Valentine's Dinner?

40. Coffee Distraction

After Patrick had left, Valerie slouched into one of the deeply cushioned couches and breathed a long sigh. "Now, we wait."

Chloe settled beside her and snuggled. "For how long?"

Valerie looked up. "Garth? What do you think?"

"Drive to the base, pre-flight, run-up, ATC clearance, transit – half hour. A bit more a bit less until he'd be over the area." He glanced at his watch. "Be there by eleven fifteen, eleven thirty."

"Hmmm." Valerie fidgeted with her hair. "You ever fly a chopper?"

Jack spoke up. "He hasn't, but I have."

"At night?"

"A few times getting my qual. Decided fixed wing was less tense, so I went back to it."

Oh, God! What is Patrick doing? "So, it's tense?"

"Some have the knack for it." He shrugged. "I didn't feel comfortable."

"And Patrick?"

"From what he says, he's as easy with night as he is in daylight."

Thank God! "That's good." She stared at the hair tightly twirled around her finger and shook her head. "Coffee? Who wants coffee? There'll be a machine in the kitchen."

Without waiting for an answer, she rose and led the way, and on seeing the machine, she muttered to herself. Damn! A Nespresso. I forgot. "We'll have to ignore the environmental impact tonight. This machine uses those silly pods that nobody recycles, but I need some caffeine."

Jack looked at the machine and laughed. "Marge, my girlfriend used to have one of these until I introduced her to mine. For a third of the price, we get a better cup of coffee from my pads than she did from her pods. And the pads go into the compost rather than into the dustbin."

"Yeah, pods are a great example of runaway marketing convincing people to stop thinking for themselves." Valerie added water to the tank and flicked the switch to heat. "This is another example of Nestlé's blatant disregard for the environment and for humanity."

"For sure, my wife is an Advisor to Baby Milk Action, and she's a long-time volunteer with IBFAN," Garth said. "It's truly sickening some of the things Nestlé and their clones have done to world health."

"And continue doing," Valerie curled her lip as she leaned against the counter, waiting for the machine. The three adults carried on a conversation about corporate greed while Chloe listened and absorbed.

After a long while, Valerie finally realised the machine's light was green. She sorted through the package of capsules, reading the sheet of descriptions and trying to match them to the colour coding. "God! Who writes this bafflegab? Listen to this: Dominant aromatic notes define the aromatic profile, the character of the Grand Cru, regardless of its intensity."

She shook her head, picked up a pod and put it into the machine. "They really do have the people hypnotised with this, don't they? Write utter nonsense and have the world pay three or four times as much as they would for real coffee."

"The convenience of a cup at a time." Garth shrugged as he sorted through the box of pods. "And they see making their own as a cheaper alternative to going out to a Starbucks or such."

"With the cost of pods, a whole-bean machine, a real espresso machine, would pay for itself within a few months." Valerie lifted her cup to her lips and took a sip. "And the coffee would taste better. Far better."

"And wouldn't add to the landfills." Jack sorted through the box. "I wonder if the colours are meant to indicate flavour or intensity."

"I was trying to sort that out with the –" Valerie stopped at the ring of her phone, set her cup down and glanced at the screen before she swiped. "Hello, Donovan."

"Hi, Val. Patrick has them on VHF. They're all fine."

Oh, thank God! Valerie let out a loud breath, then turned to the other three, nodding as she wiped tears from her cheeks. "So, now what?"

"He's gone down to assess. I've lost contact with him."

She put a hand to her mouth. "Oh, no!"

"Dipped below our reception horizon. It's expected."

"Hmmm. Yeah. For how long?"

"Depends on what he finds."

"Will he be able to see anything?"

"He has landing lights and a controllable searchlight."

"Yes, of course."

"I'll call you as soon as I hear from him again."

"Thank you." Valerie clicked off and stood trembling with tears running down her cheeks. She knelt and opened her arms as Chloe rushed in for a hug. "They are all fine. Patrick is descending to the site."

"Why are you crying, then?"

"Tears of relief, Sweetheart. I ran out of tears of grief years ago."

Author's Note

Through the phone conversation, Valerie does not have her phone set to Speaker, so the others don't hear Donovan's words that all are fine. All they hear are Valerie's words. If you read the conversation again, ignoring Donovan's words, you'll see what the others heard, and why they'd be concerned.