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I was humming Arlo Guthrie's "Coming Into Los Angeles" as we made final approach into Canberra. It seemed appropriate.
"Will you quit with the noisemaking. You sound like a drunken hive of bees."
"If you think my humming's bad, you should hear my singing."
"Merde!"
Pshrynk made a nice landing. As we were disembarking, Pshrynk asked us, "What do I do now?"
"You got a workin' cellphone here?"
"Yes." He gave me the number.
"Ok. Stay within 30 minutes travel time of the plane, and stay sober. Have the rest of the crew stay the same. We made be leaving soon, but figure at least 1-2 hours before we do anything. If we end up stumpted here, then we'll go to Darwin."
"You guys are finicky customers."
"Talk to the money pooch. I'm just the hired help."
I got another hernia unloading the bags. Next time Pinwheel was gonna spring for a vetted baggage handler as part of the deal.
An Aussie customs officer wandered over to the plane. "Customs check is over there." He pointed to the main terminal.
" 'Fraid not, this time. See the markings? Here's my passport and the dog's passport."
"Assistant Consul, and Ambassador-at-Large for Pinwheel? Why weren't we notified."
" 'Cause this is a high-level flap we're dealing with. Officially, we're not here. Unofficially, we're trying to keep it hush hush. The Austrialian Govenrment has been notified (fat chance, I thought) but for the same reason, they're keepin' it under their hats. No worries, mate, she's right."
"I hate dealing with diplos..."
"I know, we mess up your job. But if you would just stamp the passports so we can haul this stuff over the embassy car, over there by the private gate, we'd be obliged. Besides, if we get kicked out of the country, I'll make a point of lettin' you do the kickin personally."
The agent grinned and said, "Right, mate." He stamped the passports. "Welcome to Oz."
At least the driver helped load the bags. We got into the back seat, along with the extra bags, and rolled to the embassy. It was heaven. I didn't have to unload anything!
The ambassador meet us at the door. "The Pinwheel embassy is honored to have your presense, Viceroy VivaldiRules and Sir Sir Ralph Sir Edward."
"We're please to accept you hospitalilty, Ambassador." said VR. I just nodded. Fancy words aren't my style.
After we got in the embassy, I asked the Ambassador, "Can I make a call to the US? I need to check on the status of another member of the party, who's in transit commercially from Pinwheel."
"Certainly." And led me to a phone.
I dialled up Mindy's cell phone. I got a blurry, "Who's there?"
"It's your boss, live and in color."
"Boss, do you know what time it is?"
"Time to answer my question so you can go back to sleep. When is BadGoodDeb gonna arrive at Canberra?"
Another blurry "Uh....Another 7 hours."
"Goodnight, Mindy. Don't cramp your wings."
"Goodn'ght...." Click.
I turned to the Ambassador. "We'll have another member of the party arriving at the airport on a commercial flight in 7 hours. If somebody from the embassy could help her thru customs, it'll save time. She'll be traveling as an old lady under the name Enola Emmel. When she gets here, we'll give you a full briefing. Until then, we're lagged out. Can we get a bed around here until then?"
We got led to the VIP quarters and I crashed.
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