When I saw this cover, I had to read the book. See, I fancied myself a flight attendant at one time, but alas.. it was not meant to be... The FAA frowns upon deaf flight attendants.. safety hazard, you know? LOL
Nevertheless, I enjoyed this short, very short story. Callie is fresh out of flight attendant school and on her first trans atlantic flight, Cali to England. On top of pre flight jitters, discomfort with sitting backwards, and slight fear of turbulence, Callie has two interesting passengers; one a sexy cowboy complete with stetson and dreamy blue eyes (sigh) and one an Arab appearing man with a gun under his jacket and dark black eyes...
Callie gets a bit uncomfortable with it all. The cowboy unnerves her and the Arab has her frightened. Was it a gun she seen or a cell phone? Should she say something? It's her first day on the job. She can't very well accuse a passenger of packing and then have him whip out a blackberry... How embarassing.
So Callie begins to have serious doubts about her career choice.. And then all hell breaks lose... and Callie passes out. This is my sole complaint about the story and the only reason it doesn't hit the five star mark for me. Things get good and interesting and the action heats up and the heroine passes out... when she wakes, we get to find out what happened through her fellow co worker's brief narrative. Though I must say, I didn't see this coming. The ending surprised me.
A very short story with a very good moral. Four stars
Oh the days when our nerves make it impossible for the air we breathe to actually make it to our brains...the poor kid.
ReplyDeleteLike you Book Babe, I once thought about becoming a flight attendant...until my brother got his pilots license. He took the eager, young, and far too gullible, me up in a puddle jumper plane. Let me preface this by saying, "BROTHERS ARE EVIL!"
He thought it would be cute to do plane acrobatics in mid air with tree tops only this far away from us. I think there are still about five layers of my hair follicles still clinging and no doubt shivering to the roof of Don's puddle jumping starter plane.
He DID graduate to Lear jets. I actually managed to make it inside so I can, to this day, describe the cockpit and the body of a Lear jet, but I made sure I hauled my boat anchor when I boarded so I could toss it out the door and latch onto something immovable should Don decide to play cute again and take us airborn.
No way I was EVER letting the me, that I cherish and adore down here, make it back up there and turn into the bug-eyed mass of quivering nausea I knew I'd become.
So I sympathize with Calli and have to admit in her shoes I would run as far away from the plane's tarmac as my pumping legs could get me.
Ginger, four stars, though is really good. Proud of you.
And now I am going to go hide under my bed till this case of remembered willies passes.
I've read A Wing and A Prayer. I loved the surprise twist at the end. I also didn't see it coming.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the four-stars. Short stories very rarely live up to the expectations of the reviewer because you can't pack an entire novel into 5000-6000 words. Callie's reaction, on top of her harried day and shattered nerves seemed the only possible reaction to me. Next time, I'll keep your comments in mind and keep my heroine on her toes. No one likes wussies, and I guess I drew on my own ability to cope and my personal weakness came through. :)
ReplyDeleteI so appreciate the time and effort you took to read my story. I'm very proud of the four stars you gave me. It means a lot.
Lin, LOL. That would make a good short story too. You should consider making it into one. I think it could be a very humorous and heart stopping tale. :)
ReplyDeleteGinger, I think you are a very good writer. I didn't even think of that though.. about trying to keep it short enough to be a short story. I understand now. I am gonna have to check out some of your other work now. :)