Chasing Clouds

by Annabelle Knight

  Chapter 11

  Elodie had been working for Zip Air for two weeks. They operated from City Airport, which was a bit of a nightmare to get to but Elodie wasn’t about to start complaining about her commute just yet. She had made friends with her colleagues and although the workload was challenging in parts Elodie had, thus far, found it a bit of a letdown. Zip Air flew all over Europe, and while that wasn’t exactly the far- flung destination line Elodie had hoped to work for, she had fathomed that you couldn’t have everything you wanted all at once. You needed to work your way to your goal. Nothing happened overnight and it was a certainty that no one was going to hand her dream job on a platter. Life just didn’t work that way.

  She was looking forward to the weekend; she had booked the time off to cover for Carla. The idea of being able to slip back into her old life, even just for the weekend, was a comforting one to her. Carla had wanted the weekend as her own in order to visit her dad, a wealthy, briefcase- carrying businessman, as it was Father’s Day. Since mothers, fathers, grandparents, cousins or any other day invented by the greetings card industry had never been important in Elodie’s family, she had told Carla that she would cover her shift. Betty had been thrilled at this news, which made Elodie’s decision all the sweeter.

  She apologised as she bumped into one of the cleaners. He was a young guy, Elodie thought perhaps mid- twenties, maybe a little older. He wore what every cleaner here wore: black overalls with a grey top on underneath and a grey cap with the airport’s logo embroidered across the front. She’d seen him around before but hadn’t had a real chance to speak to him, or any of the cleaners, properly. Most of the cleaning staff worked for an agency and there appeared to be some sort unwritten rule of ‘them’ and ‘us.’ Elodie smiled at him as he squeezed past her. Her heart skipped a beat. His smell was something so familiar to her; she couldn’t place it but found that her breath had caught in her throat. Her eyes must have lingered on his for a second too long because instead of carrying about his business he turned to her and stopped.

  “Do I know you?” he asked. His voice was deep and possessed a softness that was akin to song. Elodie shook her head, she definitely didn’t know him; but this sense of familiarity still remained, it was almost palpable.

  “No I don’t think so, but…” she trailed off, not wanting to add that he seemed familiar to her for fear of it sounding tawdry.

  “I’m sure I’ve seen you before,” the man added. Clearly, the appearance of tawdriness was of no concern to him. He paused for a moment. His large hand stroked his chin as he looked to be in deep thought. “I do know you. You did the Triple C at Langley, didn’t you?”

  “Triple C?” Elodie echoed, not understanding his meaning.

  “Cabin Crew Course,” he explained. “You did, you always sat next to that blonde lady, the tall one.” He looked at Elodie as if hoping to communicate the memory somehow.

  Elodie didn’t need her memory jogging, she vaguely remembered him. Any fleeting fancy flew from her as she realised that he could only be talking about Jessica. At this rate, Jess would have to literally beat off her admirers, and she’d need way more than just a stick to do it with.

  “Oh yeah, you mean Jess. She’s stunning, isn’t she?” Elodie asked, not knowing why on earth that question had slipped from her lips.

  “Not my type, I’m afraid,” he said, shaking his head. “I’m Aaron. I’m agency staff, work here sometimes, and other places others,” he finished, holding up a bottle of cleaning spray in a cowboy- like manner and, after spinning it expertly around his finger, re- holstered it in his cleaning belt, which made Elodie laugh.

  “I’m Elodie, but my friends call me El for short.” She answered holding out her hand, he took it and administered a soft kiss on its back. She pulled it away awkwardly, causing him to smile. He wasn’t conventionally good- looking, but there was definitely something about him.

  “Well, lil’ lady,” he said in a bad southern American accent, “I best be getting, don’t you know I got places to go, toilets to clean? You take care of yo’self now.” He pushed the peak of his faded baseball cap up slightly as if it were a Stetson and gave her a small nod. There was that smile again, that infectious smile that meant that Elodie couldn’t help but smile back.

