Hitting the Right Note

by Rhonda Bowen

  The sound of something instrumental whispered in her ears. Her eyes floated over to the console and, after observing the CD player going, widened when she saw the time: 9:21 a.m. She shrieked.

  “I thought we weren’t going far!” She sat forward suddenly, only to be forced back by the seat belt.

  “We aren’t,” Simon said, his eyes still on the road.

  “We’ve been driving for two hours!”

  “We’re almost there.”

  “Where is there? You said we would be back by nine!”

  “Yeah. Nine p.m.”

  JJ felt another scream bubble up in her throat as momentary panic swept through her. “Simon! I have a life, a schedule. My boyfr—I mean manager, is going to be wondering where I am. What if they call me in for rehearsal?”

  “It’s a Sunday.”

  “My Sundays are very busy, mister.”

  “Look, if you want, I can have someone take you back, but you were the one who begged me to stay for your sister, and you agreed to help me out today as part of that deal.”

  “I didn’t know helping you out would require me to go cross-country.”

  “Not across the country,” Simon corrected. “Just a little out of town. But if that’s too much for you, I can turn around. It’s up to you, Judith.”

  She turned to look at him. Normally she preferred JJ, but something about the way his faint British accent wrapped around her name made her like it when he said it. Again, the control center in her brain reminded her that she did not know the person sitting next to her. But somewhere, in some irrational depth of her mind, she wanted to trust him, if for no other reason than to learn more about this intriguing man whom she had spent a whole year of her life thinking about. A year that could have stretched into two, had she not managed to convince herself she would never see him again. Sydney would definitely kill her for what she was about to say.

  “Okay, fine,” she said with a sigh. “But you still didn’t answer my question. Where are we going? I don’t think we’ve known each other long enough for you to be taking me long distance.”

  “But just long enough for you to know my schedule, right?” His narrowed eyes stole a glance at her. “How did you even know what time I started this morning?”

  “Nurse tipped me off . . .”

  Simon shook his head. “So much for confidentiality.”

  “Don’t worry. I’m a special case. I used to volunteer there when I was in college. Plus I spent a lot of time in that hospital when my brother was transferred there last year.”

  JJ frowned as she remembered Dean. Simon noticed.

  “This the same brother who’s the father of your sister-in-law’s baby?”

  JJ nodded and looked out the passenger window. Simon whistled.

  “Sounds like there’s a story there.”

  JJ grunted. “You have no idea. Let’s just say my family is better than TV.” She glanced over at him then back out the window. “I don’t even know why I’m telling you all this.”

  “’Course you do,” Simon said with a roguish smile that gave her a peek into his personality. “I’m the man who saved your life.”

  “It was a panic attack!”

  “There is some research that suggests prolonged panic attacks can have adverse cardiological effects that can lead to fatalities.”

  JJ scowled. “Show-off.”

  He chuckled. JJ liked the sound of his laugh. She turned her head to the window so he wouldn’t see her smile.

  “So you mentioned studio and manager,” Simon said a few moments later. “You’re a singer?”

  “Yes,” JJ answered. “An aspiring one, I guess. But maybe not so aspiring anymore, since I just landed a major contract.”

  “Congratulations,” Simon said, a smile in his voice. “For your own record?”

  “Not that, but almost as good,” JJ said, her mouth spreading into a grin. “For a tour. I’ll be a backing vocalist for a major R & B artist.”

  “Hmm,” Simon murmured, nodding his head. “You sound excited.”

  “I am,” JJ said, sitting up in her seat. “This is an amazing opportunity for me. I’ll be meeting people in the industry who can help get me where I want to be.”

  “Well, good for you, Judith,” he said. “When do I get to hear you sing?”

  “When you tell me you’ll stay and take over Sheree’s care.”

  His lips quirked. “That’s a high ticket price.”

  “But so worth it,” she breathed in a husky tone. His eyebrows shot up and his head whipped around. She laughed at the surprised and curious expression on his face. She could have a lot of fun with Simon Massri.

