Far from having enjoyed the ominously poor drink he’d had on a lark in the otherwise high class restaurant Lao Che in Shanghai, Henry, his young friend Shorty and their new acquaintance Wilhelmina had sped through town ignoring the ‘Speed Limit 30’ signs and boarded the small tri-motor airplane that was to take them across the Himalayas to Bangkok. The Lao Che had donned a magnificent painting of Botticelli’s The Birth of Venus, but it was Henry who had felt reborn after narrowly escaping the less than safe conditions the restaurant had to provide.
The plane took off, and having changed into his usual travelling clothes Henry re-joined Shorty and Willie who sat quietly on the floor of the primitive plane as it droned steadily ahead. In the plane was a sign that read 1000 lbs. max and in the cockpit they could hear the pilots hammering something in place, which didn’t exactly leave them reassured.
- ‘Lady, are you putting on lipstick now?’, Henry demanded incredulous, as he saw Willie applying lipstick.
- ‘It’s Revlon Color Burst, mister. I need it and it’s not going to put itself on’, she replied indignantly.
Visitors from Vega would understand Willie better than Henry, and with an annoyed expression on his face he turned to Shorty instead:
-‘Shorty, when we get to Bangkok you have to take a shower. You need it.’
-‘But I’m only a child. I don’t have to shower.’
-‘Yes, you do!’
-‘Oh, Henry, I’ll give you a buck if you’ll let me out of showering.’
The longest ruler in the world couldn’t measure his exasperation with the two, and Henry entertained the thought that Santiago in The Old Man and the Sea had less trouble catching his marlin than Henry was now having trying to endure his two travel ‘friends’. Willie, for one, should be wearing a sign that said ‘Danger, High Voltage’. At this point Chen Mingshu would have made a better travel companion as far as he was concerned. He opened up a helping of Spry and ate it before pulling his hat down over his eyes and going to sleep, his trusty Smith & Wesson safely in his belt.
A couple of hours later around seven in the morning they were all asleep. Shorty hadn’t had a decent meal in a long time and was dreaming of the delicious turkey meat, onion and mashed potato casserole his mother used to make. If he during his travels could find some baby onions, French onions and some yellow potatoes, he was determined to pay her a visit as soon as possible. He could already hear himself saying ‘thanks for dinner, mom’.
Willie was awakened by the chickens in the crates clucking loudly and saw one of the pilots jumping out of the plane with a parachute. She ran to the cockpit and saw that the pilots were gone and that no one was now flying the plane, which was on a collision course with the mountains straight ahead.
Written by Anette Ipsen Dich and Kim Jakobsen
Written by Anette Ipsen Dich and Kim Jakobsen
Argh - a cliff-hanger! Not really done in travel lit, is it?
ReplyDeleteBut, when read as a sort of Tin-Tin-like fiction it's very enjoyable, and most ingredients are naturalized completely. I might object a little to the 'dream' trick used on the potatoes and onions, but otherwise, great job!