Different Circles

As was often the case when new people flew with him, they were comforted when they observed how seriously he took the business of piloting. They watched him perform the external inspection of the plane, watched him seal them in and then meticulously go through his preflight checklist after admonishing them to not disturb or talk to him until they were above ten thousand feet. Their nervous looks returned when he actually fired up the engines, but they remained in their seats as he began to taxi to the head of the runway.

Both of them gripped their armrests tightly when he powered up the engines and they began to accelerate down the runway. When they broke contact with the ground, they both heaved in a sharp breath of air. But then that fear changed over to wonder as they saw the little world they lived in from above for the first time. Though both had flown on commercial aircraft a few times in their lives—Loraine considerably more than Meghan—neither had ever taken off from or landed at San Luis Obispo. Jake deliberately took the route that led them out over the coast at Morro Bay, so they would pass over the famous Morro Rock, the 580-foot volcanic plug that towered over the entrance to the harbor. He banked left here and headed south, passing over Oceano and the western edges of SLO itself. Both of them stared down at the scenery in awe, seeing it as they had never seen it before.

“All right,” Jake said once they climbed past ten thousand feet and the autopilot had the plane. “Sterile cockpit no longer in effect. Speak freely.”

“It’s beautiful up here,” Meghan said, looking down at the spine of the coastal mountains below them, the ocean on the right, the valleys and canyons on the left, the city of Santa Barbara coming up before them.

“Isn’t it?” Jake asked. “Laura and I get to make this flight twice a day, five days a week. I never get tired of it.”

“It’s so quiet in here,” Loraine said in wonder. “It’s no louder than in my car on the freeway. This plane is so noisy when it passes over though!”

“The engines are behind and above us, so the sound doesn’t tend to make it through the fuselage insulation very well,” he explained. “Oh, and the plane is not really any louder than any other twin-engine plane. It’s just a different frequency that is not as pleasing to the ear.”

“I see,” she said slowly, looking out her window at the land/ocean border below.

Jake brought them neatly in for a landing twenty-three minutes later. He taxied over to the GA parking and shut down. After securing the aircraft, he told them to stay with the plane and he would go get his truck for the drive to the warehouse.

“Truck?” Loraine asked her daughter once he was out of earshot. “He drives a truck?”

“In Los Angeles he does,” she replied.

“I can’t believe how fast we got here,” she said in wonder. San Luis Obispo to Los Angeles was usually a three to three-and-a-half-hour drive. They had flown the distance in less than thirty minutes. “We’re really in LA?”

“In the valley, but yes,” she said. “He and Laura do this every day they’re working. Here in the morning and back in the afternoon.”

“That must be terribly expensive,” she said.

“They can afford it,” Meghan assured her. “They have more money than they know what to do with. Jake has said that himself a few times.”

“It must be nice,” Loraine said huffily.

“Yeah,” Meghan agreed. “It certainly seems like it is.”

The audience for the final dress rehearsal numbered less than the crew who was running the show. There were the inevitable record company suits and promoters who wanted to see what they were investing in. There were a few reps from Gibson guitars, Marshall, Steinway, and other musical instrument makers who had been invited because they were paying out endorsement money and this was a perk of that deal. There were a few family members and friends of the band members. Little Stevie’s dad was there. Charlie’s latest lover was there (Charlie was currently gay again and dating a bartender from a Los Angeles club). Some chick named Debbie that Coop had been banging of late was there. And there was Jake sitting with Meghan on his right and Loraine on his left in the middle seats in the best spot in the house: just in front of the soundboard, where they could see the actual band in good detail and the video screen. Jake did not have his in-ear monitor in place. He wanted to experience the performance as an actual attendee experienced it.

There was, naturally, an open bar at the event. Meghan and her mother both partook. Meghan was drinking vodka and tonic (a drink that Laura had introduced her to one night not long before) and Loraine was drinking a Napa Valley merlot that was better than any wine she had ever tasted in her life. Jake drank iced tea. Loraine seemed surprised at this until Jake explained that it was not a good idea to have alcohol when he was supposed to fly everyone back to San Luis Obispo after the show.

“I guess that makes sense,” she said softly.