  “What about you, Mr. Big-Shot Physician?” JJ asked. “I never guessed I would see you in Canada. Not that I’m complaining, but it wasn’t one of the places on your list of work locations. I would have remembered that.”

  “Would you?” Simon asked, just before he made a left turn onto a narrow two-lane road. “That was a long time ago.”

  “I have the memory of an elephant,” JJ said proudly. “Great for learning other people’s songs on the fly.”

  “Well, let’s see it at work,” Simon challenged. “What do you remember about me?”

  The exact greenish gold of his eyes, the tiny scar right above his left eyebrow, the way his lips crooked up a little higher on the right when he smiled. . .

  JJ cleared her throat and shook the unexpected thoughts from her head.

  “Let’s see,” she began. “You were born in London, but your mom is actually Irish and your dad is Egyptian. You have lived all over the world because your family moved a lot. You have two brothers who live in London. You started out a GP but decided to specialize in maternal and newborn care. You love the outdoors, hate the winter, and hate cell phones even more. You’ve worked in India, Thailand, almost every country in Africa, Pakistan, Qatar, Brazil. . . and Ecuador?” She looked at him.

  He grinned. “Yes, that is correct and I am impressed—”

  “Wait, I’m not done,” JJ said, cutting him off. “You’re vegetarian, you’ve haven’t owned a television since undergrad, but you’ve watched every episode of ER.”

  “And I now own the entire series on DVD,” Simon said proudly.

  JJ let out a laugh. “No way! All fifteen seasons?”

  “All fifteen seasons.”

  “That’s crazy.” She paused. “But I will admit, when I got home I watched the first two seasons on DVD.”

  It was Simon’s turn to laugh. “You’re kidding.”

  “Nope, true story,” JJ said. “And can you blame me? If the guy who doesn’t own a TV loves the show, there must be something to it.”

  “And?” Simon probed.

  JJ winced. “I tried, but I couldn’t get into it.”

  Simon groaned.

  “I’ll admit season one was very good, and season two had some good episodes too. But I kind of got lost somewhere in season three.”

  Simon shook his head. “You should have stuck it out. It only got better.”

  “I don’t know,” JJ said, shaking her head. “It didn’t help that my sisters couldn’t get into it either.”

  “See, that’s the problem—you had the wrong company. Now had I been around when you were watching it, I would have made sure you saw the beauty of it. Some things, you just have to hold out for a bit to get the best out of them.”

  “Maybe.”

  Holding out had not been JJ’s forte. Especially not recently. And she was all too aware of that. Before she could fall too much deeper into her thoughts, Simon turned his Jeep Wrangler off the road and drove through two rusted-over metal posts that once could have been a gate. A long, smooth, paved road led them to a sprawling, single-level warehouse-like structure. It rested in the middle of acres of open, flat land that stretched beyond where JJ could see.

  “Where are we?” JJ asked, looking around for signs of life. She was starting to regret her decision to go with Simon. This was the kind of pl
ace where a girl could get killed, have her body dumped, and not be found for days.

  “Private airstrip,” Simon answered.

  Then, before JJ could question further, he pulled the Jeep around to the other side of the building and stopped short.

  “We’re here.”

  JJ didn’t hear him. She was too busy staring at the two small planes lined up near what had to be a makeshift runway and the two others parked in the warehouse space that she now knew was a hangar.

  Simon opened her door and helped her out of the Jeep.

  “We’ll be taking the blue one,” he began. “It should be all fueled up, but I’m just going to go fill out the manifest and do a few checks to make sure. In the meantime, I’m going to need your help packing the supplies onto the plane.”

  Supplies? Plane? JJ’s head was spinning. A few hours ago she was standing in the hospital in Toronto. Now she was in the middle of nowhere, about to get on a small aircraft that looked like it could fall apart with a strong enough gust of wind. This was not happening.

  “Okay, Simon, I’m going to need you to start talking, right now, or I am taking your keys and driving myself back to Toronto.”

  “That’s going to be a bit difficult, isn’t it?” His voice floated to her from the back of the Jeep. “I mean, I know you have a great memory, but you slept through half the trip.”

