Chasing Rainbows (12 page)

He developed the gifts of a charmer and his position of power gave him what he needed in order to fulfil his desires. George never had to look for women as there was an abundance of them in his line of business. In his travels he gained much experience and was master of the 'mile high' club. He christened many toilets over many countries in the world.
George was now on his way to what he hoped would be a permanent escape from his sad life in England. His organisation was now going global and branching out into the American internal flights market. This was to be his last trip to 'seal the deal' and all being well he would soon be living in his own apartment not far from Kennedy Airport, where he would stay until his retirement in a few years. George knew Alice would not move to America. She wanted to be near her daughter and her grandchildren. Alice's ageing mother lived with them and needed some care. George did his bit and shared the care. He couldn't do it anymore. He wanted his life back.

Alice enjoyed her roles as mother and grandmother, she never was the wife he wanted. She never instigated sex and in the thirty years they were married she never said, 'I love you' first. She was not romantically demonstrative and sex became nonexistent after their daughter was born.

George wished that things could have been different. In her younger days, Alice had the beauty of a Vogue model; now the alcohol was taking its toll and her face was ravaged by drink and bitterness.

Over the years George began to think it was never him that Alice wanted but his fertility, his money and his standing in the local community. He gave her the materialistic things that she craved and, of course, the endless supply of drink to keep her functioning.

George knew how much she detested him, his good looks, his success. Alice was no longer interested in George, she did not care what he did or where he went, theirs was now a marriage of convenience. Convenience for her and George was the fool by staying when he needed to get a life for himself.

Alice had never seen the barge that George kept on the canal, moored several miles from home, at Llangollen. Alice didn't care anymore. Whilst she never appeared interested in what he did, Alice called him several times a day , accusing him of infidelities, asking him to not forget to bring more wine home.

If George forgot, as he sometimes did, Alice would scream, shout and sulk.   Tired as he was, George would drive to the supermarket to purchase her favourite tipple and then spend the rest of the evening waiting for her to slip into a stupor that at times triggered the abuse. Alice would call him terrible names and was known for her hefty slaps. How could a man be so powerful in his work and career and then become a cowering mouse as his spouse, whip lashed him with her words?

George began his career as an admin clerk at the airport. Sitting opposite him every day was Eleanor. He liked Eleanor, she was very sweet, with dark auburn hair that fell to her shoulders with a homely figure that perhaps could lose a few pounds, unlike the anorexic, thin lipped Alice.

Eleanor had a simple outlook on life and was easily pleased. The affair began by accident at an office party. Her kisses were warm and uninspiring but she made no demands on him and was a perfect contrast to the 'drunk'. Eleanor was an escape from his sad marriage.

As George moved up the career ladder, certain sacrifices were made, in the fact that he had to stay married, a requirement of the organisation where he was moving to greater heights.

George continued to see Eleanor throughout the years and she was happy and content to be used by him, as and when he was available.

This became less and less as he became busier, travelled more and had wider access to women who were meeting his physical needs and voracious sexual appetite.

George's career would not stand any scandal and so he continued to do the best he could to juggle a rather hectic life that also contained many lascivious women. As George grew older he also grew more cowardly and became cruel to women as he vented his feelings on those with whom he would spend one or two nights with and who he callously abandoned when done. He was interested only in his lust and how many 'notches' he could etch on the bedpost.

George did not believe in condoms, like a lot of men his age, he believed he would never catch anything and he chose his subjects carefully.

He was wrong and contracted an STD more than once, infecting both Alice and Eleanor.

Alice was angry at the humiliation , knowing that she then had to acknowledge something that she had known for many years but chose to ignore.

Her husband slept around and took his love elsewhere, which in turn made her drink more to quell her unhappiness. She was never lonely with a bottle.

As for Eleanor she confronted George when she returned from the doctors to tell him that she now had 'the clap'.  In his arrogance, being the good liar that he was he managed to convince Eleanor that he had only shared a bed with a stewardess one night in Adelaide, when the hotel was full and there was only one room left.

Eleanor bought the story and nothing more was said. The antibiotics did the rest.

George found the solace he required on his barge and spent more and more time there by himself.

This was his sanctuary, where he was true to himself and could put his complicated life to one side.

This was one place a woman was not allowed.  It was his bolt hole from the world, an escape from the chaos he created.

He dreamed of a new life and now he was on his way to America to make his dream a reality and to reinvent himself.  He found that getting older was taking its toll on his ability to maintain an erection, something that was never a problem in his younger days. Sex continued to be of great importance to him and always would be.

America was to be the new life where he would escape the banshees that haunted him. America was to be where his erection returned.

George knew there would be s few more years of hard work, after which he would retire, buy a boat and go fishing.

George could live off his memories.  he no longer felt he needed a woman. The significant women he encountered on his life's journey he would recall as and when he required help to stimulate himself.

There were many and varied memories of one night stands, weekends in exotic places, long haul flights and the half hours with complete strangers.

George was not sure if he ever made love to anyone, as his time was precious and he was far too busy.

His sexual encounters were training grounds for perfecting his seduction methods and emptying his throbbing scrotum.

