SECRETS OF THE PAST
Chapter Seven
Over the next few years, Jack
learned at Embry Riddle and graduated at the top of his class. Rose had
graduated from Harvard and ended up meeting a boy there, so Jack knew that she
was now dating someone else. He got his FAA license and his real Pan Am ID. It
said Frank Abagnale, Jr. on it. There was no Jack on it. Jack had his first
flight at eight o'clock in the morning to Florida. He put on his suit and
headed out of his new apartment to the airport.
Carl Hanratty was going to Los
Angeles for a vacation. He bumped into a man similar to Frank Abagnale.
"Frank Abagnale?" He
looked at him.
"Yes?" Jack turned
around.
"You're under arrest. I
caught you twenty years ago, and you're still playing this charade." Carl
held his gun on Jack.
"Sorry. Do I know you?"
Jack had no idea who he was.
"Carl Hanratty, FBI,"
Carl said.
"You're Carl, the one who
chased my father and caught him?" Jack asked.
"Your father?" Carl was
confused.
"Yes. Frank Abagnale, my
father. I am Frank Abagnale, Jr. II. See, look." He showed him the
photograph of him and his father at graduation from Embry Riddle.
"I am so sorry, Frank,"
Carl apologized.
"No problem. We often get
confused. That's why my father calls me Jack." He smiled at the man.
"I am so sorry, Jack. It's
good to know that one of you is a real pilot," Carl said, feeling kind of
like he was being lied to.
"Sorry. I must go. I am
late." Jack ran.
"No problem. See you, Jack.
Good luck." He waved good-bye to him.
Jack waved and rushed to his
flight.
He rushed to the counter and
showed his ID. "Frank Abagnale reporting."
"Ah…Mr. Abagnale, your
flight was canceled. You are going to France," the manager told him.
He hopped aboard the plane and
sat at the controls. He announced himself on the PA.
"I am Frank Abagnale, your
pilot. Please sit back and enjoy the ride." He smiled at the others.
"I always wanted to say that," Jack told them.
He turned the 747 onto the
runway.
"I'm ready to go. Do we have
clearance?" he asked the tower as he put on his headset.
"All check. You are ready to
go, FA143." The tower gave him his clearance.
The plane ran down the runway and
Jack pushed the gear to ascend into the sky.
His co-pilot, Tony Howard, sat by
his side.
*****
Carl Hanratty called the FBI to
check out Frank ‘Jack' Abagnale's story. Sure enough, everything was clear. He
had graduated Alpha Maude Riddle at the top of his class.
Carl smiled. Frank may have been
a criminal, but his son was a true man, with real wings.
Carl went ahead and went to his
hotel. He was glad one of the Abagnales had been successful.
*****
Jack Abagnale had never seen such
a pretty sky.
The stewardess came in.
"Would you guys like anything?"
Jack turned around and saw the
most beautiful woman he had ever seen.
"Frank?" She saw those
eyes again.
"Yeah. I am Frank
Abagnale." He smiled at her.
He put the plane on autopilot and
went to converse with the stewardess. Frank told Tony he would be back soon.
"Hello, Frank." She
smiled at him.
"Hello." He blushed.
"Monique. Remember?"
She stood there, filling her tray for the passengers.
"No, I don't." He had
no clue.
"Well, maybe you will
remember this." She kissed him, French style.
He loved the kiss. He kissed her
again, deeper than before.
"Wow," Monique said.
"You kiss like a prince."
"I wouldn't know," he
joked.
"Believe me. You do."
Monique did know. She had been with the prince.
He got back to the controls, and
told her to meet him when they got to Paris.
She agreed.
He wasn't sure if she had
confused him with his father, but she sure was a looker. He wouldn't give her
up. No way. No how.
Tony didn't know much about Jack,
so he asked him a few questions.
"Hey, Frank?" Tony
looked over at him.
"Yeah?" He looked up at
him.
"What do you know how to
fly?" he asked, out of curiosity.
"A variety of planes, actually.
