"Just talking to myself," Kerry said. "You know us crazy travelers."

"Yeah." The bartender eyed her, moving a little ways away to continue his cleaning. "Have a great trip."

A loud sound made them both turn and look out into the concourse to see a woman racing across the carpet, her arms outstretched, her voice panicked as she chased a white chicken across the hall. Kerry watched the crowd dodge out of the way of the women and bird, then she turned and looked at the bartender.

He shrugged. "It's Miami."

Kerry picked up her beer and took a healthy swig, and then she toasted the terminal. "It's Miami."

DAR CLIMBED THE spiral stairs up to the first class section of the big 747 giving the flight attendant a brief smile as she went down the aisle and put her briefcase in the overhead, settling into her seat and leaning back to observe the space around her.

It was quiet. Two other travelers had taken seats, on the other side of the plane from her, but it didn't look like the section was going to be very full. Dar was glad for that. Even though she certainly had a decent amount of space and a seat that reclined into a bed, she still didn't like people crowding in around her.

Well, except for Kerry.

"Can I bring you a water?" The flight attendant stopped by her. "Or perhaps a glass of wine?"

Dar considered, glancing up at the woman. "Got any milk?"

The woman's eyelashes blinked. "Yes of course," she rallied. "One moment."

"Thanks." Dar watched her move off in search of her requested beverage. After a moment, she got up and opened the overhead, rooting in her backpack for two magazines, then sitting back down and tucking them into the pocket on the side of her seat.

Flying bored her. Dar folded her hands in her lap and studied the tops of her thumbs, wishing she could fall asleep and wake up on the other side of the world. No matter how comfortable her seat, it still meant she had to stay relatively still for eight or nine hours and suffer the dry air and incessant drone of the engines for all that time.

"Here you go." The flight attendant returned with a goblet of milk and a cocktail napkin, depositing both in the tray next to Dar's right hand. "Enjoy."

"Thanks." Dar picked up the glass and sipped from it. Her tongue was still tingling a little from the extremely spicy chicken wings, and the cool, rich milk both tasted and felt good in her mouth. She got halfway through it before her ears popped slightly, and the flight attendant came over the PA system announcing the door had been closed and everyone should get ready for departure.

Dar put her milk down and fastened her seat belt, noticing her PDA flashing as she did so. With a glance to see where the flight attendant was, she opened it and peeked at the screen.

AC in the plane's not working. Can I take my shirt off?

Dar spent a pleasurable moment imagining Kerry scandalizing the first class cabin in her short haul jetliner, then she sighed. Only if you give me a chance to pop the door on this one and come over to watch. She paused and then sent it, closing the cover on the PDA and folding her hands over it as the flight attendant walked by checking that her seatbelt was fastened.

"Nice and quiet tonight," the woman said, gazing at her three passengers. "It will be good flight."

Dar had to admit being pretty much alone in the upper cabin with no one next to her and a lack of noise and people would be very nice. "Easy for you," she said, with a smile for the flight attendant.

The woman inclined her head in agreement, then went to the service area and busied herself getting ready for takeoff.

Dar went back to her PDA that was, in fact, flashing again. She opened it up. Waaa! There's a bigmouthed salesman with more gold rings than a carnival yelling on his cell phone in here!

Dar winced, having been there, and done that. Put in your earplugs, she advised. See? Toldja you should have come with me. It's almost empty on my flight.

Punk! Kerry answered back immediately. Just wait till I catch up to you in Europe. You're toast!

The plane started to move, pushing back from the gate, and the bright lights in the cabin dimmed as the late afternoon sunlight poured in the windows. Dar scribbled an answer for several minutes, long enough for them to taxi out to the runway and pause, waiting for permission to take off.

As the engines spooled up, Dar finished and sent the message tucking the stylus away and putting the PDA in her pocket as the sound rose around her and gravity shoved her back into her seat. She laced her fingers together and closed her eyes, willing the plane into the air and the trip to begin.

She hoped Kerry's flight would end on a better note than it had started on.