George took a drink of his vodka tonic and looked down the aisle of the plane, as his attention went to the film on the screen.

George smiled to himself as he remembered the goodbyes and tears that he left behind in Lancashire.

The years had not been kind to his feelings and he was now hard and ruthless.

His behaviours instigated too much heartbreak and too many tears in the women he had sex with.

George lost his feelings when his marriage drowned in drink and his wife became all powerful as her abuse went out of control.

George waited many years to fulfil his plan and he had the last laugh when he put his cases in the taxi.  He told Alice who was crying on the doorstep, that she would be hearing from his solicitor.

She screamed at him, “If you stay on America, I will kill myself and I mean it this time.”

George slowly turned to look at her and said, “Quite frankly my dear, I don't give a flying fuck.”

Rhett Butler said, 'Quite frankly my dear, give a damn', to Scarlett O' Hara.

Alice was no Scarlett, 'Don't give a flying fuck' seemed more apt.

A wicked smirk on his face, he got into the taxi and he was gone.

Georges attention turned to the man seated next to him. His eyes were closed and he looked asleep.

He wondered who he was, where he was going and why.  Perhaps they might chat later, after lunch.

It was quiet on the plane as the attendants were at the back chatting and the aisle was empty.

George looked up to see a woman walking towards him in the distance. He noticed she was elegantly dressed in a business suit and white crisp blouse.

Although he could not yet see her clearly he thought, "Now that looks like my kind of woman, one with some class".

As she came closer he noticed that she was beginning to smile, he would have loved it if the smile was for him.

She was stunning, he could see that as she came nearer. It was her smile that drew him to her.

The words from Noel Pointer's , 'Classy Lady' began to sing their way through his mind as his eyes could not leave the woman, now so near to him.

Just as the vision came to the row in front, her head turned towards him she began to grin and a glint appeared in her eye as she winked.

George was taken aback by the gesture and rather surprised.

He looked to the side as the man next to him stirred and he saw that he too was staring at the woman walking by.

The man had a shocked expression on his face, he looked stunned.

As they looked at each other George asked the man, “Do you know her?”

Doug replied, “Yes. But for some reason I thought she might be winking at you”.

“No,” George said, “I don't know her”.

“My name is Doug, by the way”, Doug smiled.

George asked him if he was going to New York on business and they began a 'getting to know each other' session.

They found that they had similar interests, in that they both loved sailing and each had a vessel that they spent most of their free time on.

Both had high powered jobs and were hoping to stay in America now and perhaps not return to England.  They both hoped to build new lives for themselves for the last time, before they retired.

Doug and George liked each other and exchanged business cards saying to keep in touch before they both sat back for the rest of the flight.

George wondered if he should have asked Doug how he knew the woman, but thought perhaps he would have said something during their conversation.

She was rather beautiful and seemed very confident as she passed by.

As the fog began to lift from his past George began to see the woman amongst the long line of women that danced about in his memory.

He could not remember her name but thought that perhaps somewhere in the clouds of his mind he could hear her voice. It was a small echo in the baggage he carried in his head.

He stared at the seat in front of him, knowing that it would eventually come, the story of where he might know her from, if he had ever known her at all. A woman that looked like that he hoped that he had, but surely he wouldn't have forgotten her?

CHAPTER TWELVE

Lunch was served and after taking the last of his brandy, George fell into a deep sleep that became filled with dreams that began to unravel the mystery that was the woman.

Frankfurt airport was crowded that day in November, George was annoyed that they all had to change flights and he had not managed to secure direct flights to Munich.

He was not a happy man as they waited for cases that had to be carried across the airport to the next check in.

As he became more frustrated, George became aware of a small person next to him. Was she talking to herself or to him?

“
Absolutely bloody stupid is this, other airports do transfers from plane to plane, no need for this at all. Oh well, they obviously think differently in Germany.”

George turned to look at the woman, who looked more like a little girl, so it was hard to determine her age. Wild auburn hair curled round her blue woolly hat and she was drowned by a matching royal blue coat.

He noticed she wore beige leather boots of good quality and although everything looked a bit big on her he could see she had taste.

“
Sorry, were you talking to me?” he spoke to the hat.

“
Of course I am talking to you, you organised this fiasco, didn't you? And if you think I am going to lug my case a mile across this airport , that will not happen, this is so ridiculous”.

He shuddered, was this one going to be trouble and moan her way round Germany, it was only a small minibus and he would not be able to avoid her.

Being a natural gentleman, when her case arrived he took hold of it and with his own in the other hand began to stride towards the next check in desk.

George chuckled to himself as she struggled to keep up with him. At least it stopped her talking for a while.

The next time they spoke was in the airport at Munich. The landing had not been the best, as the pilot dropped the plane down to the ground with rather a bang before putting the engines in reverse.

As they waited, once again, for their cases the 'twitterer', (that was the name he gave her, as he loved giving nick names to people, it appealed to his cynical ego) said,

“
Do all your pilots land like that? No wonder the carpets on board are brown”, she laughed and stared at him waiting for confrontation.