  She said goodbye and turned back to her locker feeling a little too much like a schoolgirl who’d just realised her crush knew her name. She took her bag from the locker and breathed out a sigh of relief; the job wasn’t bad, she supposed. The people weren’t bad… well, she had her suspicions that her manager Vanessa was secretly an evil overlord. But maybe that was mainly her fault. She had, after all, started her career at Zip Air a little hungover. The party Steph and Carla had thrown for her the night before had been a lovely, but terrible, idea. Turning up looking a little worse for wear on your first day was not only unprofessional but made learning the ropes so much harder. Vanessa had clocked it almost at once and had given her a stern talking to at the end of the day. Since then she had definitely had to go the extra mile to prove herself – but apart from that, everyone else was really nice. It was the lack of one thing that was getting her down, the one thing she had craved since starting this entire journey. She had wanted to travel, to see some amazing sights and visit some beautiful places, and to be frank, the only things she really saw at Zip Air were the inside of airports. The most exciting thing to happen to her was when a reality TV star had boarded one of her flights. Of course, Elodie had had no idea who she was but the rest of the crew were awestruck and Elodie had joined in, not wanting to be the odd one out. Sure, she was technically going all over. She’d officially been to country after country: in fact, she’d set foot in Germany, France, Sweden and Iceland in the last week alone. But she didn’t get to actually see anything. It was a budget airline, which there was nothing wrong with, but it wasn’t what she had imagined and certainly not what she had dreamed of.

  “Elodie, a word please?” Elodie turned around to see Vanessa who was stood a little too closely behind her. Elodie opened her mouth to answer but Vanessa ploughed on regardless. “I’m afraid there’s been a change to the scheduling this weekend, unforeseen staffing issues you see. Which means, I’m sorry to say, that I’m going to need you to work. I realise you had requested the weekend off but it’s just not going to be possible. Your flights are timetabled on the crew calendar as usual. I’ll see you tomorrow, sorry again.”

  Vanessa didn’t look sorry at all and gave Elodie no time to protest because as soon as the last word was out of her mouth she had spun round and marched off, her heels clacking on the tiled floor as she went. Elodie stood there agog for a few moments. Her happy thoughts of returning to Betty’s were long gone now and all that was left was a bad taste and an even greater dislike for her job. Elodie simply wasn’t used to working for someone who was just plain mean. This feeling of contempt weighed heavily; she felt trapped between a rock and a hard place. She had taken money, much- needed money from Betty to do this and now, well, what if it wasn’t what she wanted, after all? How would she tell her friends and family that it had all been one huge mistake? The bottom line was that she wouldn’t, she couldn’t do that to them, to herself. No, Elodie decided that she would give it more of a go, she just needed to be a little more enthusiastic and a little less expectant. Elodie reasoned that it was more than likely the upheaval and change in lifestyle that she just needed to get used to. After all, it was a very full- on job.

  Her bag, which had up until now been held redundantly in her hands, was unceremoniously thrown over her shoulder as she stalked through the busy staff area and towards the shuttle bus that would take her back home. The more she thought about what had happened, the more annoyed she became. Realising, in horror that she needed to tell Carla, she typed out an apologetic message, deleted it, typed out another and then deleted that one. No, this was the type of thing that you needed to do face to face.

  “What do you m
ean you can’t cover?” an altogether more unpleasant tone had replaced Carla’s usual jovial one and she spat the words out as though they tasted of something repulsive.

  “I’m so sorry. Vanessa’s making me work and I can’t get out of it. I tried,” she added untruthfully. In reality, she had stood there dumbstruck, allowed Vanessa to dump the bad news all over her like rubbish at the tip and said absolutely nothing, but Carla didn’t need to know that.

  “Ugh, El! This is really shit, you know. Why didn’t you check and double- check and then check again that it was OK? What am I going to tell my dad now?”

  “You could invite him here?” Elodie suggested meekly. She had never suffered a dressing- down from Carla before and knew straight away that she never wanted to again.

