Open, Charlie

Chapter Four ~ Dirigible

The dirigible boarding depot at the edge of the city was much smaller than the train station and not as crowded. The elegant pavilion housed one ticket booth and a waiting area with several rows of padded seats for outbound passengers. No real schedule either, only a map of dirigible lines, spreading like wriggling spokes of a half wheel: from the Chicago hub in all directions but north. The American Dirigibles company provided air trips to most of the American states, but not to Canada. Each line had one outbound trip a day, the times printed on the side margin of the map. As Chicago was one of the company's few terminuses, no passenger stayed onboard between inbound and outbound runs.

The service hangar on the opposite side of the airfield was much bigger than the passenger station and it teemed with servicemen in their white and blue uniforms. Between the hangar and the pavilion, a dirigible swayed on its mooring lines, as if eager to be off, back to the sky. All the disembarking passengers had already left—taken to the city by a dedicated streetcar. The technicians had already done whatever they had to do, and the airship was ready for her new riders.

Those were shuffling in queue for boarding between two lines of portable, one-meter-high fences. The company didn't want their passengers roaming the landing field freely. A tall and sturdy, wrought-iron fence surrounded the entire area. The boarding path, delineated by its chain-link fences, started straight from the pavilion's exit door, while its entrance door led into the street outside the fence.

"It's huge," Mary whispered. "Look at those balloons."

"Yeah. Beautiful," Charlie breathed, her eyes on the vessel. Its humongous twin balloons bobbed slightly in the breeze, dwarfing everything in sight. The gondola seemed an afterthought, unnecessary for flying. "Those steel cables—they look like silk cords from down here. Oh, Mary, thank you for taking me on this trip."

Her mouth stretched in a wide grin, all on its own accord. She could do nothing about it. The big ship called to her, its metal cables and gadgets buzzed in her brain, almost irresistible for her strange magical senses. She yearned to touch everything, even though there was no lock for her to open there. The doors in the middle of the gondola were already open. Stewards stood on either side, ready to assist the passengers.

The stewards checked the girls' tickets and directed them towards the stern. Mary tensed, gripping Charlie's hand. They stepped into the narrow corridor and turned right, towards their cabin.

"Why are they armed, Charlie?" Mary whispered into Charlie's ear. "For the passengers?"

"I don't know," Charlie replied equally quietly. "Maybe they had troubles with hijackers in the past, although I've never read anything like that in the papers. Sky pirates?" She grinned at the fantastic idea.

"Not funny," Mary snapped. "We should've risked the train."

"Come on, Mary. This is going to be the greatest trip. I can't wait to explore the ship."

"We have three days and three nights before we reach Denver in Colorado. Lots of time for you to explore," Mary muttered.

"Did you notice the stewards don't have pistols? Just swords and clubs? No firearms allowed aboard. It is in all the brochures."

"You're the strangest girl," Mary said.

"I wonder what they do with the stuff in the washrooms."

"Yuck, Charlie. Shut up, or I will puke before we take off."

Mary didn't puke but she felt queasy as soon as they went aloft. She stayed in the cabin, reclined on her bunk, while Charlie gallivanted around the ship. The lower deck of the gondola, mostly passengers' cabins, didn't offer any interesting observations. The narrow corridor, utilitarian, clean, and unadorned, ran between the cabin doors on both sides. The polished wooden floor, nicked and scuffed, led from one spiral staircase at the front end of the ship to a similar staircase at the opposite end. Between them, along the ceiling, at array of dim light fixtures provided the only illumination. The hatch towards the short appendix corridor in the middle of the ship, leading to the outside entrance of the gondola, was securely locked.