Flight SQA016 (The Flight Series)

by A. E. Radley

  The photographer laughed. “Internal mag? No, love, they’re going to push this external. Nice tearjerker like this, they can rake in good publicity with this one.”

  “That’s not what I agreed to.”

  “What is going on?” Olivia’s quiet authoritative voice held an angry tone that Emily had never heard before.

  The photographer turned to her. “Who are you?” he asked.

  Olivia ignored him and asked Emily. “Are you okay?”

  Emily nodded shakily, knowing it was obvious that she was not okay. Olivia turned her attention to the photographer. “Who are you?”

  “Rick McCoy.” He handed her a business card which she snatched out of his hand and examined.

  “And you’re here because?” Olivia scowled.

  “Taking a couple of snaps of the kid. Sorry, who are you?” he asked again.

  “You intend to use these photographs in the mainstream press?” Olivia asked.

  “Yeah,” he replied with a sneer. “That’s what the airline wants.”

  “Call your contact at the airline, now.”

  He mumbled something derogatory about women and stepped into the corridor. Olivia’s face softened as she approached Emily. “What is going on?”

  Unshed tears threatened to spill down her face as she pulled Olivia away from Henry’s bed and whispered, “I was stupid. I made a deal with the devil and now I have to pay up.”

  “What do you mean?”

  Emily sighed, “Henry needed this operation and the opportunity came up to get it done in London for free but I couldn’t afford the flight. So I spoke to the airline to see if they could figure out a way to get him here. A way that I could pay the airfare back later. They said they’d let him travel for free, but only if they could put a story into the internal staff magazine, something about how the airline flew Henry to London for his operation. A sort of feel-good story for staff. I didn’t really have a choice so I agreed. But then this guy showed up and he wants to shine a white light at Henry’s face so he looks sicker than he is! And he just told me that they’re going to give the story to the press.”

  “And you don’t want that?”

  “No.” Emily hissed. “Henry shouldn’t have to go through this but I’m stuck. If I say no, I could lose my job and I could never afford to get us both home.”

  “Will you allow me to deal with this?” Olivia looked towards the corridor where she could hear the photographer on his phone. “I have an idea. It’s not ideal but it will give you more control.”

  Emily looked into Olivia’s kind, brown eyes and nodded. “You might as well, I don’t seem to be doing a very good job of this.”

  Olivia squeezed her hand and left to talk to the photographer.

  “Mommy, I don’t want my picture taken anymore,” Henry whispered.

  “I know, baby.” Emily sat on the edge of the bed. “But you might have to be a brave boy again for me.”

  “What’s Olivia doing?” Henry asked as he skirted over and cuddled up to his mother.

  “I’m not sure.” Emily chuckled. “Trying to fix my mistake, I think.”

  “But Mommy, you don’t make mistakes.” Henry frowned as he burrowed closer.

  Emily kissed his hair. “Oh, we all make mistakes.”

  The muffled sound of Olivia and the photographer arguing filtered through from the corridor but Emily couldn’t make out their words. It was a relief when Olivia finally returned.

  “He’s gone.” Olivia announced.

  “But?” Emily could tell that Olivia felt she had bad news to convey.

  “I didn’t tell them who I was, just that I was a friend., I didn’t think you’d want my name brought up.” Olivia smiled at Henry who was wearing his giraffe hoodie and looking at her from within his mother’s arms.

  “Thank you.” Emily nodded her gratitude.

  “It seems that your manager sold the idea to the airline based upon an international marketing campaign, generating good publicity for Crown,” Olivia informed her. “No mention of just an internal news story.”

  “Iris.” Emily’s mouth twisted in distaste.

  “However, I think I have come to a suitable compromise,” Olivia said. “I hope you’ll agree.”

  Emily looked at Olivia expectantly. “The airline doesn’t care much how the publicity is generated as long as it is. And Mister McCoy there, had intended to take some staged photographs and sell them to the highest bidder. My advice is to put you in the driver’s seat, select journalists you wish to work with and tell your own story. That way you have final approval on the copy and control over any images and you collect any royalties for yourself, rather than them going to that terrible man.”

