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| "Laura's Nightmare" Copyright Francis Blow, 1989. |
| CHAPTER 3 |
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| Knowing that there would be too much promotion work for her to do alone, Laura enlisted her friends, Jem and Simone, and, after a couple of dates with him, Marcus. |
| Laura gave each of her three helpers their instructions, then the four of them parted. Working in pairs, they canvassed local hotels and motels, in person. |
| There had been mediocre response to her letters, so Laura followed Gran's advice, and did it the hard way. |
| Jem and Simone spent a full day working one area, while Laura and Marcus used his car to cover a larger area. The four of them were smartly dressed, and carried folders; the folders were a presentation of the proposed tours Laura had managed to put together, along with a few judicious photos, and copies of a nice letter the German couple sent Laura. Most of the photos were taken by Laura, though Jem was to be the "Official" photographer for the business, and also was the assistant guide, while Simone and Marcus were happy to help out. None of them expected much to happen from the initial canvassing. |
| As Laura explained, "It's more a kind of publicity, to get our name known." |
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| When they came to one of the more prestigious hotels, Marcus grinned at her, saying, "This is where you'll break into the big time, one day." |
| His prediction came true much sooner than he expected. |
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| "Marvelous!" The manager beamed. "We've just had a tour cancelled, due to illness, and there are thirty three Japanese business people who are keen to see Australian artists, but the only day they have free is next Thursday." |
| "What kind of budget are we looking at?" Laura asked, more to have time to think than anything else. |
| She did not even blink when a staggering figure was mentioned. "That gives us a few options. Would it be possible to talk to the Japanese spokesperson, so I can tailor the tour to their needs?" |
| "I'll see what can be arranged. How can I contact you?" |
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| Laura was not allowed by her parents to take more than one day off school, the Thursday of the tour, so she worked feverishly after classes, putting together tour outlines, to present to Mr. Yamada on the Monday evening. |
| With an interpreter supplied by the hotel, Laura explained what she thought would please the spokesman. Mr. Yamada seemed satisfied with Laura's proposal, and they shook hands. Laura's Japanese was limited to "Arigato gozaimus", and she was truly thankful, since she would not have to make major changes to her plans. With only two days to finalise the tour, the fewer problems the better. |
| She received a ten thousand dollar deposit, with the balance to be paid on the day. That gave Laura cash she could bargain with, when she contacted the artist co-operative and the caterers. She would have to use two charter-flight companies, since there was not a single company available at short notice to carry all the people involved. One of the companies was owned by her flying instructor, who knew most of the best local pilots.. |
| Apart from Laura and the thirty three Japanese, Jem would go along as photographer, and the hotel promised to supply an interpreter for each of the four planes, for a fee. Radios would keep everyone in touch. |
| On the days leading up to the tour, Laura was getting by on less than four hours sleep a night, but Thursday morning dawned, and nothing calamitous occurred. Laura and Jem were driven by Jem's mother to the bus company, where their coach and driver were ready. The tour group was collected, and taken to the airport, where Laura supervised the seating on the four aircraft. |
| "You look flustered, Laura," her flight instructor commented from the pilot seat. "And I know just the thing to settle you down. Go through the pre-flight with me." |
| Laura grinned her thanks, and read through the list, making sure the pilot checked everything. Once that was done, they plane taxied down the runway, lined up into the wind, and took off, to fly a circular pattern, until the others were airborne. |
| Leaving the pilot to talk to the other pilots on one radio channel, Laura explained where they were going to the interpreters on another channel. The flight only took half an hour, and they landed on a private road, taxing right up to the main building in the artist co-operative. |
| Once everyone was out of the planes, Laura could let the director of the co-operative take over for the local tour. Laura spent time near Jem, talking occasionally, while the other girl took photos of each of the tourists. |
| Lunch along with morning and afternoon teas were catered and well received; paintings, carvings, tapestries and other works of art were examined and bought, then it was time to board the planes once more. Laura was relieved everything had gone well, and she started to relax into her seat, when the pilot got up. |
| "You take us up, Laura. The road is long enough to make an excellent, smooth strip, and I know you can fly this plane, despite the extra weight. I'll be right next to you, if you need help. Besides, it'll give these people a thrill." |
| Amid surprised questions from the interpreter, and untranslated comments from the passengers, Laura changed seats, and went through the pre-flight. Minutes later, she opened the throttles and guided the plane down the makeshift runway, for one of the smoothest take offs she could make. |
| Her instructor kept in touch with the other pilots, as Laura went into a holding pattern, until everyone was in the air, then he told Laura to head for home. |
| While he was talking to the pilots, Laura swapped jokes and questions with the passengers, via the four interpreters, and everyone was in a happy mood, despite the unexpected change of pilot. |
| Laura's landing was every bit as smooth as the take off, and only Laura and her instructor saw how tense she was until the aircraft was on the ground. He gave Laura a broad wink, and thumbs up. |
| "You didn't really fly that thing all the way, did you?" Jem demanded, while Laura led the group back to the waiting coach. |
| "I've flown that plane before. This was the first time I've carried passengers, though. Boy, I'm glad this is over. School will be a breeze, after this." |
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| The screen in front of Laura flickered, then was still. She pointed at a figure. "So that's it. The profit from the Japanese tour, with tips and commissions, came to three thousand, two hundred and seventeen dollars and fifty five cents." |
| Her father put his hand on her shoulder. "That's incredible. Congratulations, Laura. I've got to say this about you, Baby, you don't do things by halves." |
| "That's my daughter!" Carla bent down to hug Laura. |
| The three of them were in Laura's bedroom, watching her computer, where the accounting programme proved the success of "L. Shell Concepts". A week after the tour, Laura could enter her final commission of three percent of the sales from the artist co-operative. |
| In a folder beside the laptop computer, were letters from everyone involved, saying, in various ways, how happy they were with the whole thing, and ready to do it again. Along with the letters, was a cutting from a newspaper, which had found out about the tour through the hotel. |
| The paper wanted to interview Laura because of her age and the rapid success of her business. Laura was not entirely happy about the interview, but the publicity would be too good to turn down. |
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| With the publishing of the newspaper article and a good photo, more business did come her way, despite the cold weather. There was so much work, in fact, Laura had to ask others to take over some of the duties as tour guides, so she would not miss out on any more school. |
| Laura did all the weekend tours, while Jem, Simone and Marcus took turns on the midweek tours. |
| The business did not normally make as large a profit as on that first Japanese tour, though the income was more than anyone originally expected. One thing did happen, which outwardly seemed to be good for business: a television travel programme did a short feature on Laura's venture. |
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| Someone recognised Laura. |
| Hatred which had been smouldering suddenly flared. |
| Laura's natural father was watching TV in his prison cell, when he saw her face. Had he not seen Laura or heard her voice for a few more years, Gordon Flint might not have reacted so impulsively. A message was sent to a colleague in crime, and forwarded on through a chain of people, to another prison, this time in the USA. |
| The reaction there was just as swift. |
