Hi Folks! Here is a short update for my "Albuquerque" fic. Donna is in a pickle or will be shortly. Thank you for sticking with me on this one. There will be more action soon. Please R&R. I so appreciate any and all comments. Love - Carebearmaxi.
Point Me in the Direction of Albuquerque
Chapter 3 - Ballooning
2:15 am NYC
"So the balloon landed there. What happened after that and how did you wind up where you are now?" Harvey asked. As Donna weaved this tale, he could not believe how this happened. Donna was so smart and empathic and wonderful. Lord only knows where he would have wound up without her guidance. Probably in jail by way of buried evidence Harvey thought but did not say aloud. He just knew he should help her. As she kept spinning the incredible tale of this trip, Harvey's wheels were constantly turning contemplating how he was going to get her back home safely.
"Harvey, remember Doug back at the hotel? Well, start with him. He should be the most helpful to find me."
"Ok, text me his number," Harvey said hearing a text tone sound in his hear.
"Got it," Harvey said. "Now take it easy. I know what I'm going to do get you back here. Sit tight."
"Thanks, Harvey," Donna said.
"Don't worry. I won't let anything happen to you," Harvey said. 'Because who would I be without you', He didn't say aloud.
Two hours after her breakfast with Doug, Donna was flying high in the Native American Eagle design hot air balloon. Donna was a little skittish when they walked up to the wicker gondola.
"Jack, I have to say when I came out here for the races I didn't think I would be taking a ride in a balloon," Donna said with a little unsteadiness in her voice. She trusted Jack knew what he was doing after all the boasting he had done regarding his prowess at being an aviation engineer.
"Well, vacations are meant for adventure. I had never thought when I came to participate that I would meet such a beautiful woman from New York," Jack said with large half-lidded sleepy eyes.
She stepped into the balloon's gondola otherwise known as a basket as it was still tethered to the ground. Jack had driven them about fifteen minutes from the hotel to a vacant part of the desert which seemed to be the big landing place for the competitive balloons. Most were deflated with their envelopes spread far. Jack's, however, had the hot air blowing periodically into the envelope, which Jack told her was the correct name for the balloon, allowing it to take the shape of a balloon.
When the tether was undone the balloon rose higher and higher. Donna had a death grip on Jack's arm as she watched the ground disappear faster and faster. Jack looked at her and realized her face was transfixed on the ground below.
"Donna," Jack said as he nudged her hand. "The view is better if you focus out rather than down."
Donna laughed and said, "Of course it is. What would be the point then?"
She suddenly looked out. Her feet remained planted as she was afraid if she moved the gondola would come suddenly crashing to the ground. Jack did not pilot the balloon exactly. He had brought his spare pilot with him. Evan worked the propane fire so the balloon would stay afloat.
Donna stepped forward once to lean on the basket and felt a small lurch. Jack smiled at her and reassured her they were perfectly safe. She then looked into the balloon and then leaned her head out a little to look at the deep azure sky. Her heart was in her mouth and she was so overwhelmed that she felt the thrill flutter through her chest. Someday when I have children I shall take them on a hot air balloon ride. There is nothing like it. Not even a roller coaster!
"We can fly many miles very quickly in this. One of my landing spots is in Las Vegas just outside the city lights in the desert. I have a small hangar there and an SUV should be there by the time we land.
"Las Vegas?" Donna asked crinkling her mouth. "Well then I guess I won't be back by 7."
"What's at 7?" Jack inquired experimentally putting his arm around Donna's waist . She had not resisted, and, frankly, she liked having Jack's arm around her. It made her feel more secure during the trip.
"I have a dinner date at 7 with a friend I found here," Donna said not wanting to say it was with Doug her hotel next door neighbor.
"I have plans for us once we land in Las Vegas and then when we fly back to Albuquerque it will probably be early tomorrow at sunrise."
"Jack, I didn't plan for an overnight stay anywhere. You said a ride in a balloon not a two days' journey," Donna stated worriedly moving away from Jack's arm encompassing her waist. Not that Doug would not understand breaking their date, it was just that Donna was not prepared for a trip of a few hours before needing a shower and change of clothes.
"Don't worry, Donna. I have two rooms booked at the Las Vegas Hilton which is a good place close to the other hotels and casinos on the strip."
"Two rooms?" Donna asked. Hoping she meant one for her and one for him. There was no way she was sleeping with this guy no matter how rich, flattering, and handsome he was. I don't know what this guy heard about redheads but I'm one that does not lie down with just anyone!
"Don't worry about anything for tomorrow. Just enjoy the moment. Tomorrow will work out as it comes," Jack explained to a Donna who was starting to grow uneasy.
They landed an hour and half later just outside Las Vegas city limits at an airfield especially made for hot air balloons. He owned the hangar he said where his employees repaired and piloted his balloons for specialty rides or races. The vehicle came to land and the landing people quickly tethered it to the ground where the envelope would remain erect and ready for any additional scheduled riders.
The hangar was exactly that a cement building wide enough for a plane or an envelope for repair. Donna looked up at the name on the building.
'"Holmgren's Pilot and Balloon Riders"' Donna read aloud. "Who's Holmgren?"
