Ben looked across the aisle and the closest of the three women was trying to get his attention. “Yes?”
“My friends and I are having a disagreement you could settle for us,” she said with an expectant look on her face.
Ben had a bad feeling about this but nodded as he couldn’t think of a polite way to avoid it.
“You look familiar to us but we can’t recall from where. Sadie, two seats over, says you work for Interpol with their special forces as she says she saw you on the news. Eleanor here says you’re a movie star as she saw you in a magazine. I think…”
Ben stared at the woman whose face was turning red as she lost her nerve to continue. Her friend Eleanor leaned around the frozen woman. “Nadine thinks you do porn!”
His stare became a glare and his scar flared making the women nervous. “You’re all wrong. I don’t work for Interpol, I’m not a celebrity by any stretch of the imagination, and I’ve NEVER done porn!”
“Oh my god! You’re the bronze man!” Nadine gasped as the facial scar linked her memories together and she suddenly realized why she’d thought he’d done porn. Eleanor and Sadie gasped too as they connected the dots.
Ben turned his face to the window. He was truly sick of that sculpture. He considered asking Stephanie to destroy it. Richard would have to get rid of the copy… and the mold and original clay sculpture if it still existed. He sighed knowing that wasn’t going to happen.
He’d read his ticket wrong and hadn’t realized how long this flight was going to be. This morning when he checked the itinerary he saw he’d be in the air for over 20 hours. There was going to be a stop in Dubai. He’d immediately sent a note to the company in Melbourne to let them know he’d be there a day later. Then he sent a note to Margaux explaining his mistake. He’d said he’d call her when he got to Melbourne.
Ben tried to relax but he could still hear the twittering of the three ladies across the aisle. It was going to be a long flight.
He must have fallen asleep as he jerked awake when he heard voices shouting from further back in the plane. He was a little dazed and his neck was stiff from the too low headrest but he twisted in his seat to see what was going on. The curtain was closed between first class and economy but the screams came through quite clearly. It was an angry male voice yelling something and a woman screaming angrily back but there was an edge of fear in her voice. Ben was on his feet and moving down the aisle before he was completely awake.
He went through the curtain and moved quickly down the aisle towards the noise. It was coming from further back in the plane behind the next set of curtains. He opened the first and saw the tense face of a flight attendant on the phone. He nodded to her and pushed through the next curtain.
He saw two flight attendants, one on either side of a confrontation, trying to calm a man in some kind of white gown, maybe in his late sixties, who had a grip on a woman’s hair in his left fist. With his right hand he was trying to stab her with a fork. The woman in his grip had a hold on his right wrist but she was weakening as he yanked on her hair while screaming in her face. None of the passengers around the couple moved to stop him.
Ben rushed forward, gently moving the flight attendant from his path so he could reach the struggling couple. He seemed to fill the limited space in the aisle and the man came out of his rage long enough to look up at him in surprise as Ben yanked the fork from his grip, dropping it on the floor behind him.
“Let. Go,” Ben growled menacingly.
“Go away. This has nothing to do with you!” the man barked angrily.
“Last chance. Let go now.”
The man looked into Ben’s eyes and saw the violence poised to crush him. He took in the white scar across his face. His nerve broke.
The man shoved the woman towards Ben and said something which made the woman stiffen and scream angrily back at him. Ben wrapped an arm around the thrashing woman and dragged her away down the aisle until they reached the central set of curtains and pushed through. He met the flight attendant who was still on the phone and the one he’d moved aside.
“I’m sorry for barging through like that,” Ben said to the attendant he’d moved.
“It’s fine. Thanks for the assist,” the woman said as she turned to the shaken woman Ben was guiding. “Let me get something for those cuts,” she said to her.
“They are merely scratches. The old fool hadn’t managed to stab me yet,” the woman replied in a lovely British accent. She looked up to Ben. “Thank you for stopping him. He was going for my eyes next.”
Ben rocked back at the casual way she’d mentioned it.
A man pushed through the curtain from the front of the plane. Ben saw the man’s uniform and assumed he was one of the flight crew. “Is this the man?” he said with a thick Australian accent, looking nervously at Ben.
Ben smiled at him and shook his head. Then he jolted and scowled as he felt something poke sharply into his back. He spun and saw the frightened face of the older man standing in the curtain with the fork gripped in his fist. The tine tips showed just a little red. Ben reached out and plucked the fork from his fingers, again, and leaned down to glare in his face. “You’ve just used up all of my patience. Go sit down in your seat. NOW!” he yelled and the man turned and rushed away. He stumbled a few times but he managed to get back to his aisle seat and sat down to look back fearfully. Ben gave him one more glare. “Leave that seat again and I will deal with you. Do you understand?” The man nodded vigorously. Ben closed the curtain and turned back to the group inside.
“Geezus! He stabbed you? Your back is bleeding!” the man said. The flight attendant immediately pulled out the first aid kit.
“I’m a doctor,” the woman Ben rescued said and took it from her. She looked to Ben. “Let me see the wound.”
Ben sighed and pulled his shirt off.
“Fuck me! Who ran you through the thrasher?” the male flight crewman exclaimed as he took in the scars. Ben ignored the question.
“I see now why you weren’t frightened of a fork,” the doctor said with a wry grin taking in the damage on Ben’s chest. “Please turn so I can see where he stabbed you.”
When he turned his back to them he heard the sharp intakes of breath that he expected when they saw the other signs of violence on his body.
“Compared to the rest these three tiny holes are nothing,” the doctor said. “The wound is barely bleeding so it’s not deep.”
Ben felt her wiping something over the wound which stung a little then she applied a small square of gauze and taped it down.
“You can put your shirt on though you might want to clean it first,” she said.
“I’ve got a clean shirt in my carry on,” Ben replied.
“Where can we reseat Doctor…” the man said looking at the woman.
“Rahal. Dr. Nezha Rahal,” she said to the crew and smiled at Ben.
The flight attendant frowned at the co-pilot as she pulled the passenger listing. “We’re completely full. I’ll have to find someone who doesn’t mind changing their seat. We can’t leave her in the back section where he can see her. Passengers in the mid-section won’t be keen on moving back.”
“There’s an empty seat next to me,” Ben offered.
The woman blinked and looked at the manifest. “I see no empty- oh, you’re from first class. Yeah, it’s against airline policy-”
“How much,” Ben sighed.
The attendant glanced up at him. “There’s an $800 upgrade fee.”
Ben pulled out his wallet and the doctor looked upset. “What are you doing?”
“Sorry, we have a long way to go and I’m not going to sleep well knowing Stabby McFork Man is back here hunting you. So if you don’t mind I’d like to offer you a seat in first class so we can move his target where he can’t see it or get to it.” Ben explained.
The doctor looked to the flight attendant who was nodding hopefully. She still looked doubtful.
“Consider it payment for the medical care,” Ben said.
She snorted. “I applied a plaster!”
“You’ve never worked as a doctor in the States I take it,” Ben grinned and her eyes got wide. “I may be exaggerating… a little.”
“Oh… alright,” she finally agreed, seeming a little dazed. “I’ll need to get my carry on.”
“Let me guess, it’s in the storage above his seat,” Ben sighed.
“I’ll take her back to get it,” the co-pilot said. Ben nodded and moved to let the man by. The doctor followed him through the curtain.
Ben finished the transaction with the flight attendant whose eyes kept slipping to his scarred chest.
“How… how did you get those?” she asked quietly.