Wolves Without a Shadow

When the time came to fly back from Australia to the US and immediately on to a location

in the Canadian forests for Meghan's role as an Alien trying to rescue her brother from

imprisonment on Earth, the star and her entourage did so on a full-sized commercial jet. The

producers had done a deal with a concert tour promoter to hire an aircraft known as an Airbus A380-800 to bring back the US members of Volley's cast and crew along with the personnel of a

major band tour, plus the US members of a live musical remake of a popular film – a form of

entertainment Will never understood.

This meant Meghan and Will sat together in two first class seats, in which it was possible to

sleep while Mia and Jake made do with a still comfortable plus economy seat further back in the

plane. An advantage of this arrangement was that the journey back promised to be considerably

livelier than the trip in the private jet. There were disadvantages, however, one of which Will

discovered when he came back to his seat after a visit to the bathroom to find the world-famous

rock musician Bo Benjamin in his seat, fresh from his Australian tour, talking animatedly with

Meghan.

"Another one," he thought.

Will had never cared for the man's music, but a lot of people did. Bo Benjamin had more

gold grammies and hit songs to his credit than most people had hot dinners in a month. Although

the singer's hits were now less frequent and his many years on top were beginning to tell in the

erosion of stunning looks that mesmerised teenage girls everywhere, and a slight greying of his

flowing dark hair. Despite his years, Benjamin maintained a figure that allowed him to get away

with wearing black leather pants and a black shirt with a short, black jacket. Okay, he was a rocker,

Will got it. But the rocker was in his seat.

"Pardon me, Mr Benjamin.." he said.

"No autographs," said the singer, and went back to talking to Meghan.

"But it's Will's seat," she said.

"Huh!" said Benjamin, but he did not look around.

The singer's bodyguard – a man so large that his head seemed to brush the cabin roof - who

had been standing back, got involved. "Step back, sir. No autographs."

"Your boss is in my seat," said Will. This made the bodyguard pause. He leant forward and

spoke over the singer. "Meg, why don't you introduce me to your friend?"

"Oh yes, Bo this is my friend Will."

Benjamin finally looked around. "I'm talking to Clarise here," he said, but before he could

stop himself he took the hand Will offered to him. The writer gripped that hand, firmly grabbed

Benjamin's shoulder with his other hand, ignored the musician's squawk of "no touching man", and

bodily pulled the rocker out of his seat, turning him so that the singer's back was to his bodyguard

who was about to intervene.

"If you want to keep talking to your friend, Meghan," said Will. "Why not sit in this seat.

I'll take yours."

Meghan, taken aback and somewhat amused by Will's actions, nodded and smiled.

"Incidentally, what happened to my computer?"

This was not a laptop but a more powerful system with a separate processor box which was

still light and compact enough to be carried in Will's shoulder bag. He had left it set up on his

serving tray.

"In here, sir," said the bodyguard and he opened an overhead locker, while Bo Benjamin

looked on in baffled disapproval.

Will glared at the bodyguard just as one of the attendants came up.

"Is everything alright here?" she asked.

"Everything's fine," said Will. "Just some confusion. Mr Benjamin was getting out of my

seat and giving me back my computer, which was taken away for some reason."

The attendant left and Will set himself up again in Meghan's seat, doing his best to ignore

the conversation between his girlfriend and a rock star. He had some work to finish off, both his and

Meghan's, before the in-flight dinner. After a few minutes, Meghan turned to him.

"They're having a gathering down by one of the coffee areas," she said. "Some of the

headliners I'd like to meet. Do you want to come?"

"They don't want to talk to me at all," Will said. "And that Benjamin guy might be sore at

me. You go and I'll finish off some work here. Tell you what…" He called to a passing hostess.

"Excuse me, when is dinner to be served?"

"About an hour, sir."

"Okay come back in an hour. I will insist on dinner together."

"Sure," she said cheerfully and left.

