His wallet and her mobile phone (Revised)

 

I’m a wallet. I was born out of cow leather less than three years old and sometimes from calf’s less than three months old. Calf leather is the most expensive part of the leather family and is used for manufacturing expensive luxury items such as wallets, shoes, handbags, key pouches etc etc. Today United States of America (USA), Japan, Switzerland, Germany and The United Kingdom are in the top ten importing calf leather countries. The exports are mainly from China, Italy, France and Hong Kong. Kings, Royalties, Head of States, Top Officials from the public and private sectors uses me. I am the one thing they must carry, whenever and wherever they venture out to. I am a designer item and not the things they pile up in department stores sales section. My existence was painstakingly handcrafted and exhibited in top designer stores throughout the world.

My keeper is Francis Manfred from Bern, Switzerland. A young man of twenty seven in age, Promotion Executive by profession for aircraft parts and does travel quite a bit internationally. His Head Office is in New York, USA, but mostly he is on the move somewhere in the world. He’s a great supporter of important air shows around the world as most of his customers have exhibition booths there, not to mention the buyers spending millions and billions of dollars. All are important to his work.

Depending on the part of the world he’s at, my place of residence differs. In Europe, I am in his right hand inside of a suit or blazer pocket. I like the place, it become me. The place is cozy, not too tight and the aroma from his after shave or au de toilet can be quite soothing to my raw nerves. Not only that, it’s also a warm place, away from the cold winds, sleet, snow and rains. With the overcoat on, it’s even nicer. In the Middle East, especially in Saudi Arabia, Doha, Yemen and Oman, life can be a bit tough especially in summer where the temperatures can hit in the upper forties centigrade. There, my usual place is at the back pocket of his trousers. If I am lucky, he shifts me around into his front trouser pockets also. Wherever it was, the temperature is extra hot especially in the hangers of the airports where he goes promoting his parts to the engineers there. Existence in the back pockets, life can be extra tough. The gas fumes from the aircraft engines were bad enough, but added exhaust outlet from him can be quite over bearing, and the added gases were so bad I do not think he can withstand it himself. Once or twice can be expected, however more than that, life becomes unpronounceable. Sometimes I think I’m in the s_ _ t hole itself. Not only that, the sweat from his underpants leaks into my part of the world and it becomes humid and sticky.  I tell you it’s really a tough existence.

I was made with TLC (tender loving care) with soft hands and stitched individually, crafted with the finest calf leather can offer. Our trademark being fine quality calf leather money can buy, hand stitched, durable, waterproof and branded with hallmarks only the quality designer houses can offer. Colour wise it was black only. You may question how come a young executive promoting aircraft parts be holding such a rare exquisite wallet such as I. The answer is simply that one of the Directors from Emirates Airline stationed in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, gave it to him as a present about a year ago. I do not think my keeper knows full well the true quality value of me. My cousins are only available from the finest designer houses in Paris, New York, London, Tokyo and Zurich. I myself was especially ordered, designed and created by the House of Catier in Paris by His Excellency, one of the Sheiks of Dubai, as gifts for his special friends. I am afraid by siblings cannot be found anywhere else on this earth and I can be said to be of a special and limited breed. Francis Manfred does realize that I must be expensive but how unique, exquisite and rare is beyond him. We cannot really blame him, as one needs to be a coinsurer to really appreciate the finer things in life, and that he is not.

I was designed to be a slim wallet and be quaint and fit comfortably into gentlemen wears. However Francis Manfred uses the wallet (me) for the stowage of two Bank ATM (automatic teller machine) cards, an American Express Credit card, Identity card, a few business cards plus about U$300/- in one sheath and local currencies in another. Furthermore, he folded a small piece of paper with his passport and visa details so that he need not keep on referring to his passport on the aircraft. Thus I am a wee bit bulging around the waste over the intended purpose and design.

In the world today, there are around 20,000 civilian aircrafts flying and they  all require parts to be renewed after reaching a stipulated flying hours by law. Francis Manfred is overjoyed, as they needed spares to be renewed to keep them in the air, all wonderful music to his ears. This is where he comes in, promoting his spare parts for different aircrafts. In his line of work, he entertains a lot. Lunches and dinners galore in the finest restaurants of the city he’s at. I am his safe deposit. Each time he entertains, he pays cash or uses a credit card stowed in me. What I detest most is, he sits on me should I be in his back pocket and his weight is not that light either. Short periods were not a problem but if for more than one or two hours, I could hardly breathe under his body weight. To be between his bum and the chair can be a bit of a squeeze. Should his meals be not regular or food not of a correct combination, gasses build up in him and the exhaust outlet being near me can be most distasteful. Lucky no spark, otherwise can cause a fire there.