  Emily considered this for a moment. “So Crown still gets the publicity it wants?”

  “Yes, which is all they want out of the transaction.”

  “And I get to choose the story and the photos?” Emily continued.

  “Exactly. I can put you in touch with a couple of reputable freelance journalists who will take your story and some quotes and photos, and if you’re happy, they will then sell it into the press agencies. Of course, you’ll get a percentage of any profit made rather than Mister McCoy getting his hands on everything.”

  Emily hesitated and she continued. “I know it’s not about the money but surely it’s better for you to have any profits as a result of this, for Henry.”

  “Mommy, am I having my picture took?” Henry asked quietly.

  “Not today,” Emily told him and the boy nodded his head.

  “Is that man coming back?” He questioned.

  “No,” Olivia said quickly. “He won’t be back.”

  “Good.” Henry smiled.

  “Henry, could you watch some TV while I talk to Olivia?” At his nod, she switched on the television and sat him up a little, pulling the sheets up to cover him and Tiny. “We’ll be right outside.” She promised. “Just call if you need me.”

  “Okay,” Henry mumbled, already distracted by the cartoons.

  They left the room and walked towards a waiting area. Emily smiled at Olivia softly and said, “Thank you for that. I’m a bit of a mess at the moment. I didn’t know what to do.”

  “I understand.”

  “No, I don’t think you do,” Emily said gently. “That’s why I wanted to come out here. So I can explain it to you properly.”

  They sat down and Olivia crossed her legs and turned towards Emily as they huddled close to avoid the prying ears of passers-by.

  “I’m…” Emily sighed. “I’m in debt, as you already know.” Olivia blushed and began to apologise but Emily held her hand up and continued to speak, “Debt isn’t an easy thing to talk about and it’s not an easy thing to cope with. It makes you defensive, stressed, and it leads you to make decisions you probably wouldn’t have made if you hadn’t been in debt. I didn’t have a good start in life: I stayed in foster homes, got in with the wrong crowd, made mistakes…you know?”

  Olivia nodded and she continued. “Henry is my whole life, when he was six months old, he was so quiet and still that I took him to see a doctor. There were so many tests and so many procedures. The insurance paid for some of it but not all of it. Some of the procedures and medication wasn’t covered. I couldn’t cut off his medication so I got another credit card and then another and then another. I was working all the time and paying an elderly neighbour to watch Henry while I was out. The only time I saw him was for hospital appointments.”

  A nurse walked past and Emily stopped talking until she had gone. She sighed and carried on with her story. “I ended up in a spiral of debt, I couldn’t pay the minimum payment on my card so I got another one. And then another, and another. That’s when I started calling up those ads. You know, the ones that claim to help people in debt but only end up getting them even more in debt? So then I had loans on top of the credit cards I already couldn’t afford.” Emily shook her head at her own naiveté.

  “One day, I met this
woman at the park,” she continued. “Her name was Lucy and she’d just moved into town with her husband. Henry loved her and we started to talk and the pressure of everything just got too much for me, I told her everything, sobbed like a baby on a park bench.” Emily laughed sadly at the memory. “We become friends and, after a few months, she convinced me to move in with her and her husband. They had a spare room and the husband is a long-haul pilot so Lucy was lonely and wanted some company in the house.”

  Emily paused for a moment while she gathered her thoughts. Olivia reached forward and placed her hand awkwardly on Emily’s knee before quickly removing it again.

  “Tom, Lucy’s husband, convinced me to train to be cabin crew. The money was better; the work was safer. So I did it and I spent a couple of years working for a low cost airline. I was still in massive amounts of debt and bills were stacking up but I was just about okay, you know? I could cope. I started dating someone, it was kinda casual but Henry liked her and she understood my crazy work schedule. But then Henry got worse, the doctors said he needed an operation that was going to cost more money than I would ever make in my lifetime. They said that they would put him on waiting lists and said they would work out a repayment plan with me.” Emily reached into her pocket and pulled out a tissue and gently dabbed at the corners of her eyes.

