“It’s no big deal,” Jake assured her. “It’s just that it’s a single runway that sits sixteen hundred feet up on a plateau.”
“Sixteen hundred feet?” she asked.
“Yeah,” he said. “It’s fun to land there. It’s even more fun to take off. The land just drops around you and disappears and you’re out over the ocean nearly two thousand feet up. It’s a rush.”
“As long as something doesn’t go wrong,” put in Em, who had stowed his camera once again and was sitting calmly, enjoying the ride.
“Yeah,” Jake agreed. “As long as something doesn’t go wrong.”
“Why in the hell did they build the airport up on a hill?” Celia asked.
“I don’t know,” Jake said. “They didn’t consult me before they started construction. It really is impractical when you come down to it. Maybe they just thought it would be kind of cool.”
“Kind of cool?”
Jake shrugged. “It is kind of cool,” he said. “The runway does suck though. It’s asphalt and very bumpy. It’s also not completely level.”
“Madres de Dios,” Celia said, making the sign of the cross. “How do I get myself into these things?”
Jake brought them in without incident, touching down neatly on the center line of the runway and then rolling out to the second taxiway. He followed the yellow line to the general aviation area and pulled into a parking slot. After shutting down the engines and turning off all the avionics and the lights, he opened the doors and the three of them stepped out into the pleasantly cool late morning ocean air.
“I need to go drain the dragon,” Em said. “Where can I do that?”
“The airport office is right over there,” Jake told him, pointing to a two-story building.
Em headed off, still carrying his camera with him. It was expensive enough that he did not trust it out of his sight.
Jake and Celia tied down the aircraft and then headed over to the office as well. Celia made her own march to the restroom while Jake paid the landing fees for two aircraft. By the time he was done with this, Em and Celia had both come out of the facilities and were standing behind him. He led them back outside just in time to see Helen’s plane on final approach. It touched down neatly and then taxied over as well, coming to a stop in the parking slot next to Jake’s.
The engine sputtered to a stop and then the lights went out. The doors opened and Greg Oldfellow, wearing a pair of aviator sunglasses, tan slacks, and a dress shirt covered by a leather bomber jacket, stepped out first. He was smiling the smile of someone who had just had a pretty good time.
Helen stepped out from the right-hand seat. She looked no different, really, than the last time Jake had seen her. She was not a large woman, but she was not petite either. She was solidly built like a farm girl. Her dark hair spilled over her shoulders and was carelessly styled with nothing more than a brush. Her face was rounded and cute to behold, with brown eyes and a bulbous nose. She wore a pair of jeans that outlined her legs and her backside quite nicely and a beige Brody Flight School polo shirt that bulged alluringly from her large breasts. Jake’s heart skipped a few beats as he saw her—this woman he had once loved, this woman who had broken his heart.
She is still beautiful, he thought as he took in her hair, her eyes, her smile.
While Rick, the cameraman assigned to Helen’s plane, squirmed his way out of the back seat of the aircraft, Helen rushed over to Jake, her smile widening as she got closer. She held out her arms to him and a moment later, they embraced warmly. Jake felt the press of those big breasts into his chest, felt the softness of her body, the strength of her arms around him, smelled the familiar musk of her exertional sweat, and a powerful bolt of lust and wanting surged through him like electricity. He remembered feeling that body naked against his, his manhood plowing into her wet and dripping womanhood. Helen had always been very juicy when aroused, sometimes leaving wet spots a foot or more in diameter when they coupled, usually squirting out a big blast of her vaginal secretions when she came. She was a genuine squirter, something that Jake had not believed really existed until the first time she had demonstrated the ability for him in an Omaha hotel room one night.
The embrace broke just as Jake’s penis began to get fully interested in the goings on. He had not been laid since the night before Laura had left, after all, and had not even had time to pleasure himself much during her absence.
“It’s so good to see you again, Jake,” Helen told him as they looked at each other. Her face seemed a little more flushed than it had been just a few moments ago.
“It’s good to see you too, Helen,” he said, giving her hand a little squeeze before they broke physical contact completely. “I appreciate you helping us out with this thing.”
“No problem at all,” she said. “This was a lot of fun, truth be told. And the money they’re paying me for all this ... it’s me who should be thanking you for getting me involved.”
“Greg wouldn’t fly with anyone else,” Jake said. “He said, ‘if I’m going to climb into some tiny little plane, I want someone I know and trust at the controls’.”
“I’m flattered by his confidence in me,” she said. “He did all right for an amateur. We got lots of good shots of him at the controls.”
Helen was about to say something else but was interrupted by Celia, who was now rushing over to her with a squeal of delight, her arms held out wide. Helen matched the squeal and held out her own arms. The two women came together and embraced warmly, with genuine affection. Jake felt another little surge of lust blasting into him as he watched their breasts smash together, as he watched Celia give her a big kiss on the cheek.
While the two women talked and hugged each other repeatedly, Greg came wandering up and stood next to Jake. He looked at the two of them appreciatively, nodding his head, probably thinking similar things to what Jake was thinking, though he kept them unsaid.
“How was it?” Jake asked him.
“I rather enjoyed the experience,” he said. “I hardly think I’m ready to land an airliner after the captain is stricken with a heart attack or something, but I do have a much better understanding of the mechanics of flying an aircraft. I think it will help my methodology on my upcoming film.”
“Then it was worthwhile, right?”
“It was,” he agreed. “It’s hotter than hell in this bomber jacket though. I think I’ll leave it in the plane.”
“Why are you wearing that thing anyway?” Jake asked. “I told you that it gets stuffy inside a 172. You must be sweating like a pig.”
“It’s an image necessity,” he said. “If I’m going to be filmed flying a plane, I have to look the part.”
“I see,” Jake said, resisting the urge to shake his head.
Greg stowed the jacket in Helen’s plane and then they all headed across the tarmac to the DC-3 Bar and Grille, which sat just behind the airport operations building, very near the cliff’s edge that overlooked the ocean. The two camera operators tagged along with them, still carrying their respective cameras in hand but not filming anything with them. The restaurant was only about half full and they were given a table for six right away. Jake and Helen ordered coffee to drink. Everyone else ordered a bloody Mary since the DC-3 was famous for them.
“Just remember to pee before we head back,” Jake reminded everyone.
“Yeah,” said Helen. “Especially you, Celia. It’s hard for a girl to use the urinal in-flight.”
“I would let my bladder burst before I tried to use the urinal in-flight,” Celia assured her.
Helen sat down next to Jake, on the end of the table. Across from them were Celia and Greg. On the other end were the two camera operators who sat facing each other. The conversation stayed mostly between Celia, Jake, Greg, and Helen. The two camera guys talked mostly to each other in low voices, likely discussing the footage each had managed to get during the mission. Greg dominated the conversation among the four of them. All it had taken was for Helen to ask him what the movie he was going to make was about. After chastising her for using the word “movie” (those in the business never called a movie a “movie”, it was always “the film” or “the project”) he launched into a detailed synopsis of the project, paying particular attention to his role in it.