Francis Manfred is hardly at his head office as his job is promotion and this requires him to be traveling most of the time. Only during his annual holidays, he spends two weeks with his parents in Bern Switzerland. He keeps in touch with his office by email on his laptop via the Internet. Once he calculated for his own knowledge as to where he spent most of his time.  At the macro level, statistics shows that he spends his time mainly in the Middle East. On review at the micro stage, it showed he spent only a few days at a time at each destination. For example, such as Cairo, Doha, Muscat, Tehran, Amman, Beirut, Damascus, Jeddah and Tripoli etc. etc. At such, nights were spent in hotels. At times Francis would wake up and wonder where he was. Back at the hotel, Francis would leave me on the bedside table or inside the side drawer. Spending the night on the bedside table can be rough. Should he be entertaining a female guest or be entertained by one, the nights were full of moans, ahhhhh and ohhhh!!! If Francis was sleeping alone don’t think the nights were peaceful as the room was filled with his snoring till morning. I slept better in the side drawer, quieter and warmer, away from the air-conditioning and noise. For him it’s okay, he slept under a thick quilt.  Talk about selfishness.

Last few days ago, he paid a visit to Tripoli and went tot see Libyan Airlines. They owned a fleet about 19 aircrafts and quite a few were Airbus A-300s. He wore his dark gray suit as a sign of respect to them. He went and saw the General Manager of Procurement. However before Tripoli he was in Beirut and due to lack of spare clothes, he did not change his under pants. The General Manager of Procurement for Libyan Airlines was a friend of his, however he was a through man with sound engineering knowledge. When Francis Manfred tried to promote some of the A-300 parts, he asked relevant technical detail questions which put Francis Manfred on a spot. There, he stated to perspire and the sweat from the two days of old underpants leaked into my domain. The stench was so strong it could be smelt in Hong Kong. The wallet in his back pocket suffered to the hilt. He further entertained the General Manager in town, in a small but expensive café by the seaside. The weather was hot and the condition of the wallet needed no explanation. His keeper settled the bill by cash only then the whiff of fresh air saved the day.

Next stop was Amsterdam Schiphol Airport to pay a visit to the various maintenance  departments of KLM (Royal Dutch Airlines). Francis Manfred bought half a dozen of Hush Puppies underpants size 36 in the taxfree shop and had a change in the toilet and threw the old pair into the trashcan beside the toilet. He put the remainder new underpants into his briefcase and bought two bottles of Scotland’s best single malt whisky at the duty free.  He spent about two hours with KLM and handed the 2 bottles of whisky to the Head of Maintenance for engines and gyrocompasses as presents. KLM is an important customer. They have a fleet of Airbus-A330-200~300, Boeing 747- 400, Boeing 777-200ER~300ER, MD-11, Boeing 737-700~800~900 and many, many more. With more than 100 aircrafts with an average age around 10 years, they are one of the mega top players in international and regional air travel. His promotion or pre-sales, call it what you will, was precise and detailed. He knew that he needed to play his cards right. The wallet now has a new lease of life. Better still, his keeper shifted his wallet into his suit inner right hand pocket. The placement could not be better. Breathed better fresh air and no squeezing and no stinking gases either. Life became so more bearable.

After his promotion pitch, Francis Manfred retired to the airport’s Starbucks Coffee to recoup his energy. He ordered a Caffe Latte and retreated to a corner where he could be alone and reflect back on his recent actions and catch up on his work. He was grilled to be sure. They wanted to know period of order time to delivery of parts, minimum value of each order, where parts were made, technical specifications, payment terms, currency acceptable, terms of contract and many more. Some he could reply off the cuff and some he needed to consult his head office and come back to them. Thus his reason being in Starbucks to punch a few emails on his laptop to his New York Head Office for a quick reply before another competitor picks up his slack. He should be back with KLM people within two hours. There beside the ashtray he sighted a white iphone 5S, looked quite new. He picked it up and pressed it on. With no password lock he swiped, but it was without owner’s details. He scrolled the screen and picked a name at random and called.

“Hello” said the other side.

He said, “ This is Francis Manfred. I found a mobile phone. The owner must have left behind at Starbucks at Schiphol Airport in Amsterdam. I just wanted to return it.”

“ I’m Linda, a friend of Anne Duncan. I don’t think she even realized the loss yet. I shall tell her when I see her. Francis, can you please hold on to it till I am able to communicate with her? This is a London phone.”