I fly Boeing 747's, DC 8's, 707's, 727's, and 377's." He knew a lot more,
but didn't care to name them all.
"Wow. Where did you go to
school?" he asked.
"Embry Riddle. Graduated at
the top of my class." Frank positioned himself into a comfortable
position.
"Wow. I went to Embry
Riddle, also, but I never made it to the top of my class." Tony looked at
the controls.
"Really, Tony?" He had
never known Tony at Embry.
"Yeah. What made you get
into flying?" Tony asked.
"My father, actually."
He remembered the old pilot uniform.
"He was a pilot for Pan
Am?" Tony now knew that flying was in the family.
"No, he was a pretend pilot
and co-pilot," Frank answered him.
"What do you mean?"
Tony was confused.
"Frank Abagnale, my father,
was a con man. He ripped off two point one million dollars pretending to be a
co-pilot, a sociology teacher, a doctor, and a lawyer." He hated that he
had to mention his father as a con man.
"Did he go to prison?"
Tony stared at him.
"Yeah. He went to this one
hellhole, which was actually a hole, as my father described it. He told me they
caught him in France, and threw him into a place called the House of Arrest.
They threw him into a cell about five feet high and I guess about five feet
wide. There was no toilet, no bed, and they threw him in there naked for a
year. They hardly fed him, his body was full of scabs, and it was dark. It
really was hell. He ended up getting lice, as well, and his toilet was a bucket
they hardly ever cleaned out. He never wanted to experience anything like that
again. He said also that if you even whistled or talked that you would get
beaten up." Jack was afraid of going to France.
"Wow! Frank, remind me to
never do anything bad in France." Tony patted him on the shoulder.
"I just hope they don't get
me in France, since I look like my dad. All his schemes could get me into a lot
of trouble." Jack lay back the next couple of hours, until they reached
France.
*****
When they reached France, Monique
was waiting at the gate for Jack.
He waved to her.
"Frank, I want back the
money you owe me." Monique was angry since she had last met Jack.
"What money?" He looked
at her weirdly.
"Frank, let me remind
you." She grabbed him by the tie and led him to the closest hotel.
When they got to the hotel,
Monique threw him on the bed.
"I want my money, Frank, and
I want it now." She got something out of her purse and held a small pistol
on him.
"I don't know what you're
talking about." He was scared.
"Sure you don't, Frank."
Monique got closer to him.
"I seriously don't,
miss." He closed his eyes.
"Frank, you remember who I
am, don't you?" She put her hands on her hips.
"I don't know who the hell
you think you are, lady, but I am not Frank Abagnale. At least, not the one you
think you know." Jack knew this had something to do with his father.
"Don't joke with me,
Frank." Monique was losing patience with him.
"I am not, miss. You must be
confusing me with my father, Frank Abagnale. He looks just like me. I
swear." Jack took out his wallet.
"You got proof?" she
asked.
He took out the photo again and
showed her.
"I am so sorry, sir."
She looked at the picture and remembered Frank.
"It's all right. I am
getting a lot of that lately." He sat on the edge of the bed.
"So, you're Frank's
son?" She looked at him. They looked almost identical.
"Yeah. Frank Abagnale, Jr.
II. He calls me Jack, and it has stuck. That's why I prefer it more than
Frank." Jack got up.
"I am so sorry, Jack. I am
Monique. Your father conned me out of fourteen hundred dollars." She
looked at him.
"I will pay my father's
debt." He gave her a check, although the last time she had taken a check
from an Abagnale, it had been a counterfeit. She asked for the money by hand.
"I don't take checks. Why
don't you go cash one downstairs?" She had learned her lesson.
"All right." She went
with him, so he wouldn't bail on her.
"I would like to cash a
check for fourteen hundred dollars." Jack presented the check.
"All right." The lady
cashed the check and gave him fourteen hundred dollars.
"Here you go." He
handed Monique the money.
"Thank you, Jack." She
didn't need to count it.
"You're welcome,
Monique," he said, leaving her.
