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“That’s perfect, in my opinion,” I replied. “The ones on the bed do feel a little thicker. And this one was fine in the lobby, but I suppose we’ll see how it does in here.”
He nodded and laid down on the small makeshift bed that he had made on the floor for himself.
Then, he sat back up like a rocket.
“Wait a minute! I have my luggage in here,” he said as he turned to me. “I might have something that’ll make it warmer. If you can stay up another half hour or so, maybe we won’t need these extra blankets and can use them to hold back some of the cold drifting in from the windows.”
“What is it?” I was now curious.
It wasn’t every day that someone had the chance to use something in an unintended way. I watched as he walked over to his duffel bag. Since he had carried it inside, along with my larger suitcase, I hadn’t been able to feel how heavy it was. It had squished just fine in the cargo space of the plane, though, so I imagined that it was full of things that squished easily. Or were able to lay on their sides without much bulk.
He pulled a small space heater out of the bag.
“I know it doesn’t look like much, but it’s a battery-operated space heater. It was a prototype for the Navy, and this is the finished product. We all got to keep one after beta-testing the finished product. It’s come in handy on my travels before, and now I’m glad I keep it in my bag at all times. Or on the plane, just in case.”
He set it down on the tile floor near the bathroom and then turned it on.
I could hear it churning as if it hadn’t been used in a while.
“And what do we do if the battery dies?” I couldn’t help but ask.
He then held up a small cord.
“It’s like one of those electric cars. It can run on battery, but it isn’t designed to hold much charge. You plug it in, and not only will it run, but that will also help it charge the battery for the next use. They were trying to keep it portable. To make one with a decent long-life battery that could handle the heat, they had to make it five times as big.”
I nodded slowly.
“How do you know that Gabe?”
“I’m still friends with the engineer who designed it,” he said. “Now… while that’s warming our room up a little more, do you want to keep talking?”
“What aspirations do you have for life now that you’re out of the military?” I didn’t hesitate to ask a question that had been on my mind since he had said that he hadn’t wanted to renew his contract.
Sure, he had been in the Navy and had learned that he liked to save people. But that didn’t mean anything if he didn’t have anything to live for now that he was out of the Navy. If he had something to live for, if he had aspirations for his business, then I could see why he had decided to remain out of the reserves, too.
“If that’s a way of asking me why I didn’t sign up for the reserves now that I’m retired, that’s a creative way to do so,” he said. “Points for originality.”
He sat down on his little makeshift bed with a sigh as he thought about the question. I didn’t hurry him for an answer. This was one of those questions that would be answered as he found the words to answer it, and no sooner or later. I had to respect that.
“I’m not entirely sure I have an answer if that is acceptable to you,” he finally said. “I’ve done my duty to my country, and now I’m doing my passion by running this business. I’m not sure I have any aspirations other than that.” He smiled a little. “I’d be content to run this business for the rest of my life.”
“As long as you’re happy with the way your life has turned out, I’ll accept that answer. The smile on your face tells me all I need to know about that,” I replied.
“What about you? What aspirations do you have for your life?”
“I think I’d like to be a full-time photographer, taking on only projects I would enjoy from clients,” I replied. “But I don’t know where to start. I don’t even know if I have enough experience to get the kind of clients I would need to be able to do that full-time and set my own hours. It’s a lot harder to burst into the freelance business than it looks.”
“I’m sure you’ll find something to start with,” Gabe said. “You found a way to convince me to take you to Corinth instead of sitting on your butt waiting for a commercial flight with a good price there and back to do this. I can’t say that it doesn’t impress me without feeling like I’m lying. Whatever your boss thinks of your photography, I think you’ve got the gumption to make a freelance business work.”
I felt a blush heating up on my cheeks.
“Thank you for your vote of confidence, Gabe,” I said. “I appreciate it. I’ve been at the paper for so long that I don’t know that I remember how to take any other kind of photos. I was really hoping we would have enough time in Corinth not only for me to take the photos I needed for the job, but also to explore and see what other kinds of photos I could capture. You never know what is there until you start shooting, after all.”
Gabe nodded slowly.
“Well, I’m sorry, but if the flight plan doesn’t get accepted, I don’t think we’ll be able to leave before the end of the week. I know you only have until the end of the month, which is… Sunday, I believe.”
“I hope we can leave by the day after tomorrow, at the latest,” I admitted. “But that means we need the power to come back on so that I can get my camera and my luggage out of my room. I can’t do anything if I don’t have that.”
