54

Sergius Golowin peered out the big windows at Gate 15 of Geneva Airport, looking for a Swissair plane. He looked like a grizzled mystic in an orange turtleneck, and that's what he was. He was six-and-a-half feet tall.

"That's really tacky," Golowin said out loud, gesturing towards a Gordon Biersch at the gate for the benefit of no one.

"What's so tacky about a Gordon Biersch?"

Golowin wheeled around to face the speaker, a short woman of fifty.

"Come on," Golowin gestured. "You can help be part of the welcoming committee."

They wandered up and down the small airport. The gates were garlanded with a colored surface.

"What is that stuff on the gates," asked the woman.

"I am assuming it must be plastic," Golowin said. "It sure is shiny. It reminds me of ... certain kinds of stories, certain kinds of adventure stories intended for children. Look. Gate one is red. Gate two is blue. Gate three is yellow. There are all of these primary colors. What are they trying to do?"

"Maybe it's like Candy Land," said the woman.

"Candy Land? What's that?"

"You obviously don't have any children," said the woman.

"No, Marcia," Golowin said indignantly, "I just don't hang around playing American board games. Who really plays board games anymore, anyway?"

"Um, you have a point. But Candy Land, if - do you even want to hear about it?"

"Well, sure, the planes aren't due for fifteen minutes so you might as well."

"It's intended to be something that kids can play even if they haven't learned to read yet. So there's no writing. You move by pulling chips out of a little bag. Plastic chips with those same primary colors - red, blue, green, yellow. That's what made me think of it."

Golowin nodded. "Yeah, maybe they're trying to make the airport so that kids can fly unaccompanied. I doubt it though."

"Nah, you're right. Kids who can't read are too young to fly without a grownup."

Jamie couldn't read, but nobody knew it. He was a teenager and he still couldn't read. In his yearbook, actually two years in the future, all the graduates got a space below their picture to put a few lines' worth of any message they wanted. Jamie's was, "I still can't read."

He ducked behind a giant fern as he got off the plane. He was shy and didn't want to be spotted. Of course it was only a game because he would have to pass through customs sooner or later, and until he did, he would have no one to play with besides vending machines, bathrooms, giant ferns and the odd Nine-Eleven memorial. His orange hair went in his eyes and he brushed a shock of it out of the way. He recognized the two stooges, talking English, over by the vending machine but he wasn't sure why. Oh! He decided to take the plunge, force himself to be brave and approach them.

"Excuse me," he said.

Sergius and Marcia turned. "I think I - wasn't I in a play with you both?"

"Oh. I'm sure you were," Sergius said. "We're all, um, we're all American?"

"Not me," Marcia said. "I'm Norwegian."

"I actually have dual citizenship," Jamie said. "Scottish and Dutch."

"Really." Golowin said. "I'm Swiss so, ha, wrong on all counts. Dual citizenship, Scottish and Dutch, you don't say."

"Yup," Jamie said.

"What, um, what brings you to Geneva, lad?"

"I'm on an errand."

"Oh. Hmm, so am I, in a sense. Maybe we should have a little talk, in case-"

Marcia jabbed Golowin in the ribs.

"Huh?"

She gestured. "Lean down here and I'll tell you." Golowin stooped and Marcia whispered.

Golowin gave a respectful whistle.

"Marcia, you can do that any time you want."

"Cheeky."

He grinned. "Okay. Mm, tell us a little something about your errand, Jamie. We're, um, playing a hunch."

An announcement came over the PA for flight 815, coming into gates one and two.

"Er," Jamie said, "It's drugs. Illegal ones."

"That's what I thought," Golowin said. "Your boss, is he-"

"He injects it with needles. Yeah, and he sent me over to pick up some."

"Some what."

"Heroin."

"Okay, you're okay. It's the box, right?"

"Yeah," Jamie said.

"That cover is getting a little stale, I think," said Marcia. "We have to say it with a little more umph, and in order to say it with a little more umph, we have to be saying lines we can get behind. We've had that whole drugs thing for what, five weeks?"

"Two months."

"That long? Wow. Yeah, central committee really needs to issue us a new script."

"There is no central committee," Golowin said. "Central committee is me."

"Ha," Marcia said. "Then you need to issue us a new script."

"I'll see what I can do," Golowin said. "Gates one and two, that's our plane."

"Why is it coming into two gates?"

"It's an accordion plane."

"Oh."

They stood stock still for a second, looking to Golowin to give an order.

"Ummm," he said. "Suggestions?"

"You see that big fern over there?" Jamie said.

"Yeah?"

"Let's all hide behind it."

"What good will that do?"

"We'll be able to see them before they see us."

"Kid, you are smarter than you look."

"Hmm."