlfriend looked shyly around with big eyes at my oasis, impressed with Aristo’s connections.

  “When you’re finished, come into my office with me.”

  “No, Oli, let’s go now. My curiosity has got the better of me.”

  We retired to the office and left his girlfriend with the pack outside. I closed the door behind him, sat at the desk and flipped the desk light on. Aristo took the chair in front of the desk and waited impatiently.

  “Ok so what’s up?”

  “I’m thinking of starting up a Greek airline.”

  “OH!”

  “Exactly. Oh. I want to connect to all the Greek airports, not just Athens and Thessaloniki and I want to fly to all the metropolitan cities in Europe from Athens.”

  “With Easyjet and Ryanair there already?”

  “That will be a challenge, of course, but Easy and Ryan don’t have a network inside Greece. That’s where I see our advantage will be.”

  “And it will be named Can Am Greece or what?”

  “Neos Dromos. That’s what we’re going to call it. An independent company. Can Am doesn’t have the right to fly in Europe as it’s an American company.”

  “Neos Dromos. New paths. Why not? But we already fly to Europe.”

  “Yes, we are allowed to fly from the USA and land there. And we can fly back. But we aren’t allowed to fly from Athens to Thessaloniki, for example, inside Europe.”

  “And what do you want to do?”

  “I want someone to look after it. We need someone to manage it. I would be the founder and the owner, but I can’t take on the operative management, too.”

  “And you want to ask me if I’ll do that?”

  “Not really, ‘Risto, I’d rather keep you with me.”

  “Good, Greeks get on my nerves. I don’t want to take that on, although it’s a great job for someone, it really is.” That was just what I wanted to hear from Aristo.

  “We need a smart man with energy to elbow his way through obstacles and who is really trustworthy. Do you think Flora’s husband fancies doing it?”

  “He’s got his business and I don’t know if he wants to leave Sifnos. He’d have to go to Athens, wouldn’t he?”

  “Yannis would be good, true. He’s got a little aviation experience, too. I’ll ask him anyway.”

  “And what about Antonis from Zürich?”

  “I think he’d like the job, but he wouldn’t want to go to Athens any more than Yannis. I’ll talk to him about it, too. Your friend from Samos?”

  “George? He hasn’t got a clue about it.”

  “And what about if I train him?” I asked. After all, I hadn’t had a clue when I first started either, but I had had talent, luck and transferable experience from other jobs and that all lead to the success of Can Am.

  “Then he would certainly take it on.”

  “And what about Christos?”

  “Nah. Only in winter.”

  “Right and in summer the planes are grounded – that sounds good!” I laughed. “Ok so that won’t work. Let’s call them all this evening. It’s night over in Europe now. Or are you flying straight off?”

  “Well if you have a room for us?”

  “One for the both of you? Oh la la!”

  Flora’s husband wanted to think about it. I told him to hand the business over to his daughter, she needed to get involve
d anyway. It would be an opportunity for everyone. Yannis wasn’t keen to leave his family to work in Athens, however.

  Antonis in Zurich found it all a bit too exciting. And in Athens? No thank you!

  “Ok ‘Risto, there’s just George left now.” Aristo and I had withdrawn to tackle the situation that evening and armed with a glass of white wine we sat at the desk in the office and spoke to our candidates on loudspeaker.

  “You really want to do this?” Aristo checked again.

  “If you trust him ‘Risto, then I do, too. And I think he might jump at the chance.”

  “Good, then let’s call him.”

  “Hey, Oli! Hey, ‘Risto! What’re you up to?” George’s not-so-dulcet tones came over the line.

  “We’re just hatching an idea and you’re our guinea-pig.”

  “What am I? Are you high?” George fell back on his protective joking armor.

  “What are you up to right now, George?”

  “I’m in Berlin, looking for a job. It’s not easy!”

  “What would you say if I got a job for you, in Athens, earning so much money that you could afford to fly back to Berlin every weekend?”

  “What as a drug trafficker? Seriously, what is it?”

  “You’d be director of my airline in Greece, George. You’d need a quick training in USA, then we’d start you up in Greece.”

  “Fuck! If you’re serious, I’d bite your hand off. I haven’t been able to find anything around here and the money I saved in summer is running out fast.”

  “When can you start?”

  “Right now if you want.”

  “I’m sorry to say then, George. You aren’t going to be able to spend New Year in Berlin. Take the next flight to New York and get a connection there to Fort Myers. I’ll send the ticket by email.”

  “You really are serious! I’m on my way! Awesome!”

  And George really did catch the flight the next day. He was very young, mentally as well as chronologically. Aristo was more on my level, but George tended to look up to us as big brothers. He had quite an unsettled youth and had worked as a stripper, a barman, a cellar-man, he took anything that was going. There were very few demanding jobs available in Greece and those only if you had good connections. The number of educated and qualified unemployed in Greece were a testament to this. Usually the only jobs going were front of shop retail or in the catering industries. George never gave up and fought his way alone through life. That was what I liked about him. He always seemed to land on his feet.

  I got Aristo and Jason to pick him up from the airport and bring him to the house. I was just sorry that I didn’t have any more rooms free for him.

  “Hello George! Finally I get to meet you in person.” I called as the three of them climbed out of the Navigator. George simply put his arms around me even though we had never before met. George was the same age as Aristo, late twenties, his hair that strong black type only found in Mediterranean peoples. He was tall and slim and although he wore a loose T-shirt I knew from photos I had seen that he had a well-defined six-pack. His laugh was open and engaging and most definitely heterosexual. We had messaged via the internet once or twice but this was the first time that we actually met face to face.

  “You’re totally crazy! And this here? Is it yours?” He asked waving an arm to indicate the house and grounds.

