Closer All the Time by Jim Nichols

Author:Jim Nichols
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Islandport Press

We have some mild weather, but just when I’m starting to think about spring, a couple of storms blow through and knock us right back where we started. The snowbanks rise and the woods are deep and quiet.

At work things slow down to a crawl. There’s still the commuter flights, though, and I empty the ashtrays and mop the floor and rent the occasional car. I prep the 206 for Lambert’s charters and stay around to work the radio when he comes back late.

One morning he calls me at work and says, “So you comfortable flying the two-oh-six?”

“Got a thousand hours in them.”

“I know, but you ain’t flown them much lately.”

“Because you’re a stick hog.”

“It’s just that they’re used to me.”

“Whatever,” I say. “I’m good to go.”

“I don’t need it racked up.”

I don’t even bother responding to that. Frigging Lambert.

“Okay, then,” he says. “There’s a trip popped up for this afternoon. I’ve got my father moving in with us today, and there’s no way Susan can handle that by herself and watch Tomi and Little Roger at the same time.”

“No sweat,” I say. “Where am I going?”

“Portland,” he says, and now there’s something funny in his voice.

“What?” I say.

He laughs. “It’s your old buddy.”

I think a minute. “Cousins?”

“He’s doing a new commercial down there. Can you handle it?”

“I can if he can.”

After he hangs up I walk out from behind the counter and over to the window. It’s gloomy and gray and looks like snow again. The owl’s back on the pole, but he’s lost some of his white because of the warm spell, and now he looks a little out of place.

“Chris Cousins,” I say. “How about them apples?”

The owl ruffles his feathers, leans off the pole, and takes a turn over the field.

I imitate his flight with a hand, banking it through the lobby air, letting it lift and stall. I feel the kid watching from his counter, and can almost see him shaking his head and rolling his sleepy eyes.

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