Snow Blind by Richard Blanchard Read Free Book Online Page A

Steve, but he is trying to shake him off.
    â€œI’ve got some Charlie for later if you want some,” Steve offers.
    â€œI gave it up years ago, it’s for losers.” Steve’s social coffin is nailed with a hammer blow.
    â€œHi gorgeous, the picture doesn’t do me justice does it?” Robert reaches the desk four people ahead of me and glows at the dark-haired flight attendant who lingers over his boarding pass. The world is suspended around him as he makes advances to her; the presence of the queue behind them disappears. Their private amusement is all that matters.
    I tail my stags out onto the puddle-ridden tarmac. I cannot carry their collective behaviour for five days; they will all have to work out a way to co-exist. The rush of spring air sears through my heart again. I relive the sheer relief I felt earlier at Bepe’s return. Maybe I can just enjoy the fact I have a son re-born to me after this mangled start.

C HAPTER 7
    Dan 14:50
    I am the last of the party to clank onto the spongy passenger stairs; my trip is confirmed. I pass the final security checkpoint at the airplane door and am ushered humourlessly down the aisle by the flighty flight attendant that was so attentive to Robert.
    A mild “Wooorrr…” greets my approach to my seat, a noise cast from different sides of the plane. My height means I always feel restricted on a plane, I keep my head and eyes down hoping the noise will fade away.
    â€œHello there sexy.” Steve, who I now see has an aisle seat behind me, pinches my bottom. I grin and move on, completely non-plussed by his out of character inanity. I work with this man daily, but my stag status gives added piquancy to everything I say and do.
    The “Wooorrr…” sound grows as I arrive at my seat to find it already occupied by a partially re-inflated rubber Juliet. The passengers around me are infected by the ridicule this brings. A large man in a dark suit sits next to her and offers me his hand either as congratulations or to show approval of the way I am holding together under this abuse. My mood collapses further under every attack.
    â€œYour girlfriend left these behind.” Robert appears from the back of the plane holding up a red lace bra and knickers’ set to the rest of the plane.
    â€œDanny is a tranny!” he half sings, using the props as mock evidence. Some others unite behind this anthem.
    â€œCome on, put them on Staggie.” I am pressured to put the knickers over my trousers whilst I am torn with rage. I am at the centre point of the whole plane’s ridicule now; please let this stop. I cannot risk not responding to these early challenges; for fear of being branded a spoilsport, which will elicit disappointment and the wolf pack will grow hungry for more. If they really knew what I was going through, they would double their efforts.
    â€œPlease, back to your seats now.” A stewardess firmly points Robert away from me.
    â€œWe are going to do you good you know,” Robert says menacingly as he walks backwards down the aisle. His eyes dance at the prospect of my future embarrassment.
    I settle alone on my needed aisle seat, escaping handicapped kneecaps and the sweaty claustrophobia of a central one. Due to our separate online check-ins and seat preferences this less than magnificent seven are scattered throughout the plane. I retrieve my iPhone from my pocket and attach my earphones, scrolling anxiously through artists, ABC, Associates, Beck, Costello. I click The Clash into action.
    Bepe haunts me; he never sensed danger, naively following his nose across the road. An electric shock pulses through me; the power of “what if ” makes me squirm in my seat. I would never have recovered from today; never again would I have been at ease. I would have failed in abject manner to discharge my basic duty as a parent. These thoughts make me nauseous; I feel a need to see him to prove to myself he is