  “Yes, George, it’s mine. This is one of my houses. Come on boys, let’s go in the office.”

  I wondered what I would set his salary at. Aristo got 100, but I thought that was a little mean for a director. On the other hand, Aristo had turned down the job, when I offered it to him. I closed the door to my office once we were inside. Aristo and George sat at the desk and I could see that George was excited. I sat down.

  “Listen up, George.” I said with gravitas. “You’re going to manage Neos Dromos. I can’t tell you right now how big the fleet will be, but it’s going to cause a stir in Greece and also in Europe. In two or three months of training here, you’ll have most of what you need to know. Some things you’re going to have to make up as you go along. What’s most important is that you are with the project heart and soul. I want you to make it your baby, or better put, I want you, to bring up my baby. You are going to be responsible for my money and you will be accountable for it. You will be responsible for the people under you who rely on their jobs to feed their families and pay for their houses. You are going to be spat on by Olympic and Aegean, but you will earn an extremely good salary and you will have our unwavering, if unofficial, support.”

  “Why unofficial?” He wanted to know, his brows knotted.

  “Because Can Am isn’t allowed to do business in Europe. They are going to use that as their first line of attack, in court. So we are going to deny in every shape form and fashion we can, that Neo Dromos has anything to do with Can Am.”

  “Wow! That really sounds like the movies!” George was still looking a little worried.

  “You’ll have a period in each department here. Hire a good, professional lawyer and accountant. If you want, Aristo, take George up to New York and he can start with Personnel and recruiting. Then he can do a spell with Matt in Operations.”

  “I still think I’m dreaming.”

  I asked Aristo to leave him with me for a while and asked George what he wanted to earn.

  “Do you think three thousand a month is ok?” He asked shyly.

  I grinned. “I don’t want to underpay you, George. Do you think an airline director only earns 40 thousand a year?”

  “Maybe more?”

  “Significantly more.”

  “Then you tell me.”

  “Would you agree to 200? And maybe a bonus on top?”

  “Thousand? Two hundred thousand fucking Euros?” He gulped.

  “And another 100 if you don’t fuck it up.”

  “That is mega! I’m taking it! I’m taking it!” He shouted, obviously overjoyed at the prospect.

  “Good. Aristo will draw up a contract and you’ll need to sign it. I’m going to advance you a month’s pay to your account now. That’ll be € 16,000.” I said tapping quickly on the calculator. “You’re going to have to make do with that over two months, as you’ll be paid at the end of next month not the beginning. Ok?”

  “Wow! I’ve survived on less than that for two years before now.”

  I put up Aristo and George in a local hotel. It seemed silly to put George in there on his own. The next morning the two of them flew to New York and I spoked to Aristo before they went about George’s salary. I explained why George would earn more than him and he said that was fair enough, the job took on more responsibility. It was a big relief that Aristo wasn’t disappointed or even jealous.

  In New York George learned what to look for when he wanted to hire someone; what the company demands were; which questions to pose; how to read applications and finally that he has to pay attention to gut feeling too.

  Once back in L.A. I paired him up with Matt. Matt showed him how to choose flight routes; calculate prices and finally what fighting for slots was like. He also learned that airplanes didn’t come like used cars. You couldn’t simply drive them off the parking lot, you had to order them and wait for them and pay much, much more for them. In one of the weekly Heads of Department’s meetings I asked each of them to think about someone they could sent to Europe for a couple of months.

  “Don’t give me the person you can best do without, rather who would be best to start up a new department and to train new staff as quickly and as efficiently as possible so that they can get back to Venice as soon as possible.”

  After two months there didn’t seem to be much point, as far as I was concerned, in sending George through the departments anymore. He had learned as much as he could here. Ticketing, customer service, marketing, accounts, etc. all that could be done in Athens. We flew to Athens and looked for a lawyer. I actually met him in a club called ‘The Apartment’ in the end. I would have dated him if I hadn’t been
with Aaron. He was lovely.

  His name was Kostas and he was a small, vivacious person, full of sunshine. He had a strong Greek accent that just added to the charm, but was woefully underpaid by his firm.

  “Kostas, we are looking to start something big here. Do you want to work for a real business? What do you earn now?” I asked him directly as we stood in the quieter bar upstairs in the club fetching drinks.

  “I get about 2,000 a month now.” He replied just as directly. “What type of business are you starting up?”

  “Something akin to Olympic or Aegean Airlines, just a bit more refined and much more attractive.”

  “You’re gonna need to fill in a lot of forms and have really good contacts, but above all, you’re gonna need to bring along a lot of bribe money.”

  “We’re going to need someone who knows the ropes and can help us over the hurdles. Do you fancy taking on that role? We want to do everything correctly.”

  “I know the ropes and if I don’t, I know who to ask. I’m good at fighting my way through hurdles too, when I need to be.” He grinned.

  “Well that’s a start. I’ll pay you € 4,000. What do you reckon? Do you fancy it?”

  “Yeah. Sure. I’ll start tomorrow.” He said quickly. I laughed.

  “Don’t you have to give notice first?”

  “I don’t have an employment contract, the office calls me up when they have something for me, if they don’t have anything, I don’t work.”

  “Kostas, we’re staying in the Marriott. Come over to us around 12 tomorrow.”

  Kostas turned up punctually at 12 the next day. He was as serious as we were. That was unusual in Greece. People talked a lot, talk was cheap and many things were agreed, but in the end it was purely down to chance whether they actually turned up and did what they said.

  “Oliver, George. Hello!” Kostas was wearing dark brown jeans and his white shirt was buttoned up to the collar. A pair of shiny patent shoes rounded his outfit off. George and I had just finished a late breakfast and were sitting inside in the restaurant area.