Stan, the airport manager, came out of his trailer, being the
observant airport manager that he is, opened up the office and he
and Kit settled up the fuel and ramp bills and talked a little about
flying. Jess finished the preflight, showing the other young ladies
what she knew, as Stan mentioned to Kit, "uh...nice copilot...there
...uh...Kit," while they walked back out, and Stan was introduced.
Kit had thought about giving Stan other names for he and the girls
but just felt, heck, he liked Stan and would probably be dealing
with him in the future.
        When they piled in, Jess sassed that they could be taking a
Lear Jet. But the Ole Man didn't realize that she was ribbing him
before he explained, "all in all, this fits our purposes pretty well,
for now, and it's landable at the ranch. And we'll draw less
attention in a 310. Though, let's face it...you ladies are going to
draw enough attention for Hollywood to notice, as it is...but I
don't want you gettin' cocked. Hell, we'd just see clouds and sky
in a Lear anyway. Besides, I don't have the instrument rating to
fly one and neither, my dears, do you."
        "Well, all righty mighty then, skippy," Jess came back.
"You've done convinced us. We can get a jet later." She gave him
a nice wet warmy and added, "besides, I can't wait to fly thees
one now, but..." and 'cleared her throat', "what was that about
gettin' cocked? Um, hay cowgirls...do we see anyone getting
cocked around here?"
        "Aw shit," and Cody was girding his loins. The two in back
were giggling and chuckling and Kit rolled his eyes at each one of
his companeras. "Well, jeezall, you guys are unbelievable...have
I told you that?" he smiled.
        "Listen to him try to sweet talk us now," Jess teased on.
        "True as the blue, cowgirl," Flee was on it.
        "O...he's told me," Essy smiled.
        "Uh huh," Jess gave Kit a look, "trying to lay the neighbor's
chicky, huh, Kitty?"
        He shook his smiling face as he looked around at them
again and just said, "will someone please take her coffee away?"
        "You bet'cher loins..." Jess quipped, "here Flee, so's I can
cock 'm one." Flece took Jessy's coffee mug from her and Jess
poked him in his ribs.
        "Is this a fight?" Es perked up.
        Felecia ribbed, "can we go flying now?"
        "Please," Kit begged, "master on..." and started speeding
through the check list as Jess tried to keep up, then he backed up
to let her catch up after she poked him again, then he checked
that the seat belts on the two in back were tight.
        "Keep your hands up here, please," Jessy ribbed again.
        "Woo! This is going to be fun!" Essy let out, then added,
"do you guys fight a lot?"
        "No, Es, but they're always this sickening," Flee quipped.
        "OK, OK, ready to vamos?!" Jess added excitedly.
        "Said what? Ready to vomit?" Flee kept up, to everybody's
"eee-uuu's".
        Jess and Kit completed the checklist, then she came out
with, "hoo hoo...follow the sun...out for fun...look out West...
here we come," and laughed.
        "Aw Lord..." Flece pretended despair.
        Jessy kept on, "left fuel pump on, rockhead..."
        He answered, "A-OK, pudknocker...uh, mixture a little over
half, for the altitude."
        "PUDknocker?! What the hell's that?" Jess retorted as she
pushed in the left mix about half.
        "O, I'll tell ya later, rockhead, uh...two strokes on the throttle,
probably..."
        "Two strokes on what?" Felecia joked as Jessy pumped the
left throttle.
        Jess took a quick look around the cockpit and saw that Kit
had turned the fuel selector to 'off ' - a standard instructor's trick -
so she turned it back to 'mains' saying, "will you guys tell me if he
touches anything else?
        "Anything?" Flee sassed.
        Es enjoined, "wow, are you guys still fighting?" and they
heard the starter engage, saw the prop turn and felt and heard the
left engine burst into an idle.
        Kit laughed, leaned over and kissed the love of his life, and
she kissed him back, then they started the right engine, sans as
much banter, though probably only because of the engine noise,
and he said, "after this trip, precious, you won't need any help."
        "You hear that, miga's," Jess said over the idling Continental
engines, "I'm going to be a regular real pilot."
        "Yeah," Flece yelled back, "with your looks you're goinna
need something to fall back on," cracking up the others.
        "Yeah, Jess," Essy carried it forth, "you sure can't count on
Kit forever."
        "Nothing like total mutiny, A there, skippy?" Jess came back
and looked over to him. He just had a 'Jeezuz GOD, how am I
goinna survive this?' look for her. She added with a smile, "well,
shute, let's go fly this farkin' beer can!"
