A Chicagoan in Phoenix

by Split Scimitar

Our Pasts Through the Ages

Now that I’m back in SoCal, I can get a tentative plan together over my use of March, having bought it in order to keep my client reach and by extension my own commutes for leisure easier, so that I’m not slave to the conditions of Cajon Pass or Newhall Pass.

This does mean I’ll be changing my permanent residence, and for good reason as I just mentioned. However, what I need to determine is which ships need to be parked at March based obviously on client demand and frequency of trips. Because of this expansion, I’ve been randomly assigning trips and ships. Once everything stabilizes, I can assign ships to clients, so then both parties can “customize [the ship] as seen fit.” For now though, I need to reach out to my clients and see how often they might hire me to prioritize the ships that belong at March.

Because this weekend is a holiday, Presidents’ Day to be exact, I’m marking yet another Valentine’s Day without Rosalina, although we did spend “galentine’s day” traveling back to Hawaii. Suffice it to say, even though I’ve been itching to do long haul flights, the last two trips were more taxing than I expected.

---

*text – 42m ago – Sunset Shimmer*

“Hey Max, do you want to hang out over the long weekend?”

“Yeah. I’ll go to Phoenix. I haven’t been in a long time, and there’s stuff I like to do over there.”

“Sweet! I get off work at 6:00 on Friday.” She responds some 15 minutes later.

“I’ll be there by then, then. Two words: Chicago. Pizza.”

“Yeah, Princess Twilight couldn’t stop talking about it. Sounds like you showed her a good time.”

“She seemed to enjoy herself. I’m heavily biased for obvious reasons. Applejack also chose Chicago pizza anyway, so it worked out nicely.”

“In that case, let’s plan on it.

“You know, we’ve never done anything alone together. Just the two of us, if you know what I mean.”

“You’re right. We haven’t.”

“Don’t take this the wrong way, but you have no idea how great I feel knowing we’ll be hanging out.”

“I know exactly how you feel. I look forward to it too!”

“I’ll call you tonight.“

“Just let me know when you’re free.”

“Perfect!”

With that, I decide to head down to Riverside and survey the field. I have brand new furniture coming in next weekend, so if I want to sleep there, I’m just on an air mattress for the time being.

Since my fridge is at a cyclical low in terms of inventory, I grab my air mattress and head to Ancho’s in Riverside for dinner. Very much a favorite of mine and my family’s, I spend quite a bit of time – most of the drive down from Victorville – deciding which entrée I’m feeling tonight.

By the time I place the order, I’m still indecisive, but instead order one now and my other choice to go just in case I don’t want to cook for another meal tomorrow.

Having taken advantage of an early bird dinner (at like 16:00), Sunset calls well after I’ve eaten.

“Hello?”

“Hey Max, Sunset, how are you doing?”

“Not too bad, yourself?”

“I’m doing well. Excited for this weekend.”

“As am I.”

“Oh, one sec.”

Based on the background white noise, it sounds like she just got home.

“Okay, can you hear me? I just switched off of Bluetooth.”

“I’ve gotchu.”

“Cool. So, what time do you think you’ll arrive tomorrow?”

“No later than 18:00. Tryna beat Friday rush.”

“Yeah, you need to.”

“[Los] Angeles rush over here. Preaching to the choir.”

“You know exactly what I’m talking about then.”

“Yeah I do. Point is I’ll be in by dinner time.”

“I’m holding you to that.”

“I’ll be driving in. Not really worth the hourlong hop, and Phoenix airspace can get nightmarishly busy.”

“That’s fine. I wasn’t planning on going anywhere far anyway.”

“Yay. Um, I have a house in Phoenix, so you don’t need to bother with making space for me.”

“I have more than 1 bedroom. It wouldn’t be a problem. Where’s your house?”

“On the country club.”

“No way! I live close by there. Which side of the course?”

“Don’t remember. Been a while since I was there.”

“Well then, looks like we have a bit of catching up to do.”

“It’ll be easier to talk to each other since it’s just us.”

“Very true. So, um, do you want to plan something now or kind of play it by ear?”

“It’ll probably be easier for us to see how we feel. Just so that at least I don’t feel forced to meet an obligation.”

“Fair point. Plus, if it’s Chicago pizza I’m always on about, probably best not to enjoy them back-to-back. I don’t know if you’ve been to either Gino’s East or Lou Malnati’s, but I’m a huge fan of the latter.”

“That’s what AJ said.”

“So you have an idea of what to expect, especially since we did that thanksgiving in Chicago.”

“I haven’t been to Lou Malnati’s here, but my coworkers mostly prefer Gino’s East. We do company picnics there.”

“Nice. So you know pretty much what to expect.”

“Yeah.”

“Well, I’ll take that as a good thing. You have an idea of what you like. Makes for an easier time ordering.”

“True, but I like trying new things from time to time.”

