Fault of Delay

Static. That was the first noise that came over the loudspeaker for the second time.

Ace groaned, "I swear ta god-"

"United flight 244 will be postponed for another hour due to maintenance, we're sorry for the delay."

"Why do I always flight United..." the green skinned man muttered in annoyance.

Ace overheard the other passengers groan, no one wanted to be delayed from seeing family, not this time of year.

"...You've got to be kidding me! I've got three kids! I'm not going to be away from family for the Holidays!" A woman with short brown hair screamed at the flight attendant.

While it sucked that he would probably miss his connection flight and have to figure out how to get a motel room with a big lack of cash on him, but it clearly wasn't the young flight attendant's fault. He could sympathize with her as she tried to work though the situation before the mother asked to speak to her boss. As if that'd fix the plane.

After a few minutes of looking out the window of the Newark terminal to see a few mechanics in neon yellow vests work on the plane. Ace got out of his seat, picked up his carry on and walked several feet to the other wall where five pay phones stood. He took out and dug through his wallet to find a few of quarters to pay for the international call.

Those calls always had to be short on account of how expensive they were.

He put eleven quarters into the payphone and put the phone itself up to his ear, it rang and rang and rang. Murdoc answered on the fifth ring.

"...Murdoc Niccals, who do I owe the pleasure?" Ace could always hear the cocky grin on his face when he answered, even when it the call woke him up. He had forgotten until right then.

"'Doc. It's me-"

"The hell are ya callin' so early for? I'm sure you can add eight hours to the time on yer watch, yeah? it's three in the bloody morning," he complained, cutting Ace off.

"Forgot yer in a pissy mood when I wake ya up," he grinned.

He sighed, "...it's fine..... you make it in yet?"

"No... haven't even made on board yet just wanted to tell you that my flight's runnin' late, I'm hopin' fer it to work out."

"Tha's a load of bollocks. That sounds why I don't fly." Murdoc, from Ace's experience, absolutely hated flying. Of course he'd birch about his hatred for airplanes and flying as a whole.

"You don't fly because you'd loose it before we even took off."

"You don't know why I hate planes. They're bloody terrifying... y'er thousands of meters in the air, in a shitty metal box with a buncha knobs."

"I didn't think I'd get ya rantin' 'bout this topic, again-"

"I don't rant! I-"

A voice cut Murdoc off, "To continue this call, please put in an amount of four fifty."

He sighed, "Hold on a sec, 'Doc, gotta put in more change."

"Just hang up. I'll see ya soon enough."

"Okay, I'll see ya soon-"

He realized Murdoc hung up before he responded, or it ended the call. It wouldn't have been unusual for the ladder.

Ace sighed, he hung the phone back on the hook.

He went over to the window to look out and wait since someone took his seat before he came back. Another half hour passed, the actor looked out at the sky.