The Other Side of Midnight

Catherine watched Larry nodding and smiling as he listened. At the end of what seemed like five minutes, he said, "Well, that sounds interesting, old buddy. Sure I can. Where?" He listened. "Right. Half an hour. I'll see you then." Thoughtfully, he replaced the receiver.

"Is he a friend of yours?" Catherine asked.

Larry turned to face her. "No, not really. That's what's so funny. He's a guy I flew with in the RAF. We never really got along all that well. But he says he has a proposition for me."

"What kind of proposition?" Catherine asked.

Larry shrugged. "I'll let you know when I get home."

It was almost three o'clock in the morning when Larry returned to the apartment. Catherine was sitting up in bed reading. Larry appeared at the bedroom door.

"Hi."

Something had happened to him. He radiated an excitement that Catherine had not seen in him for a long time. He walked over to the bed.

"How did your meeting go?"

"I think it went great," Larry said, carefully. "In fact it went so great I still can't believe it. I think I may have a job."

"Working for Ian Whitestone?"

"No. Ian's a pilot--like me. I told you we flew together."

"Yes."

"Well--after the war, a Greek buddy of his got him a job as a private pilot for Demiris."

"The shipping tycoon?"

"Shipping, oil, gold--Demiris owns half the world. Whitestone had a beautiful setup over there."

"What happened?"

Larry looked at her and grinned. "Whitestone's quit his job. He's going to Australia. Someone's setting him up in his own business over there."

"I still don't understand," said Catherine. "What does all this have to do with you?"

"Whitestone spoke to Demiris about my taking his place. He just quit, and Demiris hasn't had a chance to look around for a replacement. Whitestone thinks I'm a cinch for the job." He hesitated. "You don't know what this could mean, Cathy."

Catherine thought of the other times, the other jobs, and she remembered her father and his empty dreams, and she kept her voice noncommittal, not wishing to encourage any false hopes in Larry, and yet not wanting to dampen his enthusiasm.

"Didn't you say you and Whitestone weren't particularly good friends?"

He hesitated. "Yeah." A small frown creased his forehead. The truth of the matter was that he and Ian Whitestone had never liked each other at all. The telephone call tonight had been a big surprise. At the meeting, Whitestone had seemed oddly ill at ease. When he had explained the situation and Larry had said, "I'm surprised that you thought of me," there had been an awkward pause, and then Whitestone had said, "Demiris wants a great pilot, and that's what you are." It was almost as though Whitestone were pressing the job on him and that Larry would be doing him a favor. He had appeared very relieved when Larry said he was interested and then seemed anxious to leave. All in all it had been a strange meeting.

"This could be the chance of a lifetime," Larry told Cathy. "Demiris was paying Whitestone fifteen thousand drachmas a month. That's five hundred dollars and he lived like a king over there."

"But wouldn't that mean you'd be living in Greece?"

"We'd be living in Greece," Larry corrected her. "With that kind of money, we could save enough to be independent in a year. I've got to take a shot at it."

Catherine was hesitant, choosing her words carefully. "Larry, it's so far away and you don't even know Constantin Demiris. There must be a flying job here that..."

"No!" His tone was savage. "Nobody gives a shit here how good a pilot you are. All they care about is how long you've paid your goddam union dues. Over there, I'd be independent. It's the kind of thing I've been dreaming of, Cathy. Demiris has a fleet of planes you wouldn't believe, and I'll be flying again, baby. The only one I'd have to please would be Demiris, and Whitestone says he'll love me."

She thought again of Larry's job at Pan Am and the hopes he had had for it and his failures with the small airlines. My God, she thought. What am I getting myself into? It would mean giving up the business she had built, going to live in a strange place with strangers, with a husband who was almost a stranger.

He was watching her. "Are you with me?"