“Well, we shall see.”

“Sweet.”

“I’ll let you know when I leave. When it comes to road trips, I don’t stop much. My endurance at the wheel is often greater than the fuel tank.”

“Very true.” She giggles.

“Well, I don’t want to hold you if you have any plans for now.”

“No, no. I’m home for the night.”

“Alrighty then, I have to make a quick run out. I need to figure out which airplanes need priority parking at my new airport. Do you plan on flying anywhere with me more or less frequently in your mind?”

“Umm… I don’t think so. I haven’t ever hired you before.”

“And if memory serves me correctly, of your friends, you may be the only one left to do so. Even Starlight has hired me once already.”

“Wow. She really gets around doesn’t she?”

“In all fairness though, you live in Phoenix, and admittedly I don’t know you as well as I would like. Maybe if this weekend works out, we can change that.”

“Well, I would be happy to.”

“Great. I’ll see you tomorrow evening then.”

“Yeah.”

“G’night Sunset.”

“Night Max. Bye.”

“Bye.”

With that, I start a new list of clients and ships, so that whenever I can, I can begin assigning ships to clients.

---

Next morning, I work up a bit of an appetite taking all but 10 minutes packing, so my enthusiastically diverse breakfast consists of a single apple. In case we go somewhere fancy, I bring a pilot uniform and blazer in lieu of a suit since I’m more comfortable in my work duds.

Once everything’s all packed, I shut the car’s boot and take a good look at the license plate before making my way out, ‘SHEDMN’.

Very aptly, the car that bears the plate is an 840 horsepower factory stock Dodge Challenger, aka… the Demon. Some of my cars are female, and this is one of them. The car is also red, TorRed, so it fits.

After I top off with petrol, I grab lunch of a Double-Double and Animal Fries from In-N-Out and a Chocolate Cake Shake from Portillo’s, enjoying the former on site then getting the latter via drive thru so I can enjoy it along with a bottle of water (it’s very chocolatey) for the drive to the Valley of the Sun.

CA-60 thence via I-10 all the way in. Estimated 4 hours 40 minutes. Challenge accepted.

An average of about 20 MPG highway for a car with 840 horsepower, all of which are usable thanks to me using the master key, is pretty good, especially considering that the car is built for standing quarter miles and can do wheelies. From a running start at about 60, it still forces my head back when I put my foot down.

Highway 111 towards Palm Springs and the exits for Palm Desert, Cathedral City, and Indio pass by relatively quickly, since I’m rather familiar with that stretch of I-10, and they’re the last real signs of civilization before Blythe.

Through Chiriaco Summit and Desert Center, the latter being the main turnoff for those heading to Lake Havasu, I make good time to Blythe, where I make a quick stop to stretch and dump trash.

When I get back onto the on-ramp, I of course give it the beans as it’s the last exit before crossing the Colorado River. When I cross the bridge, I maintain a cruise speed of 79 to go as fast as I want to without posing grave danger of getting profiled by police.

Now comes arguably the most grueling part of the drive, rolling hills of Arizona nothingness. Don’t get me wrong, I love the red rocks and appreciate the beauty of this desert, as the majesty of it is truly something to behold, *especially at sunset.* However, because I-10 is a long and straight road with nothing to see until the area considered greater Phoenix, I’ve had issues with either needing to go to the bathroom or falling asleep as a passenger. Since I’m driving however, if either of those situations should occur, I can make adjustments accordingly, since I can either increase my speed or start snacking or have a drink.

As I mildly weave, only increasing my aggression to pass the semis, autos with trailers, or otherwise slow movers, I soon approach Buckeye and decide to reduce my pace to about 72 as the amount of traffic on the roads increases. The local time of 14:28 puts me just outside the start of rush, but Friday rush can be unpredictable.

Sure enough, right around Glendale, traffic on I-10 West is, depending on whose traffic mode you reference, either yellow/orange or red. Granted, there is an incident off to the shoulder, which is probably responsible for some of the congestion.

Nevertheless, I take advantage of CarPlay and call Sunset.

“Hi, you’ve reached Sunset Shimmer, please leave a message and I’ll get back to you.”

“Oh well.” I say after I hang up. “Must be busy.”

Suddenly, I hit the brakes as we head into the Papago tunnel. That’s my cue to start sliding over so I can hit the exit towards my house. Thankfully, the only reason we slow is because of the tunnel vision, meaning the sudden increase in brightness from emerging on the other end of the tunnel is blinding to drivers. I take advantage and get over to the first exit out of the tunnel, hot braking for others who are also taking the exit and jumping off either at the last minute or when it should’ve been too late.

I neutrally let a couple of those drivers in since they want the right lane, and after they jump, I miss the green light but am first in line in my lane.

Watching the multitudes of cars heading south down the road, I breathe a nice sigh of relief since I’m in Phoenix as Friday rush hour traffic is about to begin. As soon as the light turns green, I head for home.

