Gate Crasher
Short Fiction: Tale of Annoyance and Turbulence at the Airport... Side of Mustard: Band of Brothers Recap, Lose Yourself Update
This is Part 1 in a short four-part fictional series Wedding Bells, sharing the celebration of marriage between Paul Buckley and Tracey Jenson.
By Vince Wetzel
Copyright Vince Wetzel and OT Press
Since his mom died a couple of years ago, Jesse hadn’t flown to his hometown of Sacramento. He was securely a Southern Californian now, living in Costa Mesa, but when one of your best friends from high school is getting married, you make the return trip to the Valley.
In a feat he never thought would happen, Paul, the erstwhile bachelor, was getting married. Ten years ago, that would seem impossible. Paul was a sex-crazed asshole and his bride-to-be, Tracey, was married to their best friend Jim. But after Paul got his priorities straight through counseling and a move back to Sacramento and Jim died in a car accident seven years ago, Paul and Tracey’s shared grief and comfort became romantic and a year ago. Now, he was heading to a bachelor party, albeit a tame one.
Like many things, Jesse was agnostic about getting on a flight. It was necessary. But the whole process of getting to the airport, security and boarding was so inefficient. He was hoping that in his lifetime, scientists would discover how to teleport people from one location to another. He liked Star Trek, but then again, he also saw The Fly with Jeff Goldblum.
“Say hi to the guys for me,” said his wife, Danielle. “And tell Tracey sorry I wasn’t able to attend her bachelorette party this weekend.”
“She understands,” Jesse said. Jesse and Danielle were parents of two twin seniors active in high school soccer, drama, and cheer. Having both parents out for a weekend threatened to disrupt the fragile ecosystem upon which their lives existed.
“I know,” Danielle said. “But I would rather be there than preparing for depositions and refereeing our two daughters over who owned what outfit.”
Jesse smiled then kissed her goodbye as she pulled the curbside drop off at John Wayne Airport in Orange County, CA. He pulled his bag out of the backseat then leaned back through the open passenger seat.
“I’ll text you when I land,” Jessie said. “Love you.”
Jesse watched Danielle pull from the curb and he turned toward the terminal. They had made it through the struggles of marriage while parenting two girls and now were on the verge of entering a new phase of their lives. He wasn’t sure how the empty nest would affect them. What would the transition back to focusing on themselves be like? Would they stare at each other? Would they open up to more travel or other pursuits? The amount of free time without the girls’ activities was daunting. Jesse hoped this weekend would be a brief respite from thinking through what this new reality could bring. For the first time in nearly 20 years, their lives and plans would be their own. Their relationship was now focused on a shared life, rather than logistics.
As he started toward the sliding doors, Jesse’s new Jordans squeaked to a stop, steps from the sliding door as a woman about as disheveled as Jesse was immaculate, wheeled her bag directly in front of him. While her hair was pulled back into a ponytail, only half followed that guidance. Her handbag was teetering on her suitcase looking for a reason to topple onto the ground. In the disturbance to pull her bag toward the door, a small tube of lip balm fell to the ground.
“Ma’am?” Jesse said, calling to the woman while picking up the tube.
“Oh my. You’re a lifesaver,” she said, smiled and took the tube from Jesse.
Jessie started to walk forward, and the woman fell in step with him. Jesse said a small prayer to himself, hoping she wouldn’t be locked on his hip all the way to security.
“My Uber was so late,” she said. Jesse felt he was just a vessel toward which this woman could direct her attention. “And then he tried to make up for it by driving like Dale Ernhardt out there. He was in one of those Teslas, you know? I don’t know what it is about them, but I almost got car sick from all of his accelerating and breaking. I never get motion sickness, well except with those rides like Star Tours? Yeah, oh he was awful. So, I didn’t give him a tip or a review at all.”
Jessie tred to hurry to TSA PreCheck, hoping that would help separate him from her. But she stayed with him as they went down the lane and followed an elderly Asian couple who looked unsure of where they were going. The woman pushed in front of Jessie.
“Excuse me,” she called to the couple. “Are you sure you’re in the right lane? I want to save you extra time just in case.”
The couple were surprised and stopped for the woman. Jesse didn’t want to look rude, so he waited as the older man pulled up his phone and showed Jessie’s new companion his boarding pass. The woman, pulled her dark reading glasses from atop her head and looked at the pass. She shook her head.