Jack's dark eyes opened wide. "It's me, of course. My English last name is Holmgren which I know doesn't sound very English but I was a hockey fan and one of my favorite players was Philadelphia Flyers' Paul Holmgren. So I chose a different English name from my family's. One can do that if one really desires it."
"I'm not much of sports follower. I'm more a theater geek. However, I am a little familiar with ice hockey having grown up in Connecticut. I'm more a summer sports girl like baseball," Donna admitted while questions and thoughts of Harvey swiftly flew through her head.
"I like baseball, too. I played a lot of it when I was a kid on the reservation. That and lacrosse, of course, and some soccer. I didn't really take up ice hockey until I got off the reservation and joined an amateur hockey team. I grew up, mostly, a Flyers' fan which is strange since I was born and raised here," Jack said.
Donna looked at Jack and still had plenty of questions. He seemed to have lived two different lives growing up in a traditional Navajo reservation and then departing completely to become an aviation engineer and have a thriving businessman with wide interests.
Jack walked her through the hangar and introduced her to the employees. They all said hello to her and acted as if this was a common occurrence. It felt like Jack waltzed a strange woman on his arm everyday through the Holmgren's facility. Donna wondered about that and tried not to have suspicions about Jack's ulterior motive for flying her here on a whim. Yet, the fine red hairs on the back of her neck rose giving her vibrations of another kind.
Instead of an SUV as Jack had said would meet them, there was a large four seat Chevy Blue Silverado. Donna, who was dressed in her blue jeans, white tank top and light floral overshirt amd easy espadrilles on her feet hopped on the passenger side of the vehicle and buckled herself in. She beat Jack buckling her and then she noticed an odd disappointed smile as he closed the door. Donna turned her head and watched as he walked around the other side of the vehicle and then as he jumped in and started the ignition.
Jack drove with confidence as he talked about his family of which only his parents had remained on the reservation. They had expected him to marry and return there once he found the woman he loved. His head was down and Donna did not fail to notice that marriage seemed to be a sore spot with him. What else is new? Men and marriage: lack of courage to commitment with some Donna thought.
"I'm gathering your parents didn't like with whom you were engaged to at one time," Donna stated knowing that was probably the issue without him saying.
"How did you know that?" Jack said wondering how she could know all about Alicia by just him stating that one sentence.
"I have my ways," Donna said. She did not need to elaborate upon her innate gift to this man. At least not yet, it seemed.
"Well, you are right. My parents are very traditional. Their marriage was fixed upon their births within the tribe. Both my parents were born on the reservation as I was and brought up very traditionally. So, as I am the eldest son of their tent then it is my duty to continue the tradition."
"Yes, but you broke that tradition when you went to college and live and work in Nevada and not the reservation," Donna said thinking aloud.
"True, but my parents did not have a problem with either my sister or me going to college. They just wanted us to return and take up the traditional Navajo way of life or to improve it."
"Have you not improved it?"
"Yes, of course, I did. I owed them that much."
"Enough about me," Jack said as he continue to drive toward Las Vegas. "Tell me about being raised in Connecticut and then winding up in New York City."
Donna looked around outside. There was not much to see. Just desert and once in a while a billboard. She lowered her eyes not really wanting to reveal anything too much about her messed up lovelife and career life which seemed to be fused together and focused on one man, Harvey Specter. No one needs to know how those feelings refused to stay in the past.
"I'd rather hear about you. However, I will make a deal with you," Donna said. "I will tell you about how I wound up in Manhattan after spending a good chunk of my life in Connecticut."
Jack made a face and said, "Deal."
So by the time they had reached the Las Vegas Hilton, Donna had regaled Jack with how she came to New York City to be an actress but had to supplement her income as a waitress and then how that eventually led to her taking a secretarial job at the D.A's office and then, of course, to Harvey.
"So, he asked you to come work for him?" Jack said as they walked to the desk to check in.
"Holmgren two rooms," Jack said confidently to the desk clerk.
"Harvey must have thought the world of you to ask you to come work for him at the firm where you are now," Jack said as he was handed the keys to rooms 304 and 305. He held up both keys.
"305 or 304?" Jack asked. He could see the appreciative look on Donna's face when he gave her a choice.
"304," Donna said taking the key. "I'm glad to see you are a gentlemen and didn't expect me to share a room with you so soon in the relationship." She said it flippantly but in her heart she was really relieved that she had not accidentally become involved with a criminal.
"I am not a bad man, Donna. I told you that before," Jack said as they boarded the elevator. "I don't hurt women. I do appreciate them, though."
Donna just nodded.
"Ok, I suppose you want to get dinner or something? It's late," Donna said looking at her watch.
"Sure. I'll meet you in the lobby in an hour," Jack said.
Their rooms were across from one another. Donna sheepishly took the old fashioned key which was a key and tried her door. She looked back over shoulder as Jack opened his door.
"Oh, Jack," Donna said before venturing into the room. "Two things."
"What's that Donna?" His brown face smiling.
"First, we can't go to eat anywhere too fancy. These are my only clothes," Donna said.
"And the second," Jack tagged.
"I want to hear more about your family's business and traditions at the reservation."
"Well as to the first, there is a surprise coming for you shortly and as to the second I can do more than tell you about it," Jack mysteriously remarked and then venturing into his room gave her a wave and closed the door.
"What the hell does all that mean?" Donna wondered aloud. The delicate hair on the back of her neck was raised once more.