“Okay Linda, I don’t know how long her battery will last. I’ll give you my mobile number just in case. Its 21273 22913 I’m reachable there. I shall be in Amsterdam today and moving on to Paris tomorrow.”

“Francis, ten digits? Is it correct?”

“Yes, the number is of a New York mobile phone, should I not be answering, please leave a SMS (Short Message Service). I’ll get back once I’m available.”

“Francis, thank you for your honesty and your Good Samarian act. I’ll let Anne Duncan know and she’ll get back to you.” 

“No problem Linda. Nice talking to you, bye.”

“Bye” Linda said.

Francis put Anne Duncan mobile phone in his briefcase and carried on his emails. After that and a few hours later, his session continued with KLM people. In the evening, he took the KLM people, a total of four to the Cherry Blossom Chinese Restaurant inside the airport. The wallet can sense that his keeper was making progress and itself was enjoying the freedom in the coolness of his jacket. Around ten, Francis Manfred settled the bill with his American Express Card from his wallet and retired to his Airport Hotel for the night.

In his room Francis Manfred placed the two phones, her iphone 5S, his Sony Ericsson Xperia Z1(L39H) and wallet on the left hand bedside table. After his toilet rituals, continued on his beauty sleep.

Anne Duncan’s mobile phone started the conversation.

“I don’t belong here. This is not my place. I want to go back to Anne’s sling bag.”

“Shut up! Be happy my keeper was kind enough to inform your owner that he found you at Starbuck’s. Until he can arrange your transfer, be quiet and be thankful.” Said the wallet.

“Why should I shut up? I have every right to voice out my concern. I am just stating a fact that I don’t belong here and don’t want to be at your place.”

Sony Ericsson mobile phone stepped in, “ As this is not my fight, I shall let you two sort it out.” It just continued to doze on the standby mode.

The temperature in the hotel room was quite cold even with the centralized heating system. Francis Manfred slept in the warmth under his duck feather quilt and a few glasses of Red Wine helped. He snored loudly as usual while all three shivered on the bedside table.

iphone continued, “This is ridiculous, I’m so cold. If it were Anne, she would not have treated me like this.”

Wallet shot back, “ Be quiet! When in Rome do as the Romans do. If it were me I would have left you on the Starbuck’s Coffee table or dump you in the rubbish bin. On second thought to throw you away into the rubbish bin would have been better for all of us.”

“We iphones were designed by Steve Jobs and his team in the USA, that is if you got the brains to know who he was. Today my relative stretches all over the world. Some of my relations are also made in China and assembled in Taiwan too. Today we are the world’s most used mobile phones. We don’t need to communicate with peasants like you, it is too much below us.” 

“Oh, I like you. Who’s the peasant here? Look who’s talking? I am a especially designed pure calf leather wallet, handcrafted in Paris by the order of one of the Sheiks of Dubai and very few of us are in this world today, not the commoner like you.”

Sony Erickson mobile phone stepped in.

“Please do stop this nonsense. There is no end to your arguments. It’s making me sick. Enough please. Let us all rest what is left of the night. The temperature and his snoring is bad enough, let us not add any more misery.”

That said, the room was quiet except for his nonstop snoring. The call expected from London never came. At least the iphone was on standby, thus the battery drainage was slower. When it turned round, the wallet was well away in ninth heaven and needed no nudging. At long last all three were quiet again and waited for the morning. Francis Manfred got up at seven with the call from the concierge and packed his things. He looked at the iphone, as there were no messages or missed call, then he anchored it in his briefcase. His wallet and Sony Ericsson mobile phone were placed in his suit jacket. He dressed and packed his overnight bag and headed down for his complimentary breakfast, all ready to make his next hop to Paris.

Amsterdam, Paris and London are important cities and well covered by at least four or five Promotion Executives and Sales Managers. Francis Manfred was stepping in for a colleague on leave as his area being the Middle East. As stated grouped together, the three airports are their most important clients to their company and others in the business. His short hop to Paris was uneventful and Charles De Gaulle International Airport was busy as usual. He headed straight for the Air France’s repairs and maintenance departments. This was another mega carrier with more than 240 aircrafts. Similar to KLM but larger, their fleet consisted of Airbus A-318, 319, 320, 321, A330-200, A340-300, A380-800, Boeing 747-400, Boeing 777-200ER, 300ER, Boeing 747-ERF, Boeing 777F and others too many to specify. They have widebody, narrowbody aircrafts and much more. They serve together with KLM and also have a joint company. The stay in Paris required at least three days to see all the people who mattered. This is another airline, which never leaves their radar screen. Every three or four days Francis Manfred and his colleagues make a call there. Always willing to help with open arms and their opinions mattered. Their orders are important and part of their bread and butter and spares ordered value are worth millions of dollars every single year. He is ever mindful of his promotion, presentation and speech. He cannot make a mistake here, one wrong step and he knows he’ll be saying bye byes to his company. Each single hint or gesture by them is a microscopic issue and a negative expression cannot be tolerated. All three days lunches, dinners and two breakfasts were shared with Air France people. Frances worked on his laptop most of the nights alone in his hotel room with complimentary instant coffee packets for the room and slept three hours at the most each night. Coordinating their timely orders is of utmost importance. Ever smiling, doing the right promotion and be seen as a caring company 24/7 is the order of the day.