  “As for my ex. Well, seems she didn’t want that kind of commitment after all so she left. Dumped me by text, actually.” Emily laughed bitterly. “I knew I needed to get more money so I signed up to long-haul airlines because the pay is better. Tom got me an interview with Crown in first-class and I got the job, I don’t know how, but I got it.”

  Emily felt herself get lost in a memory for a moment before snapping back to the present. “It was just after I saw you in duty free that I had a call from Lucy. Henry had collapsed and she’d taken him to the hospital. And I was in London, miles away from him and knowing I had to work a shift to get home.

  “Thank God for Doctor Harvey. He saw me lose it in the airport and he said he knew of a teaching hospital that might take on Henry’s case. He made some calls and they wanted to see Henry right away. It must have been a one-in-a-million chance to get his operation done at a teaching hospital, and one of the best in the world!”

  Emily sighed and looked at Olivia. “So, here I am: My son is recovering from two massive cardiac operations and I don’t have a dollar to my name, I’m in huge amounts of debt. Henry has more money than me now that you put those coins in his money box.”

  “You don’t need to tell me all this.”

  “I just think it’s right that you know all of this from the outset and that you know that, as bad as things are, I always manage to get by on my own. I’m very independent and I don’t accept help easily, that probably comes from being a foster kid.”

  “Thank you for sharing your story with me.”

  “Thank you for dealing with that sleazy photographer.”

  “How is Henry doing?” Olivia asked. “He seemed disturbed earlier?”

  “Aside from not liking the photographer, he is doing a lot better, and he loved the chocolate pudding yesterday, by the way. He has check-ups for another week and then they’ll hopefully clear him to fly home.”

  Olivia nodded and took her phone out of her pocket and expertly typed a message at speed.

  “I’ll get Simon to give you some contact details for freelance journalists. The lady I spoke to at the airlines was named Margaret Davison, she worked in the marketing department so you’ll have to contact her as well. He can drop by with the information.”

  “Oh, we’re checking out of here tomorrow morning,” Emily explained. “If I can figure out how to get to Kings Cross.”

  “The underground,” Olivia said with a knitted brow. “From here, it’s just a couple of stops. Why are you going there?”

  “Henry and I are staying at a hostel there,” Emily replied. “We need to give the room up so we’re staying nearby.”

  “Kings Cross is not a particularly nice area of London,” Olivia said seriously “It used to be the red light district and some parts of it are still very run down.”

  Emily shrugged. “I checked out the hostel online and the pictures are good and the reviews are okay. I don’t have much choice.”

  “You can’t trust everything you read online,” Olivia sighed as if she were dealing with a child.

  Emily bristled at her attitude. “Yes, I know that, I’m not an idiot. But I’ve done my research and this hostel is fine. Really.”

  Olivia shook her head. “Emily, there is no way a hostel in Kings Cross will be suitable for Henry to stay in.”

  “As I said, I don’t have much choice.”

  “Stay at my hotel,” Olivia said, as if it was the simplest thing in the world.

  “And what hotel is that?” Emily folded her arms defensively.

  “The Hilton, it’s two minutes away,” Olivia explained. “Henry could easily get back here for his check-ups and I can vouch for the quality of the rooms and the attentiveness of the staff.”

  “Have you not heard a word I’ve said?” Emily groaned in angry exasperation. “I don’t have any money.”

  “But I can help you,” Olivia pulled her wallet out of her bag and opened it up.

  Emily sprung to her feet in annoyance. “You just don’t get it do you?” She shook her head in disbelief. “I don’t want your charity! I can look after my son, myself.”

  “Well, you’re doing a tremendously bad job of it.” Olivia frowned. “A seedy hostel in Kings Cross is not suitable for a five-year-old boy recovering from surgery. I thought you would know better than that.”

  “Excuse me…” Emily looked at Olivia in shock. “Are…are you calling me a bad mother?”