"Come on. You deserve a
night of pleasure." She figured that was the least she could do.
"What do you mean?" he
asked.
"Come with me and I will
show you, Jack." Monique grabbed his hand.
*****
They went back to the room.
She took his shirt off.
"I remember what a good time
your father and I had. You see, Jack, I am a prostitute. High class, actually.
I don't sleep with everybody." She walked around the room.
"I see. So, my father conned
a hooker. As he called it, hooking the hooker." He remembered what his
father had told him about that.
"I should be mad, but it has
been twenty years since I've seen him. How is he?" she asked.
"He's good. He has Robert
and I, and his wife, Angelina. We are good." Jack sat there on the bed,
wondering what her intentions were.
"I gather his wife isn't
your mother?" she asked.
"Nope. She isn't, but she
raised me. I love her just as though she was my real mom." That was no
lie.
"Who's Robert?" She
went and sat next to him.
"Robert Abagnale is my
brother. We are not full blood, but we are related. I love him. He's going to
Princeton. He got a full scholarship to be a doctor, even though he doesn't
need the money. I guess I didn't want to go, because I had Rose." He
regretted not going.
"Rose?" she asked, out
of curiosity.
"Yeah. Rose DeWitt-Bukater,
my ex-girlfriend. She went to Harvard to become a lawyer. I met her once there,
dressed like a pilot, even though I wasn't one at that time. I only played
Frank Williams once, after my dad caught me, that is." He lay down.
"You miss her, don't
you?" Monique lay down with him.
"Not anymore. We broke up. I
found out through her roommate and a letter that she had met someone
else." He hated that Rose had done that to him.
"You must have been
crushed." Monique turned to him.
"I was, but not after I met
you." He smiled at her.
Jack moved over to kiss her, and
they ended up having sex that night, the best Jack had ever had.
*****
The next morning, Jack woke up,
and Monique was gone.
He got up and put on his normal
clothes, since he wasn't flying anywhere. By the time he got out of the room,
it was checkout time. He collected his stuff and decided to sightsee like a
normal tourist would.
He went to the nearest museum,
the Louvre.
Jack walked around the museum,
viewing the sculptures and paintings. He stopped at the famous Mona Lisa.
He admired the artwork of
Leonardo da Vinci. He was a great painter. He loved art.
He walked around some more, and
heard a familiar voice.
"Hey, Jason, don't you love
this?" A familiar redhead pointed to the statue of David.
"Yeah. It's great."
Jason walked up to the sculpture to get a closer look.
"Hello, Rose." Jack
walked up to them, and decided not to be rude.
"Jack?" Rose saw him
first.
"Yes, Rose. It's me,"
he said.
She went to hug him.
Jason noticed the way she was
looking at Jack.
"Hello," Jason said.
"Oh, how can I be so rude?
Jack, this is Jason." They shook hands as Rose introduced them.
"So, Jack, what do you
do?" Jason asked.
"I fly planes. I'm a pilot
for Pan Am." He looked at Jason. He was nothing like he had expected.
"A pilot? I thought that was
a joke just to see me," Rose said.
"No, Rose. I was gonna tell
you, but you didn't seem interested." He remembered her letter.
She knew she had hurt him very
badly by that remark.
"Well, I've got to be going.
I have a flight soon. I just wanted to see the famous painting Mona Lisa."
He turned to walk away.
"Do you have a girlfriend,
Jack?" Jason asked him.
"Not at the moment, but I
met a real interesting woman last night. She was exquisite," he said,
thinking of Monique.
"What's her name?" Rose
asked.
"Monique Dubois," he
said, answering her question.
"Ah…a French girl."
Rose wasn't surprised that he was dating a French girl.
"Yeah. She was really
awesome." Jack rubbed Rose's face in the fact that he was seeing someone
else. "Well, see you." Jack left, and as he was leaving, Rose decided
to ask Jack to stay and have dinner with her. Even though she had Jason, she
still loved Jack. Jack agreed, since his flight was tomorrow anyway. She asked
him to bring along Monique as his date.