Ride to the Airport
The mission is underway. The logistics are not.
Bill drove. This was agreed in advance, largely because Bob does not own a car that anyone would describe as currently working.
Bob rode in the passenger seat with a hand-drawn map spread across his knees. The map showed a dotted route, several arrows, a circle that may have been the airport and one small drawing of a spider that he has declined to explain. He announced that they had momentum.
Bill, both hands on the wheel, asked whether they had a hotel.
Bob did not answer the question. He repeated the part about momentum.
Larry sat in the back seat between them, arms folded, looking straight ahead through the windshield. Bill noticed him in the rearview mirror somewhere around the second exit and realized, for the first time, that the plan had a hole in it roughly the size of a golden retriever. There were two plane tickets. There were three passengers. Nobody had discussed how Larry was getting to the airport, which was now happening, or how Larry was getting home from it, which would be happening in about forty minutes.
Bill raised the issue. Bob said Larry would figure it out. Larry did not dispute this, which in hindsight should have worried both of them more than it did.
Nobody pulled over. Nobody turned around. The terminal came into view, the parking garage ticket machine spat out a ticket, and the flight began boarding on schedule. As of this writing, how Larry got home from the airport remains unexplained. He was home, however, when they got back. He had been busy.
All of Chapter 1: The Vegas Trip →