        "Watch out, she's juiced!" Flece ended that whole raucous
tumult.
        Jess taxied them, went through the checks at the runup, took
them off and climbed them out pretty much all on her own and
pretty darn well, Kit says, despite the break in her training, though
he had taken care of some small details. And it was a perfect day
weatherwise, the sights even a little breathtaking, especially to Es.
        The sight of them was breathtaking enough to Kit. He was
not one dam bit tired of Heaven. Well, he did start thinking,
though. The agents might have posters of them hung up at
airports and post offices for all they knew but, hopefully, they
would be ready to face whatever they might have to face. Flee
was watching Pute compute on her lap as much as the scenery.
Jess was loving the twin and the flying, and relearning everything
quickly. Essy was thrilled and enthralled. They all were happy.
        They headed West, leveled off around 2,5oo above ground,
giving them a nice look at things, and cruised across northern New
Mexico toward Four Corners, Kit asking where they wanted to go
and Jess telling them "Monument Valley!" In just under an hour
they were tracking the San Juan River into the Valley.
        Ole Romeo was flying just super. They were just a little
heavy on passengers and stuff, and keeping the turbos off, but still
cruising at a little over 220MPH airpseed.
        They flew up high, down on the deck and all around the
Valley and the Valley of the Gods to show their passengers, then
over and around the stage under construction, but not showing
off. Just to see it! And there was a surprising amount of close-in
sight-seeing traffic they had to watch out for. Kit also discretely
checked the mesa that he was planning to land on within the
month. So did Jess. And it was little greener on top than it had
been the last time they had seen it.
        They flew on West out of there over to Page and around
Lake Powell, then down the Colorado to the Grand Canyon,
back East to Flagstaff, down to Sedona to see the awesome red
rocks, then East across the bottom of the Navajo Nation and
across the three mesas of the Hopi, over the Painted Desert and
Petrified Forest, and over to Window Rock, where they decided
not to fly through the "window", then North and over Canyon
de Chelly and up to Mesa Verde and flew around that, then
decided on Durango for lunch.
        Renting a car, they drove to "Roger's" downtown. Kit, of
course, had the Beretta in Pute's case. You just never know. He
and Puterific had gotten it licensed into the Texas databanks one
of those nights back at the ranch, and even had made up a
bogus card with Texas Ranger auxiliary membership that Kit still
carries around, and had that in databanks too.
        They took a table outside on the bar deck, the Animas
River flowing right by. The girls visited the powder room, then
Kit went and a couple of guys approached the girls while he was
gone, taking their tries at romance. Well, Kit bought them some
rounds when he returned, being the nice guy that he is, and the
cowboys were fairly polite and somewhat interesting, at first,
rocking around in the chairs they had drawn up around our
beauties. They started insisting, the more they drank, though, on
"dating" the ladies and showing them their "ranches" and all. Kit
had to back them down enough that management asked the old
boys to leave.
        The wild West!" Jess cheered, "I love it!"
        "You just love me having to fight 'm off ya again is what
'chu love," Kit tweaked.
        "Yee haw," Flee ribbed.
        "Another fight?" Essy snickered.
        "It's good for your heart, love," Jessy smiled back at him
as they "chawed on their vittles" and drank their Tree Frogs to
their toasts. Well, comments from other guys at the bar or deck
tables were in the air. The ether. The warp and woof. How
much money that guy must be spending to have all three of
them with him. God, the bodies and looks, our intrepids heard
a lot.
        "You're our hero, Kit," Felecia chuckled, taking another
bite of cheeseburger.
        "Si, Kit, nuestro campion," Es joined her, eating some
fries.
        Jess leaned over and kissed his cheek, "and my lion..."
        "Yeah," he said sheepily, "your veritable king of beasts.
Well...I guess that runs in my blood. There's a lion in the family
crest, and an...eagle," looking like he had had a revelation.
        Jess looked at him and got the rush. "Lion Eagle!" she
whispered back to him.
        "I thought it was Eagle Lion..." he whispered back, the
girls giving them all the privacy they wanted or needed, Flece
making conversation with Essy to cover the guys.
        "I'm not sure now...wow! In your crest!" and she teared
up a little with the goosebumps. "We've got one awesome
mighty thing going on, Quixote, don't we?" And they talked
quietly on about their situation and stuff transpired and plans,
even forgetting to finish their lunch.
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