  “I have a GPS on my phone,” she shot back. “I can find directions.”

  She heard him snort. “Not from out here.”

  “Simon!”

  He poked his head around the side and his brows furrowed when he saw the seriousness of her demeanor.

  “I’m sorry.” He stopped what he was doing and walked around the vehicle to where JJ was standing with her arms folded. “I should have told you before. We’re going to a native reserve community a couple hours north of here, but it’s fly-in only, so we have to take the plane.”

  “Why didn’t we just fly in from Toronto?”

  “Too expensive on gas and too much red tape.”

  “Why didn’t you tell me this before I got into your car?”

  He shrugged. “You didn’t ask.”

  “Who’s flying?”

  He cracked a small smile.

  She turned around and opened the door of the Jeep.

  “No way, Simon Massri.” She climbed in. “As far as I know, you are a doctor, not a pilot. Where is your license? You don’t even live in Canada. How do you even know where you’re going? And that plane does not look safe for carrying birds, much less people.”

  Simon took a step toward her, leaning his elbow against the open passenger window. “I assure you, the plane is safe,” he began gently. “It’s been used for just this purpose for years, without issue. I myself have been in this plane several times in the past few months and flown it to the exact reserve we’re going to. Yes, I am a doctor, but I am also a trained pilot. It was a helpful skill when working with Doctors Without Borders. And if it will make you feel better, I will show you my license. It’s in my bag in the back.”

  “Buddy, you can’t just do this. You can’t just take me somewhere I don’t know and expect me to do something like this with you,” JJ said, feeling her body begin to tense up. “We might have spent several hours stuck in an elevator together, and spent hours with each other over the past month and a half, but I don’t know you enough to trust you like this.”

  “Judith—”

  “You can’t just put this on me at the last minute and expect me to be okay with it,” she said, unable to control the rising volume of her voice. “This is not okay!”

  “Judith.”

  “What?”

  Simon grimaced at the sharpness in her tone and took a deep breath. “I’m sorry. You’re right. I shouldn’t have . . . I guess I just feel comfortable with you and sometimes I forget . . .”

  He took another deep breath and turned away from her, squinting at some point to her left. When he finally looked at her his eyes were dark with remorse. “I’m sorry,” he said simply. He closed the passenger door, shutting her in, then came around and opened the driver’s side. “I’ll take you back.”

  JJ watched him as he started the vehicle and did a U-turn to head back the way they came. She sighed. “Stop.”

  He slammed on the brakes so hard, JJ’s purse fell off her lap. She turned to meet his expectant eyes and glared at him.

  “Okay, I’ll go with you this time,” she said. “But you ever pull a stunt like this again . . .”

  “I won’t,” Simon said, turning the Jeep around just as quickly as he had stopped. “But we have to hurry. They’ve been expecting me.”

  As if on cue, another vehicle, one much newer and nicer than Simon’s, rounded the side of the hangar and two male passengers got out. They walked up to where Simon and JJ were parked.

  “You got here quickly,” a tall guy in aviator sunglasses said, nodding to Simon. He glanced curiously at JJ.

  “Nigel, this is Judith; Judith, this is Nigel and his dad, Bob,” Simon said, getting out of the Jeep and making introductions.

  “You can just call me JJ,” she said, getting out and walking around to shake both men’s hands.

  “Bob’s gonna be our flight controller here. Nigel’s coming with us to the reserve,” Simon explained. Then he turned to the men. “We need to unpack and do the checks, and we don’t have much time. Let’s move.”

  JJ hadn’t noticed the bags and cartons in the back of Simon’s Jeep until he opened up the tailgate. Most of it looked like medical supplies, but there was also food and water among the load. Nigel had similar booty in his vehicle. Despite the extent of the cargo, they made quick work transporting it to the small craft. While Simon and Bob did the preflight checks, JJ chatted with Nigel. She found out that Nigel was also a doctor and had also been in the Doctors Without Borders program with Simon.

  “So you left the program for Toronto while Simon was still in it?” JJ asked as she got into the back of the plane.

