Carolyn Knapp-Shappey was, in many forms, MJN Air's iron lady.
Very few women her age could have become a CEO so late in life, and with so little proper training. Sure, she was only CEO because the plane was in her name, but it was still an impressive feat. Not only was she the CEO, but she was pretty much an honorary stewardess on most flights. She had been mother, friend, boss, colleague, scolder, praiser to the crew. She had been MJN's everything, except pilot.
Now, after eleven years of running her own airline, Carolyn Knapp-Shappey couldn't stand to let it go.
She would miss it. She would miss the sleepless nights aboard GERTI on red-eyes, the silly word games with a silly captain and a sillier first officer, and even the whiskey theft on Birling Day.
She would especially miss the time spent with Arthur. That cabin had been the classroom for some of the most valuable lessons Arthur would ever learn. Sure, he wasn't quite what one would consider a fully mature adult, but he knew so much now. How to cook a microwaveable pie at 30000 feet in the air. How to properly address a man or woman of high society. How a plane works. He'd learned not to eat dragonfruit, he'd learned that his mother was always right, and he'd learned a fair bit about love, from others and from his mum. Perhaps without his sharp-tongued mother tagging after him he'd find a proper girlfriend whose name didn't sound like that of a Shetland pony.
Looking back on it, she'd learned a lot from her boys, more than they learned from her. Douglas, of course, taught her plenty about love and how not to come by it, and about professionality, and about how to best hide a bottle of single-malt Talisker. Martin taught her a surprising amount, too (not just through his misgivings, but through his successes), about aptitude, which he just barely had enough of, and determination, which he had plenty of.
And Herc had taught her a good bit about herself. She was meant to be independent, and Herc had shown her that. They were still great, wonderful friends, but she just wasn't meant to be Carolyn Knapp-Shappey-Shipwright. She wasn't meant to be Carolyn Knapp-Shappey-anything.
Arthur had taught her a good deal as well. She couldn't list all of the things the idiot boy had taught her. He taught her patience, even when hers wore thin. He taught her etiquette, through his lack of it. He taught her what family truly meant. He was the most loyal son, who'd defend her to the metaphorical death from any metaphorical dragons, whether they be Gordon, sadness, debt, or insecurity. He may not have been the smartest person in the world, or even in the airline, but he could teach.
And now the day of her lessons aboard MJN Air was setting, the sun of her glory days beginning to sink beyond an unforseeable horizon. MJN wasn't Her Jet Anymore. It couldn't be.
It was time to change the guard.
She picked up her mobile with finality, dialing Arthur's number shakily. He picked up on the first ring. "Hi, Mum! I really like your new ringtone, by the way, it sounds like ukulele music. Reminds me of Christmas that one year when we flew Mr. Alyakin to Molokai. Anyway, we're at Zurich Airport, we just left Skip at Swiss Air headquarters. It's sad to see him go, isn't it? It's like losing family." He sighed.
He couldn't have been righter.
"Now me and Douglas and Herc are about to board GERTI, and I bought a couple of Toblerones for cheap-okay, more like twenty Toblerones for not so cheap, but, I mean, they're TOBLERONES and Toblerones are BRILLIANT so it's worth it. Anyway, how are you, Mum?"
Carolyn took a deep breath, the dead silence from Arthur's end unnerving.
"Mum?" Concern darkened his voice. "Are you all right?"
"Yes, I'm perfectly alright." She didn't mean for it to come out so snappishly, but ignored it. "Arthur, listen to me. It's no longer my jet."
"What?" He sounded more dazed than confused.
"Arthur, I don't own GERTI anymore."
"Oh." Carolyn could envision his face falling. "That's awful. Did Dad buy it off of you? And how are me and Herc and Douglas going to get back to Fitton if the plane doesn't belong to MJN anymore?"
"No, Arthur, no! Your father doesn't own GERTI and he doesn't own MJN." She sighed. "You see, I'm retiring."
"Oh."
"Do you understand what I'm saying?"
"Yes. No. I don't know."
"Well, as I'm retiring, I'm no longer the CEO of MJN. Therefore, GERTI is not My Jet Now, at least for me. I'm passing it on to someone whom I know and whom I trust with my life. Someone who may not be as qualified as they like to believe, but who has, at the core, a strong head and a stronger heart."
"Oh, Douglas? Are we gonna have to call it DJN now?"
"No, silly boy, none of those descriptions apply to Douglas, and furthermore I would never give Douglas Richardson my jet, no matter how desperate I was." She smiled with a mother's glowing pride. "It's Your Jet Now. Arthur Shappey, you are the new CEO of MJN Air and the new owner of GERTI."
"..."
"Arthur, the dead space on your end is far from pleasing."
"I can't...wow." He exhaled loudly. "Me? I own MJN? I mean, it's actually MY Jet Now? So I can properly call it MJN? Wow."
"Consider it an early birthday present. A small airline with a single fixer-upper jet and enough debt to drain the world of currency."
"Wow, Mum! That's...that's brilliant! What are you gonna do now, though? Aren't you gonna be lonely without us?"
I certainly will be, she thought. I won't be the same.
"I'll be fine, Arthur. I'll still see you, of course, and I'll stop by and visit when you lot are in Fitton, but it's high time I slow down. My journey is over."
"So it's MJN, then?"
"What on Earth do you mean?"
"It isn't YJN anymore. It isn't Your Journey Now. It's mine."
"Yes." She rolled her eyes. "Yes, I guess it is."
"But no!"
"Why no?" Carolyn blanched. "So you DON'T want GERTI and MJN?" She hadn't expected that.
"No, I do!" Arthur's voice was defensive. "I do. It's just...it's always been our journey. I'm gonna miss doing it with you. It won't feel like the same MJN. But I guess it's still OJN. It's still ours. Our Journey...um, Our Journey Never ends."