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It seemed strange to me to think of kids or a wife of needing to earn their own money. But then, I wasn’t one to judge. If this older man didn’t want to have a wife or kids in his life, that was up to him. I still hoped the day would come when I would find someone to fall in love with and settle down with.
I was almost thirty years old, and I didn’t want to spend the rest of my life alone. My twenties had been fun for what they were, but there was something in me that wanted to find someone to really get serious with. For as much fun as I had had hopping around from one place to another and never really getting serious with any girl along the way, that was now changing.
I wanted to find a place to settle down and live my life. I could still have my career as a pilot, I knew that, but I didn’t want to have a girl in each state as I once did. It had seemed so fun before, but now knowing that there wasn’t a girl for me who was waiting for me when I got home was starting to wear on me.
It was a lonely life if I let it get to me, and I hoped to make it come to an end.
Not that I was making any real deliberate strides to meeting someone special, but I was sure open to it.
“Alright, let’s make sure we’re in and everything is all ready to go, and we’re off!” I said as I checked the little things in the plane. It would be just the two of us on the flight. This wasn’t a large enough jet for me to have a co-pilot, or for there to be any stewardess, either.
There were times when I would take a bigger plane and have those other luxuries, but this man had charted a flight that was as private as private could be, and I was okay with that. It wasn’t like it was a very long flight, though it would be nice that I didn’t have to try to come up with any kind of conversation to have with him while we were in the air, either.
That was something I had disliked about having a co-pilot with me, but something I would put up with for the freedom of not having to stay in the seat for the entire flight. It all came down to the length of the flight and where we were going, of course, but I still wasn’t sure that I wanted to get overly friendly with this guy anyway.
Still, he seemed pleasant enough, though the entire time we were in the air, I couldn’t help but think about what he had said. He seemed to be perfectly happy back there, looking out the window and taking photos of the ground below with his phone. But to think that he didn’t want to have a wife or kids made me wonder what it was about him and his life that had made him feel that way.
Perhaps he was one who had had a bad experience with women in the past. Or maybe he had a rough childhood or a tough kind of relationship with his parents. Regardless, it seemed so strange to me that there were people out there who genuinely didn’t want to get with anyone, and he was perfectly okay with that.
It didn’t change the fact that I didn’t feel that way at all.
I knew I wanted to find someone, and the more I thought about it, the more I wanted to make it happen. I didn’t want to wake up one day and find that I had spent my entire life living it just for me. I wanted to experience all the things that came with having a family. I wanted to have the kids, the little ones. The holidays with them.
I wanted to have a wife. I wanted a woman in my life who was crazy. One who wasn’t able to let me go, but who couldn’t stand me, as some would say. One who was my kind of psycho. I wanted a woman who had purpose in life, but who also wanted to join her life to mine.
To think that there was someone out there who would love me that much was enough to make me stop and shake my head. That is, if I were to find this person in the first place. I knew it was foolish to have the goal of falling in love when it wasn’t anything I could control, but still.
Each time I got a glimpse of the man who was riding in the plane with me, the more I thought about how sad I would be if I grew old and didn’t have someone to spend my life with. That was a haunting thought in my world, and more than anything, I really wanted to make it happen.
Sure, there were some things I could do that could hasten the process. But, on the other hand, I wasn’t the kind of guy who wanted to just settle down with someone for the sake of having someone, either. I was going to have to find the right woman for me before I would be willing to make her mine.
It was the sort of thing that just seemed overwhelming when I thought too much about it, but still. It was also something that I wanted to see happening, too.
But, I pushed it all out of my mind when I put the plane down. I was just as professional as ever as I talked my guest through the landing process, letting him out of the plane on the far side of the runway.
“I hope you have a fantastic day, sir!” I said with a grin as I walked him to the hangar.
“Say, I know this might seem strange, but if you don’t have anything going on, do you want to grab a drink with me? I was going to head over to the little place up on the edge of town – you know the one that’s always on TV?”
“Mary’s Place?” I asked.
“That’s the one!” he said. “I hear they have the best steak in the world, and I want to put that to the test. But, I don’t think I can do it without getting a second opinion, and I don’t have anyone lined up to meet with me tonight. Do you think I could buy you dinner and a drink as a tip for the great flight?”
“I would like that,” I said.
It was out of the ordinary, but I didn’t have anything else to do with my time. And if he didn’t want to have dinner alone, I couldn’t blame him for that, either.
He and I headed up to Mary’s Place, and I was glad to partake in judging whether the steak really was as good as it was rumored to be. I had to admit. I wasn’t one much for eating steak, so really it was one of the best that I had ever had. But, I didn’t know how to compare it with any of the others in the world.
“You know, if I had a wife or kids with me, I wouldn’t be able to just come up here and do something like this. I’m telling you, this is the life!” he said.
I grinned. I couldn’t argue that this was the life for him, but it definitely wasn’t what I wanted to be doing with my own life.
“I appreciate the food,” I said. “Really, this is the best tip I’ve gotten!”
“I’m glad to share it with you,” Mr. Pelican said. “And think about it, if we had someone else dragging us down, this wouldn’t be possible.”
“That’s very true,” I said. “I’m glad you have found the life you want to live.”