  Olivia seemed to give her previous statement some consideration before thoughtfully nodding. “Well, yes, I suppose I am.”

  Emily’s jaw fell open.

  “Okay, that’s enough,” Emily said when she finally managed to speak. “I want you to go.”

  “Go?” Olivia frowned. “But what about—”

  “I don’t want anything from you, Olivia,” she said. “I just poured my heart out to you but…you just don’t get it. And you just called me a bad mother. I want you to go and I don’t want you to come near Henry ever again. If our paths cross at Crown, then I’ll act professionally, but that is it. Goodbye Olivia.”

  Emily turned on her heel towards Henry’s room, slamming the door behind her.

  * * *

  Twenty minutes later, Olivia stormed into her office and slammed her office door so hard it shook the whole partition wall. She threw her bag under her desk and pulled her coat off and threw it on the coatrack before flopping into her chair. She gave her mouse a good shaking to wake her computer up.

  Simon tentatively opened the door and stepped in before closing it behind him. He regarded his boss. “Is anything wrong?”

  “No,” Olivia said firmly. “I’m fine.”

  “Okay,” Simon said. “It’s just you nearly took the door off of its hinges.”

  “Then we really need more sturdy doors,” Olivia told him as she read an email on her screen. “And why does Terry need to see me again? I spoke to him this morning about this!”

  “I think he wants to meet about something else,” Simon said carefully as he took a few steps into the office and sat in a chair in front of her desk.

  “Is there something you want?” Olivia glanced at him quickly before glaring back at her screen.

  “How’s Emily?”

  Olivia bristled. “Emily is ridiculous.”

  “I see. Do you still need me to get those freelance journalist details over to her?”

  Olivia looked at him in confusion. “Of course, why wouldn’t I?”

  “Because she’s ridiculous?”

  “Even ridiculous people need freelance journalists, Simon.”

  “Why is she ridiculous?” He asked softly. He picked up a stress ball from her desk and bega
n to squeeze it.

  “She wants to take Henry to a nasty little hovel!” Olivia declared. “In Kings Cross! I—in the red light district!”

  “Isn’t he a little young for that?” Simon laughed. “What do you mean she’s taking him to a hovel?”

  “They need to leave the hospital so she’s taking him to some…seedy hostel.” Olivia launched herself to her feet and began to pace in front of the large windows overlooking Southampton Row.

  “Did she use the words seedy hostel?” Simon asked carefully.

  “No, but is there any other kind?” Olivia demanded.

  “Well, some hostels are okay,” Simon admitted. “When I moved here from York, I had to stay in a hostel for a month.”

  Olivia spun around and stared at him. “A month in a hostel?”

  Simon laughed at her horror. “Yes, a month in a hostel. Some of them are actually okay. If you don’t mind sharing.”

  “Sharing?”

  “Yeah, hostels aren’t like hotels. They are large, dormitory-style rooms. It’s cheaper that way.”

  “You sleep in a room with other people?” Olivia was appalled at the thought.

  “Yep,” Simon said. “Usually between ten and thirty in a single room. They split men and women, of course.”

  “Oh my God,” Olivia put her hand on her heart and leaned heavily against the window. “Poor Henry!”

  Simon rolled his eyes. “Olivia, he’ll be with Emily. They won’t put a five-year-old in with the blokes, don’t worry.”

  Olivia let out a sigh of relief. “Okay, good, but still…a hostel.”

  “Hotels in London are mega-expensive, Olivia,” he told her. “She might not be able to afford anything else. Although, admittedly, some of Kings Cross is still a bit ropey.”

  “I had a taxi driver take a shortcut through Kings Cross once,” Olivia said. “I saw a man urinating in the street. That was it for me, never went back.”

  Simon chuckled. “Well, I’m sure that is a rare occurrence.”

  “I called her a bad mother,” Olivia muttered. She turned and leant her head on the glass and looked down at the street below. In the reflection, she saw Simon briefly close his eyes. That meant she’d done something really bad.