All three days there was not a call from Anne Duncan. It was not his concern and he’s done all he could. However, on the fourth morning before checking out from the hotel, there was a SMS on his mobile, furnishing a London mobile number signed Anne Duncan. Frances Manfred while checking out, requested the Front Deck whether he able use their mains charger for an iphone, if they have. He was not going to waste any money on account of her. The Front Deck gladly supplied the charger, which he connected to her mobile phone and called her back.

“Hello, may I speak to Anne Duncan?”

“This is she. Judging from the number on my screen you must be Francis Manfred. Correct?”

“Yes this is Francis Manfred. I’m just about to check out from my hotel and rush to my flight to Amman, Jordan. I should be in Heathrow London in about ten days maybe for a night or two. May I post your mobile then or what would you prefer?”

“Thank you Francis. Next ten days will be fine. Linda just told me yesterday evening when we met. Thank you again for your honesty and I am grateful as I just bought my iphone about a month ago. Do give me a call when you are in London. If it’s alright with you, I would like to buy you a lunch or dinner at your convenience. By the way I work for British Airways.”

“Okay I’ll give you a call when I’m in Heathrow. I also work in the air transport industry. No trouble, just being a good citizen. Thanks then, bye.”

“Thank you again Francis. Looking forward to your call, bye.”

After that, he put her iphone in his briefcase and rushed off to Charles De Gaulle Airport to catch a Royal Jordanian Airlines (RJ) flight to Amman. There, he checked into Amman Airport Hotel and prepared his promotion rounds. First being a call to RJ whose 32 aircrafts serve internationally and regionally. Queen Alia International Airport also serves by more than four regional Jordanian Airlines, which he intends to make a visit also. RJ is served by a fleet of Airbus A319, A320, A321, A330, A340 plus Embraer 175 and 195 also. The Middle East is Francis Manfred backyard and he is fully aware of their cultures and temperaments. He’s a busy man around these parts and dinners can be in the desert or at a five star hotel. The Middle Eastern men he knows are at home with young women with large boobs and big bottoms. Not his taste, thus was alternatively offered young men or boys, which he declined with respect. Nights in these parts were spent on his laptop communicating with his New York Head Office. His wallet being the home for his American Express Card is also extra busy here as all settlements will be on credit and payments to be settled by his Head Office. He just needed to prepare a statement whom he has a meal or meals with.

These days iphone has been rather quiet lying in his keeper briefcase and nights were less confrontational on the bedside table. Depending on the weather, the wallet still gets squeezed now and then. However due to its durability the wallet able take crushing experiences now and then. After spending four nights in Amman, Francis Manfred moved on to Cairo and Doha spending three nights at each city.

On arriving London Heathrow on Friday evening, with no prior appointments to attend to, Francis Manfred placed a call to Anne Duncan from a pay phone. Cheaper this way.

Anne answered, “Hello?”

“This is Francis Manfred, I just landed at Heathrow. How would you like me to attend to your mobile phone?”

“Welcome to London Francis. I am in the British Airways office on the fourth floor. Can I meet you at the arrival gate?”

“Fine. I am the guy in a Dark Blue Blazer and Black trouser holding a briefcase and an overnight bag. See you.”

“Coming down now. Bye.”

While standing outside the arrival gate, Francis saw a pretty young lady offering her hand wearing a dark blue suit in high heels.

“Hi I am Anne Duncan, thank you for your trouble. Awfully nice of you to give me my iphone back. Dinner okay?”

He took out the iphone from his briefcase and handed back to her. Anne’s mobile phone was pleased to be back in her sling bag where it was roomy, warm and not too difficult to breathe. He shook Anne Duncan right hand and cannot hide his joy after being about ten days in the Middle East.

“Hello Anne, I was in my mind not going to accept your dinner, but after seeing you, may I do the honour of inviting you for dinner. Chinese or Indian?”

Anne Duncan smiled and said, “ Why? Thank you, Chinese please.”

It looks as though his wallet and her mobile phone can now be friends after all.