Vega was going through her morning ritual of checking email when David knocked on her office door.
“Hey, how’re you doing?” he said.
“Hi Dave, glad you stopped by. I noticed you were pretty quiet after meeting the new prospects last night. I didn’t want to ask you in front of the others but, is everything okay?”
“Yeah, sure, just more stuff to do. Like I had a lot of spare time left. What did bother me was that I missed whatever juicy story was being told regarding your father going out with Dalia’s aunt.”
“Oh, nothing juicy about it. I think my father enjoys baseball more than dating.”
David couldn’t believe his good luck. Just like that Vega had taken him to the topic he wanted to get to.
“Big baseball fan, huh.”
“Oh my God, yes. Even Spring Training gets him excited.”
“Really? What’s his favorite team?”
“The Cleveland Indians, a hard to understand fascination with a team that hasn’t won a World Series since 1948. It’s a sentimental thing that has to do with my Mom.”
“Sorry… I didn’t want to…” said David awkwardly.
“Don’t worry, it’s okay.”
“I’m more of a casual baseball fan,” said David trying to steer the conversation back to his topic of interest. “I once participated in one of those fantasy leagues but, not being a hardcore follower, I didn’t do too well. Which marked the beginning and end of my career as a fantasy baseball manager.
“Dad’s a veteran in those endeavors. Every year, since I don’t know when.”
Click. The door to talk about Lucas Aldrich’s involvement with fantasy baseball was now open. From that point on, what he needed to do was all about timing.
Lucas’ meeting was brief and to the point. Once back in his studio, he opened a message from the Kitty Hawks’ manager that had been waiting in his inbox since early that morning. It read:
“Good morning Lucas, sorry I didn’t give you my name yesterday when you asked me to call you Lucas. Just an oversight from an absent-minded person. Allow me to introduce myself. My name is Edwin Moon…”
Lucas felt his enthusiasm about the identity of this person die with that revelation, but he kept reading.
“…and I’m getting into a venture that requires professional communications efforts. Could you send me some information about your company or guide me to a website where I can find it? Also, the job might involve traveling to meet in person. Would that be okay with you?”
Click. This was the opportunity Lucas was looking for.
The man whose identity he wanted to corroborate had just opened the door to a face-to-face meeting, thought Lucas before the reality check dawned on him. Oh wait, his name is Edwin Moon.
Before answering that email Lucas googled the man’s name. As it’s usually the case, there were several persons with the same name, so he dug deeper to see if he could make an educated guess as to which Edwin Moon was talking to him. He wasn’t ready for the information he got. The search engine brought him to a page with a list of aviation pioneers. As he scrolled down the list he found an Edwin Moon entry.
Edwin Moon
June 8, 1886 – April 29, 1920
Country of birth: England
Achievements: Designed, constructed, and flew a monoplane named “Moonbeam” during early to mid 1910
Click. The search had taken him to an entry of a long dead aviation pioneer who named his plane with the same moniker he had chosen as nickname for his daughter.
Lucas took it as a sign and smiled.
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