  “Yup. I believe in Médecins Sans Frontières,” Nigel said, the French name for the international organization rolling off his tongue easily. “But I’m not a lifer like our friend here. I don’t know many people who are. Asking that man to stay in one place is almost like asking a fish to live out of water.”

  “How long have you guys known each other?” JJ asked.

  “Oh, probably fifteen years,” Nigel said as he slipped on a clunky headset and settled into the copilot’s seat. “Met during the days at Cambridge. Both of us kids from somewhere else.”

  “I thought Simon was born in London,” JJ said.

  “Yeah, well, when you move around as much as he did, I guess you feel like you don’t really belong anywhere,” Nigel said. “Guess that’s why it’s so easy for him to move around so much. The man doesn’t really have a home, you know? I think the seven years at Cambridge was the longest stretch he ever spent in one place.”

  Nigel flashed a grin back at her. “But you already know that, don’t you?”

  JJ frowned. “Why would you think that?”

  “You’re Elevator Girl.”

  JJ’s mouth fell open. But before she could answer, Simon appeared at the door.

  “All strapped in?”

  She nodded, still too dumbfounded to answer. He checked her seat belt, then slid the door shut and got into the cockpit. The rush of wind grew louder as the plane’s propellers began to spin, and JJ was glad for the earphones that would help the three of them hear each other throughout the flight. She heard Bob give instructions over the airwaves and Simon answer back. The craft rattled and shook as it began its first movements down the runway and JJ gripped her seat, her stomach churning. She was beginning to wonder if her first impressions of the plane were indeed right.

  She felt the wheels of the aircraft run over the bumps on the strip as it went faster and faster. She held her breath and squeezed her eyes shut, waiting for it to all fall apart, and then, almost unexpectedly, they were movin
g up. She felt the wheels lift off the ground and the journey smooth out as they glided up in the air.

  “You can open your eyes.”

  Simon’s voice came clearly into JJ’s ears, as if he was sitting right next to her, and her eyes popped open. She caught him watching her through the rearview mirror at the front. She couldn’t see his whole face but caught the crinkling at the corners of his eyes and knew that he was laughing at her.

  “I’m still waiting to see that license, Simon!”

  It took a while for JJ to release her iron grip on the seat, but her desire to take in the view as they glided over lush, uninhabited northern Ontario land helped to speed the process along. JJ had never had a view like this. Even when she flew across the country, they didn’t fly as low as she was soaring now. She could see the tops of regal pines, the sharp edges of stone-faced mountains, and the white-capped peaks that still held layers of snow. All this beauty in her province and she had never seen it. It took her breath away.

  “Amazing,” JJ murmured.

  “Like something out of a magazine, isn’t it?” Simon said.

  “I never knew Ontario was so beautiful,” JJ said. “It’s like an untouched wilderness.”

  “Is that the birth of a nature lover I hear?” Nigel asked.

  “This is nature like I’ve never seen before.”

  The ride seemed short. Almost too soon Simon was announcing their descent, and the landing strip for their destination came in sight. JJ braced herself for the contact with the runway, but it was smoother than she expected. Okay. Maybe Simon did have some skills after all.

  “So, what’s the verdict?” Simon asked as the plane slowed to a stop.

  “Seven out of ten,” JJ answered as she released her seat belt. “There’s always room for improvement.”

  They didn’t have to do unloading at this end of the trip. They were met on the tarmac by a mixed group, including native Canadian First Nations people and several others, who JJ soon learned were members of the support group that Simon was a part of. Several trucks took them away from the airport into the reserve town.

  JJ was wedged between Nigel and Simon for the ride, but she could still see out the window, and what she saw shocked her. This was not so much a town as a collection of standing structures; some shedlike buildings made of wood panels and sheets of zinc, others tentlike structures made of tarps, and yet others traditional teepees. None looked stable. None looked like a safe place to live. And yet there were people sitting on uneven steps constructed from wooden slats, standing around in front of their living spaces, peeping through window cutouts where there may or may not have ever been glass. They were definitely far away from Toronto.