Fiction
Six
How a number changed my life
How am I going to explain this to my wife, I thought, once I’d finally got comfy in my narrow airline seat, ready for the ten-hour flight from London to Caracas.
I remembered the photograph from the airline’s advertising campaign: a fully grown man lying virtually flat out, fast asleep clutching a teddy bear. “Total Luxury” was the slogan.
Not in economy class, it wasn’t. Here, it was a ten-hour slog with a complimentary can of lager and a microwaved chicken dinner. I pressed my fingers firmly into my temples, rubbing them hard in an attempt to squeeze out the answer to my problem. An airline steward asked me if I was alright. I said I was fine, just tired.
I’d been working for The Venezuelan Oil Ministry in Trujillo state in the west of the country. We were based at a Spanish university’s geological research station. Many of us had done this before. Dragged out to remote parts of the planet to look for oil. But we all agreed this was one of the best assignments yet. We got on well with the locals, had meals together, shared beers, learned the local customs, and improved our Spanish. So we were all sad to leave after the eight-week survey was up.
I was no exception.