“Yeah, you’re in the wrong line,” she said, extra slow and extra loud. “This is T-S-A Pre check. You need to be in general boarding line over there.”
The couple looked at the woman and then to Jessie, who just shrugged. In a way, he was relieved the woman stepped in. There was nothing more frustrating than to be behind people in the wrong line. Another reason he wasn’t a fan of flying. The couple smiled, nodded and made their way out of the line.
“I just knew they were in the wrong line. You can just tell, you know?” she said to Jesse. Jesse smiled. He didn’t want to talk to this woman, even to compliment her on her wrong-line perceptions.
“I need to make my flight. I’m going to cut it close.”
As they reached security, she somehow had got ahead of him, and she was surprisingly efficient in loading her baggage into the screening belt. Jesse loaded all of his personal items, wallet, phone, earbuds, car keys ahead of time too and skirted through the line quickly.
Normally, Jesse was the epitome of fitness. Ever since his daughters were born and he became a stay-at-home dad and pushed them on a double running stroller, he tried to stay fit with regular exercise and a healthy diet. Still, he planned for a cheat weekend and went straight to the Carl’s Jr. Once again, the woman was in front of him in line.
“We have to stop running into each other,” she cackled. “Or else people will talk.”
She laughed at her own joke while Jesse felt a smile would help pacify her and help her move on. He stared at his phone, hoping that it would dissuade her from striking up more of a conversation.
“Where are you heading?” she asked. Jessie tried to breathe through his nose slowly.
“Sacramento,” he said.
“Seattle for me,” she said. He nodded. “Visiting my sister.”
Another nod.
“We may try to hit a Kraken hockey game. I love hockey. I’m a Ducks fan myself. So, we always have spirited debate over who’s better.”
Jesse was saved when the woman’s order number was called, and she grabbed her bag and left. A minute later, his order was ready, and he proceeded to his gate.
“Attention to the terminal,” came an announcement. “Calling Elaine Jorgensen. Elaine Jorgensen. This is final boarding for Flight 281 to Seattle. Please come to Gate C19 in the next five minutes or we will be closing the doors and leave you behind.”
Jesse looked up. He was at C19. And sure enough, his newest airport friend was Elaine Jorgensen and almost missed her flight because of a Carl’s Jr. burger. Jessie rolled his eyes and proceeded to Gate C23, where his flight was scheduled to depart in forty-five minutes.
He looked at his boarding pass for his Southwest flight. He was B51, which meant he would be the 141st passenger to choose his seat according to Southwest’s open seating policy. He hoped he would still get his preferred window seat, but it probably would be in the rear of the plane.
When it came to the boarding ime, Jesse waited patiently. Southwest groups according Boarding Groups and numbers. First A1 through 30. Then A 31 through 60, followed by B1 through 30 and so on. As the final A group exited the queue to board the plane, Jessie put himself close to the A50 marker. Soon, he’d be on the plane and ready to board.
“Hey,” a bald man with shoulders that spanned two zip codes and muscles carved out of hours at the gym, supplements and possibly some injections, looked to him. “What number are you?”
“B51.”
“Great. I’m B50,” the gym bro said. “The guy told me to come back here.”
Jesse nodded. Jesse knew he was being prejudicial, but even though he was fit himself, hated gym bros. They felt they owned society. Anything that stopped them was a personal affront to their identity. The gym bro turned back to him.
“Normally, I just get in line, and they scan my pass and I get on, but this dude thinks he’s Interpol and he tells me to come back here. Whatever.”
Jesse wondered if he should remind gym bro that he’s now in his proper spot. That he was in fact cutting line, which was rude and bad etiquette. But he decided against it. Just get on the plane, he reminded himself. Put on some headphones and read a book.
“Man, these guys are so slow,” gym bro said. “Will we even make our flight?”
“Probably,” Jesse said.
“B51. I hope I can get an aisle seat. I need extra space because of my shoulders.”
Jesse resisted every urge to shake his head. Did this guy think that Jesse was a shared soul?
“You’ll have space. It may be in the back,” Jesse said.
“That’s what I told douchebag,” Gym bro said. “But then he pushed me back here.”
