Into the Aether_Part One(7)

Aaron sighed as he watched her walk further along the concourse. Put me in the middle of a war zone, or in a room of screaming teenagers, and I'm fine. Talk to an attractive woman? Forget it.

He shook his head, turned, and walked toward the main doors of the airport. They parted to reveal a yellow taxi, its driver reading a newspaper. He ambled toward it until he was stopped by a man who appeared to be in his early twenties.

“Looking for a great deal?” said the young stranger. He was wearing a dark professional suit with a name tag that read Comfort Limousine Inc., followed by the name Phillip.

“The guy I was supposed to pick up had his flight cancelled,” Phillip said, cocking a thumb toward the airport. “If you need a ride, I have a sedan that can take you where you want to go.”

Aaron looked past the driver to the shining, black sedan behind him.

“And how much is that going to cost me?” Aaron asked, sizing up the driver. Phillip smiled.

“I'll only charge you as much as these other guys would,” he replied, gesturing toward the small fleet of yellow taxis behind him.

“Sounds like a deal,” Aaron said, handing Phillip his small suitcase.

The driver flashed him a toothy grin and placed it in the trunk of the car. Aaron opened the rear passenger door and slid in.

“Where to?” Phillip asked, settling into the driver's seat.

“The Loyalist Hotel in Hamilton.” Aaron looked out at the airport’s entrance.

“Sounds good!” Phillip said, putting the car into drive. Slowly, they pulled away.





Two





Lara Liu-Warner sat in her computer class at Leaside High School, staring absently out the window at the sky, with her head resting against her hand. The small city of Dalhousie where she lived was nothing like the metropolitan capital Indianapolis.

Dalhousie was built around old trading trails that weaved throughout the area. These trails became the major roads, which were laid out in a pattern that resembled the spokes of a bicycle wheel. Because the town was not built on a grid, visitors found navigating to be frustrating. The concept of travelling in cardinal directions was essentially useless.

The circumference of the town was primarily farmland, but it had been heavily developed within the past decade and a half, with a good chunk of the land previously owned by the Rathbone family, who had been residents of Dalhousie since its founding in 1849. Ted Rathbone had insisted that his construction company be the first to be subcontracted and used, and refused to sell until his terms were met. When the developer reluctantly agreed, the already wealthy Rathbone family grew substantially richer.

The middle of the town was more residential, with the exceptions of Dalhousie General Hospital and the new Glenridge Mall. New mansions and a gated community had recently been built.

With the new construction came boutiques, cafés, and restaurants in the town center. In fact, Lara’s mother, Linda Warner, had used money from a grant for economic development from the state, as well as a sizeable chunk of the money left from her late husband’s life insurance policy, to follow through on her dream of owning her own business. After several years’ worth of research and planning, Linda finally opened Linda’s Lingerie.

“It is something of an odd dream, to have your own lingerie store,” she admitted to a local news reporter. “But it just goes to show you what a widowed, single mother is capable of with a lot of hard work and tenacity!”

The reporter, Sue Evans, nodded appreciably. “Good for you, Linda,” she said.

“Sue, don’t forget to put our tagline down: ‘We have it ALL, from A to LL!’” Linda exclaimed while parting her hands in front of her, imagining a billboard.

Sue snickered. “I don’t know if the men will get it, though.”

Linda waved her hand dismissively. “As long as the women do, that’s all I care about,” she replied with a wide grin.

The first several years were rough for Linda and Lara. Linda couldn’t always afford to pay an employee, making a fifty-five- to sixty-hour work week a regular occurrence. It wasn’t unusual for Linda to pick Lara up from elementary school and take her directly to the shop, where she would stay for another four hours. Lara didn’t mind it, though. It gave her time to finish her homework, as well as spend time with her mother.

As Lara grew up, she was able to take a more active role in the business. She learned how to draft monthly income, balance, and cash flow statements and perform inventories, and after much persuading, convinced her mother to purchase a computerized point-of-sale system. Up until then they had been using pen and paper. Terms such as ‘operating expenses’ and ‘gross profit’ entered Lara’s vocabulary, while others such as ‘shrink’ (theft) became taboo, akin to swearing. Once, Linda caught someone trying to shoplift a silk negligee. She grabbed the closest thing to her—the arm of a mannequin—and chased the would-be shoplifter out of the store and down the street. Sue Evans just happened to be having a latte at Alpaca Coffee when she saw the scene and took a picture.

The next day, the picture made it to the front page with the headline ‘Watch Out, She’s Armed!’. Linda thought she would be ruined, but the outpouring of goodwill from the community was tremendous. Well-wishers, regulars, and new customers came to the store in a show of support, and for a time, business was great. Linda was able to hire two employees and took a week off to vacation in Orlando with her daughter.