  “Oh yeah, he’s going to love that, isn’t he! ‘Sorry Dad, I know you’re really busy and hate coming to the city but my dumbass friend can’t manage to sort herself out and has really dropped me in it so now I have to inconvenience you?’ Um, that’d go down really well.” Carla said sarcastically. Although he loved his daughter Carla’s dad was a bit of a stickler for the rules, he liked things done a certain way and, from what Carla had said of him, in the past was constantly disapproving of her lifestyle. Which is why whenever family visits were arranged, Carla always journeyed to see him.

  Elodie retired to her room feeling terrible. She hated letting people down, especially when the person in question was one of her best friends. She tossed and turned for most of the night, her mind at a crossroads. She couldn’t quit, wouldn’t quit, but something was nagging her, needling her like a sharpened stick in the furthest recesses of her thoughts. She knew deep down that this wasn’t what she wanted and she knew that at some point this job would get the better of her and that she would leave. She decided to talk to Steph about it; out of everyone she knew, Steph was the one with the most level of heads. She slumped down on her bed and clutched the phone to her ear awaiting Steph’s answer, which as it turned out would be on the third ring. For someone who didn’t ‘believe’ in mobile phones, Steph seemed to always be able to answer hers at the drop of a hat. Elodie explained what had happened and once the floodgates had been opened found them extremely difficult to close; she rambled on and on, with Steph listening on the other end patiently. Once she had finished, Steph had only one piece of advice.

  “El, if you’re desperately unhappy then quit and find something else. My mum gave you the money so you could do something that makes you happy and if you’re not doing that then it really is a waste,” Steph had said.

  Elodie hadn’t thought of it like that, she hadn’t thought about it rationally at all. She had been swept up in a panic, worried that she’d upset those she loved or ruin anything her future may hold by leaving her first- ever full- time job after only a couple of weeks – it hardly screamed that she was ‘serious’ about her career. After talking it through some more, Elodie decided to give things at Zip Air more of a go, and that she’d be more positive about it all and, as a sort of compromise with herself she would keep her eyes open for other opportunities in the interim, just in case her dream job arose.

  To Elodie, it seemed as though any and every menial job was assigned to her. She didn’t complain, though, she was determined to put her best foot forward and make the most out of whatever time she had left there. Vanessa appeared to delight in lording her station over Elodie and took every opportunity to make her life on shift difficult. This upset and confused Elodie to an identical extent: as far as she could tell, she had done absolutely nothing to this woman and yet Vanessa acted as if Elodie had wronged her in some way. If there were a less than agreeable chore to be undertaken, Elodie could almost guarantee it would be tasked to her. The fact that Elodie did all of this with a smile on her face only seemed to exacerbate Vanessa’s condescension towards her, something that had not gone unnoticed by the other members of the crew.

  “Why does she hate you so much?” one of her colleagues Shaun had whispered in her ear halfway through her return flight on Sunday. “You know she could have let you have the weekend off, don’t you? Gary’s not in and Becky hasn’t worked since Thursday. She’s just being, well you know… Vanessa.”

  Elodie hadn’t taken this news well. She hadn’t even thought about the other members of staff. She had just taken Vanessa’s word for it and trusted that she was needed and that there was just no other way to make it work. Elodie felt rage roil within her and kicked herself for not being more on the ball. This was just another brick in the wall of dislike she had for Zip Air, which was steadily growing taller and taller with each passing day.

  “You OK, hun?” Carla asked, looking up from her magazine as Elodie slumped down onto the sofa sighing.

  “I’m alright. I’m just, you know… tired, I’ve worked back to back pretty much all weekend.” Elodie answered tonelessly.

  Her hand reached for the television remote control and moments after pressing the on button the TV blared into life. She scrolled through the channels aimlessly, flicking past cookery shows, chat shows and soaps. Her finger hovered when a smiling blonde lady appeared: she was walking down a sun- soaked street festooned with market stalls, brightly coloured tarpaulins hung over the small stands, which were populated by industrious locals selling their various wares. The presenter was talking about the market’s history, dazzling the viewer with her incredible knowledge about the place all the while smiling that huge Hollywood beam. Elodie sighed and hit the off button. ‘That’s as close to travelling as I’m going to get,’ she mused dolefully.