It was time for the gate attendant to scan the boarding passes. And everything went fine for gym bro and Jesse as they proceeded down the jetway and onto the plane. Gym bro’s eyes went wide when he spotted the aisle seat with an empty seat between them. He turned back to Jesse, smiled and grinned.
“Looks like I scored,” he said. Jesse just wanted to find a window seat and pull out his biography of Dave Grohl and tune out his fellow passengers.
As he expected, there was plenty of room in the back of the plane, and not a full flight, Jesse knew he would have plenty of room. As he found an empty row, he sat down and pulled out a book, put in his air Pods ready to block out the plane around him. But he couldn’t help but look forward to check on Gym bro.
Whether it was schadenfreude or just karma, Jesse watched as a crying baby was passed forward from behind Gym bro to the person on gym bro’s row window seat. Gym bro looked back to see if he could move, but the flight attendant advised him to remain seated as they moved through their pre-flight safety checklist.
Jesse breathed a sigh. Regardless of the craziness to this moment, he was looking forward this weekend’s celebration of Paul, followed by his nuptuals to Tracey next month. He just wondered how Jim’s presence would be felt during this time of celebration.
The story of Jesse, Paul, Jim, Rob, and David are told in my first novel Friends in Low Places (2021). They also appeared in my first Substack fiction The Hot Shot
Side of Mustard
Rewatch: Band of Brothers
This year marks the 80-year anniversary of the D-Day Invasion, one of the single-most defining moments of modern history. Over the next few weeks, I’ll be conducting my own rewatch of this Emmy Award-winning series, share my impressions, insights I’ve learned through listening to the Band of Brothers rewatch Podcast with Roger Bennett (produced in 2021), and encourage participation now that it’s available on Netflix.
Episode 10 - Points. In this final episode of the series, you see the men of Easy Company in Austria with too much time on their hands, no clear mission, endless ammunition, and alcohol. While they await possible redeployment to the Eastern Theater, some wonder how many “points” they’ll need to get home. At the end, in final moments together, we earn how the men of Easy Company will spend their lives, whether as an insurance executive, a cabbie, an earth mover, or a farmer. Finally, the real men of Easy Company are interviewed. Knowing they’ve all since passed, one can’t help but get choked up.
Damian Lewis shared that during the audition process, he saw a Canadian actor audition who looked exactly like the real Dick Winters. But, they still cast Lewis, he supposes, because he was stiff and formal, and portrayed real authority. Lewis drew inspiration from Gary Cooper for his portrayal of Winters.
Final Thoughts
Watching a story about real heroes who lived for integrity, honor and their fellow soldiers was a salve to the division we see in our country. They weren’t perfect but they volunteered for the paratroopers for extra pay and to be among the elite. Band of Brothers is a study in leadership. Whether it is Captain Sobel, whose authoritarian style and tactical miscues caused a near mutiny, to Lieutenant Speirs, who shut off his humanity to do what he had to do get home, to Lieutenant Lipton, who guided everyone to a singular focus, each held a style from which to learn. Finally, Major Winters showed what the Americans needed most - steady demeanor, confidence in his abilities and his men, and devotion to the greater cause.
By listening to the accompanying podcast, I gained further appreciation of these men. And I was more appreciative of the production. From the beginning, the focus was honoring these men and being true to their experiences. After more than 20 years, Band of Brothers continues to stand as 10 of the best hours of television ever. I encourage you to watch, either for the first or the 10th time.
Lose Yourself update
Three months after its release, Lose Yourself continues to find new readers. A few folks came out for my Bay Area book signing at Drake’s Brewing in San Leandro. I find great joy in sharing these novels, and about these fictional characters, some of whom have become very real to me.
Reviews also are continuing to trickle in. These are so helpful for new readers to find the book. They are credible evidence that they can take a chance on purchasing a book from an unknown author. The latest five-star review shared:
“The first Vince Wetzel novel I've read, and it was great to read. It was easy to lose yourself in all of the characters' stories and emotions on the last game of the baseball season with so much on the line. From the usher to the gambler, from the player looking to make history to the dying old fan, it's all there, and Vince paints beautiful pictures that bring you into everyone's story. Even if you're not a big baseball fan, if you like good stories that engage you from beginning to end, this is one I'd highly recommend.”
Copies are still available. A subscription to Salted Wetzel gets you a personalized signed copy. Otherwise you can purchase through all online bookstores. You can also buy direct. And when you’re done, please leave a review!