EDAN'S DREAM

Chapter 7 - Australia

The younger one was swinging his right arm round and round as though he was about to lunge into his opponent.

Edan crouched down and watched in total disbelief as the two kept up the rant.

He recalled what his father once told him: "people who often use bad language to express an argument usually have limited vocabulary of words to choose from."

Then the aircraft's luggage bin door swung open again.

Edan rose to attention.

A third person wearing yellow visibility jacket joined the party.

They were all talking loudly and pointing fingers aggressively at each other.

The one who came out last wearing the visibility jacket jumped into the ramp truck and drove to position the ramp at the base of the aircraft's open luggage door.

The bald one still talking, raced up the ramp and disappeared into the plane.

The gym guy wasn't impressed.

He tapped his feet on the tarmac irritably while he waited.

Moments later, Edan noticed as one, two and three suit cases landed on the base ramp. It was his moment of realization.

Obviously one or all of them had made the mistake of loading baggage that was not supposed to be on the aircraft.

A button was pressed and the ramp belt reversed into descending mode.

The bald guy stood at the door with his hands akimbo. He watched the gym guy unload the baggage off the bottom end.

Afterwards, he sat on the ramp with his legs stretched together in his front taking the slow ride on descent.

He was half way down the ramp when the same third party switched off the motor. The bald guy sat suspended on the ramp.

He fumed with rage and hurled more abuse at the naughty driver. Poor baldy.

Two against one isn't usually a fair fight.

The driver and the gym guy both laughed as they drove off with the discharged load.

Edan felt sorry for baldy.

Baldy looked down from the ramp.

He could easily have made a jump for it, but he didn't. He was terrified.

Instead he rolled on his stomach and managed to slowly push himself downward until he was at the foot of the ramp.

Like a wounded bull he madly charged off in the direction of his deserters.

Edan could not believe his good luck.

Just when he thought his chances of getting any closer to the aircraft was next to zero, this handsome opportunity was literally thrown open for him. He charged forward as fast as his legs could carry him. Up the ramp and into the plane.

As he got his breath under control, he heard some commotion outside.

At first, he thought the quarrelsome gang had realized they hadn't closed the aircraft's luggage bin.

Hence had returned probably to complete the job, he assumed.

Inside, he saw stacks of freights similar to the one he'd used as a hide out in the flight from New York.

He went speedily from one to another, yanking on the door handles. Nothing happened. The voices outside sounded ever closer and he needed to hide urgently. He heard feet running up the ramp. Someone was definitely coming up the ramp. If he wasn't so sure before, he was now. He pulled again. One handle snapped open. He slid in quickly and shut the door.