KERRY FOLDED HER hands together with her PDA between them, exchanging a brief smile with the harried looking flight attendant at the front of the plane. The clammy, hot air wafted over her, ripe with perfume, sweat, and aviation kerosene. "Hell isn't fire and brimstone," she mused. "It's a perpetual 757 on a hot tropical afternoon."

"Ma'am?" The flight attendant bent over her, "Can I get you something?"

"Ice cream. I'll share with you," Kerry suggested. "Or how about a pina colada?"

"Oh honey," the woman sighed, giving Kerry a pat on the shoulder. "Don't I wish. Give me a few minutes and I'll see if we have anything cold in the back, okay?"

"Thanks." Kerry took a deep breath and exhaled, hoping they got the air conditioning issue fixed before they started flying to Michigan. She could hear screaming children behind her, and far from resenting them, she found herself in sympathy with their frustration and almost let out a squawk of her own before she recalled her upbringing and merely sighed instead.

Her PDA flashed. She eagerly flipped the lid up and tilted her head to read the message. Her eyes slowly traveled across the words and then down to the next line in what was-for Dar-a very long note.

I got stuck on an airplane like that once. I had just started traveling for the company and I was on this late night flight to Pittsburgh with a load of high school girls going to a cheerleading convention.

At this point, Kerry had to stop, and put her hand up to cover her mouth, stifling a giggle. "Oh my gosh there are so many things going through my mind right now."

She knew her beloved partner hadn't been the most patient person in her younger years. She could picture Dar slumped in her seat, scowling at the girls with that dour glare and those narrowed blue eyes.

They would not shut up the whole damn flight. By the time we were close to landing the crew, the rest of the passengers, me, and even the co pilot were ready to open the door at altitude and let the little nitwads get sucked right out of the damn airplane.

Kerry tried to imagine the scene. Then she grimaced a little, as a brief memory of being a high school student on the way to Washington for a class trip made her blush.

I finally stood up and yelled there was a rat between the seats. They all took off for the back of the plane and the damn flight attendant nearly kissed me.

Kerry blinked. "Was it a guy or a girl?" she muttered.

After that, I figured out how to hack into the airline database and find out who else was on the flight before I booked it.

"You little hacker," Kerry chuckled, shaking her head.

We're outta here. Talk to you in eight hours or so. ILY. DD.

Kerry extended her denim covered legs and crossed her ankles, resting her elbows on the arms of her seat as the crew struggled to get the last of the unwilling passengers onboard and deal with the environmental annoyances.

"Are we going to have to suffer like this the whole flight?" a woman standing in the aisle asked, loudly. "This is unacceptable! I paid good money for this damn ticket!"

What, Kerry wondered, constituted bad money? Did the woman think anyone on the plane had just walked on for free? She rested her head on her hand and tried to block the noise out, flinching as the woman slammed the back of her seat in the middle of her tirade.

"Ma'am, please sit down. They're working on the problem. Yelling about it doesn't help." The flight attendant came forward and forced the woman to take a step back. "And please stop banging the seats. People are sitting in them."

Kerry looked up at her with a grateful smile.

"Horrible airline!" the woman said, but she retreated to the back part of the plane, grumbling loudly all the way. "I'll sue!"

The flight attendant sighed. "Boy it's going to be a long flight." She turned and looked at the people in the small first class section at the front of the plane. "We're about to close the door, ladies and gentlemen. Once we get up at altitude, we can adjust the temperature so it's more comfortable." She went on down the aisle, looking right and left as one of her coworkers accepted a sheaf of paperwork and helped the airport workers close the front door.

On one hand, that meant they were leaving. On the other, without even the little air that was getting in from the jetway, the heat started building and Kerry felt herself start to sweat under her light cotton shirt.

"Here you go." The flight attendant reappeared suddenly, handing Kerry a glass. "I didn't forget about you."

"Thanks," Kerry said, glancing at her name tag, "Ann." She met the woman's eyes. "I really appreciate it, and I appreciate you getting that woman to stop whacking my seat."