All Will knew of the party was the hum of conversation and occasional laughter which he

found easy to ignore. About half an hour later, after he had just about finished all that had to be

done, the same attendant who had asked if everything was alright before, a pretty girl with short,

dark hair, came to his seat.

"Excuse me, sir," she whispered. "Ms Chalmers has asked that you come and get her. I think

she's feeling uncomfortable with the company she has."

"Oh right," said Will, dumping the computer on his seat and getting out. He found a merry

party behind the port side window row of seats but with Meg firmly wedged between Benjamin and

another of the singer's band members. Will thought he was the drummer. The bodyguard tried to

head him off but Will side stepped, called "Meg" and held out his hand.

"My ride," said Meghan, grabbing Will's hand.

The writer pulled and, with some effort Meghan came free. The writer realised that both

men had their arms around Meghan.

"Gentlemen, groping is for old men," said Will and turned, ignoring a decidedly unfriendly

response from the drummer.

"Lauren!" he said, spotting the film co-star "and, thank heaven, you have your top on".

Lauren rolled her eyes, "I'm never going to live that down am I?"

"Don't worry, I can keep the references up for years yet," said Will. "Meghan, say goodbye

to the nice gentlemen."

"Goodbye nice gentlemen."

As they walked off, Will heard someone say, "you didn't tell me her boyfriend was on the

plane".

"They've been sitting together the whole trip," said a woman's voice. "And it was obvious

she asked that attendant to tell him to come and get her."

"Why did you need me to drag you out from the two gropers?" asked Will as they walked

back, holding hands. "You could have told them to stop it and levered yourself out."

"Bo is still a major celebrity, bigger than me, and I didn't want to cause any direct offence."

"Better to have your horrible boyfriend do the jealous thing and drag you away, instead of

making it clear you can't stand his arse."

She nodded.

"It is better to be clear about this and tell him he's a filthy groper, rather than have him

maintain illusions," said Will. "He's a guy, he's hopeful."

She shrugged and half smiled. "We did have a connection once."

"With Benjamin?"

Meghan nodded. "A few years back before I was famous, and it didn't last very long. I

didn't plan it but the connection also helped boost my image back then."

"I'd have preferred not to have been told that I think," said Will. "But no matter. Would I

have liked any of your past boyfriends?"

"Maybe the one in college who got me to watch the Star Wars films."

"Ah, yes! I must meet him sometime so we can compare notes."

"What would you compare notes about?" asked Meghan, raising one eyebrow.

"The Star Wars film franchise of course," said Will, in mock surprise. "Heaps of material is

still being produced. What else would we talk about?"

Meghan rolled her eyes but had to laugh and was even impressed. Will had extricated her

without causing a scene and, instead of becoming jealous over ex-boyfriends, had provided her with

an amusing story. She could tell friends and her mother about Will comparing notes on Star Wars

with her college boyfriend instead of her, complete with rolling of eyes. Will was considerably

easier to deal with than many other men she had known, she decided. Although the writer did not

know it, high above the Pacific, he had passed a test.

A few hours later Will was dozing in his seat with Meghan asleep, curled up so that her head

was on a pillow on his shoulder, clutching his arm – a comforting way to sleep on a plane, she had

found - covered by a single airline blanket. Will woke to find Benjamin's giant bodyguard leaning

over him, about to shake Meghan awake.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?" he whispered indignantly, pushing the man's

hand away. The rest of the plane was also sleeping.

The bodyguard drew back.

"The boss wanted to invite Ms Chalmers to a party."

"What now?"

"No, his hotel in New York, when we land."

"We're going straight onto a shoot in Canada. I will inform Ms Chalmers when she wakes

up. Here.." with difficulty, Will took out his wallet while trying not to disturb Meghan and extracted

a business card ".. that's the only contact number I can give out. Send a text, I'll make sure she gets

it. Now go away."

The bodyguard duly vanished.