  Carla had disappeared from the living room. Elodie hadn’t even noticed her leave; she felt very restless. There was a niggling feeling in the pit of her stomach that she couldn’t seem to shake. She could hear Carla in her bedroom talking to someone on the phone. Her voice rose in waves, at one point she sounded almost feverish. This spiked Elodie’s attention: her ears pricked as she tried to listen more closely, but it was no good, Carla had shut the door so everything she said was muffled. Elodie didn’t have to wait long to find out what all the fuss was about as less than five minutes later Carla re- emerged from her bedroom which a gigantic grin on her face, which would give the Cheshire Cat a run for his money.

  “Oh my God, guess what?” she said, the words tumbling out of her mouth so quickly that it sounded like one single word. Elodie opened her mouth to reply but was cut off before she could say anything. “I’m only going to be modelling for Maxx Hair!” Carla squealed. “Their usual model has the flu and someone who’s working on this campaign was on the shoe job I did and put me forward. I guess it really is all about who you know.”

  “That’s great news,” Elodie beamed. The weariness she had felt only moments before seemed to wash away instantly. Things seemed to really be taking off for Carla: she had been to loads of castings for various things and had a few call- backs and now it seemed that slowly and steadily she was starting to book jobs and really forge a career for herself. “So tell me everything then, when is it? Where is it? And do you get to take a friend?” Elodie joked.

  Carla filled her in on everything she knew. It was short notice but that didn’t matter.

  “It’s not like I have anything better to do,” Carla explained.

  “Don’t let Betty hear you say that,” Elodie quipped before asking if Carla would get any freebies this time around too. Carla shook her head, but said that if she did Elodie could have it all: Carla wouldn’t need any freebies with the one thousand pound pay packet she stood to collect. Elodie’s mouth dropped open at this revelation; she couldn’t believe her ears. Surely that sum of money was reserved for top models only. Carla just shrugged and explained that there really wasn’t a rulebook when it came to this kind of thing.

  “It all just depends how much is in the campaign’s budget,” Carla said. Elodie nodded her understanding without really understanding at all.

  The following day Elodie waved
Carla off bright and early, five am to be exact. She hadn’t planned on getting up at the crack of dawn but Carla, being in such an excitable mood, hadn’t been able to contain herself and Elodie found herself waking up to the sound of her friend belting out a rendition of ‘I’m every woman’ and the smell of overdone toast. Once she was roused, Elodie, despite still being shattered, found that she just couldn’t get back to sleep so instead chose to join Carla and see if she needed help with anything. She didn’t, so instead Elodie ate Carla’s discarded burnt toast and watched her ready herself for the day ahead. Elodie couldn’t help but feel a pang of jealousy, which she swiftly washed away with a mug of sweet, milky coffee. She wished more than anything she could get this excited about her own job.

  “All set?” she asked Carla, who was practically electric with excitement.

  Carla nodded, flung an arm around Elodie and planted a kiss on her cheek. Elodie laughed and pushed her away. “Have fun and be safe. Text me when you get there OK?”

  “I will,” Carla said as she pulled a cap over her unruly hair and headed out the door. “I don’t know how long I’ll be, so don’t wait up.”

  The door closed behind her and Elodie stole a glance at the clock on the wall. ‘Don’t wait up? God, it’s five in the morning. How long do these things actually take?’ Elodie wondered. The flat was now a place of calm tranquillity. The dewy morning light washed in through the full- length windows and made the whole place feel incredibly peaceful and warm. She pulled out Carla’s laptop, vowing that when she was earning good money she would buy herself one of her own. She had a quick look on a couple of job sites she knew advertised cabin crew work, but there was just more of the same thing. Maybe her dream job didn’t exist; maybe she’d been led by naivety. She shut the laptop, tucked it away and reclined on the sofa. Elodie closed her eyes. She had the next two days off, just forty- eight hours to do all her life admin, relax, recuperate and prepare for the rest of her very hectic schedule.