As soon as I get settled and unpacked, I have a drink of water and wait to see about Sunset. She doesn’t get off work for another couple hours, so at least I can rest from the drive over.

After I finish the bottles of water I packed for the road, I get a text from Sunset.

“Sorry. Got me at a bad time. Come meet me at my office and we can go from there.”

Following that is her address and a hyperlink to Maps. I click on it and find it about 15 miles away from home, near Camelback. I don’t even need to get on the freeway.

When I roll in, I find a space next to a familiar Nissan 370Z. Being located in a plaza, her office isn’t the first one to spot. When I find it though, I walk in to the waiting room, where a receptionist greets me.

Just then, the door opens and two women step out along with Sunset, who’s talking to one of them.

“You’re both making really great progress. Go ahead and schedule your follow-up appointments and then you’ll be good to go.”

“Thank you Sunset. It feels so nice to be able to tackle these issues of perfectionism.” The other says on their behalf.

“I just can’t believe we let our desire to be the best get the best of us.”

“We even wrote a song about it.”

“Hey, it can happen to anyone.” Sunset replies.

The two then schedule their next appointment with the receptionist while Sunset and I greet each other with a tighter than normal hug.

“Hey Max! Glad you’re here!”

“Glad to be here. Haven’t been to Arizona outside of the airport since I bought my house here.”

“So, anywhere in mind for tonight?” She asks as she waves goodbye to her clients.

“Well, do you want Gino’s or Lou’s?”

“We don’t need to go to Gino’s. We always do company picnics there.”

“Alrighty then. Lou’s?”

“And we can get Culver’s for dessert.”

“I love Culver’s!”

“Sweet. You have good taste.”

After the receptionist closes up shop, we head for the closest Lou’s, one of a few locations in Phoenix, and only a few miles from the office.

When we arrive, our estimated wait time is about an hour and a half. I mean, it’s a Friday, the Friday before Presidents’ Day weekend. Nowhere in the Phoenix Metro is there gonna be a wait below 45 minutes.

“Well, you wanna go to the bar?”

“Nah. It’s crowded too.”

“You want to wait outside?”

“Nah. I’m cool waiting here.”

“Well, in the spirit of the surrounding occasions, I’d say we could talk about things but that’s not exactly the easiest thing to do in this situation.”

She giggles. “That’s okay. We’ll have a few days to do that anyway. Good thing we chose Lou’s tonight. Since we did have Lou’s when we were in Chicago.”

“Exactly. And that was the original location. This is just for comparison purposes to that. Besides, since we’re kind of following my list, Gino’s, Portillo’s, and Culver’s round out the midwestern portion of this trip. Other places I always go to are Waffle House and Shake Shack. California doesn’t have any Waffle Houses.”

“That’s too bad.”

“Well, I’ll tell you what. If Lou’s, Gino’s, Culver’s, and Waffle House are reasons enough to come here more often, at least I can add one more to the list. You.”

“Aww.” She blushes. “I do keep myself busy with work though. Running a psychiatry practice is pretty time-consuming from a daily standpoint.”

“I thought you were a psychologist.”

“Eh, yes and no.“

“But weren’t you talking to those clients of yours?”

“Psychiatrists can do talk therapy. And I used to practice psychology. I chose to move into psychiatry only recently.”

“Yeah, but don’t you study the inner workings of the brain rather than treating behaviors or whatnot?”

“Yes. I know the confusion. Of course, it doesn’t help that I studied both psychology and psychiatry when I was in college, but you know.“

“Yeah. I do.”

As we continue to talk, we eventually grab seats in the waiting area, but occupy them for less than 2 minutes, as my name is called.

When we get seated in a booth, Sunset sits across from me and says, “I’ll let you order. I trust your cravings, especially because you did good in Chicago.”

“I… I’m feeling kind of meaty.”

“I don’t mind eating meat.” She replies semi-reluctantly.

“You eat meat now?”

“I try not to.”

“I know you had chicken when we had dinner in New York.”

“Yeah. That was because I wanted to. Diet and exercise change. At the time.”

“Don’t take this the wrong way, but I don’t see any reason to change your diet or exercise regimen. You look great.”

“I didn’t need to, just figured I’d try something new.”

“Oh. Alright.”

“Good evening, welcome to Lou Malnati’s. How are we doing?”

“Good, how are you?” I respond.

“I’m not too bad. Dinner rush is all.”

“I feel ya!” Sunset interjects. “I used to work at a sushi place in Scottsdale.”

“Nice!”

“I’ll try and make life easy for you then.” I say.

“That’s alright. What will we have to drink?”

“Water’s fine.” I say first.

“Can I get a lemonade?”

“Regular, pink, or strawberry?”

“Pink.”

“You got it. Be right back!”

“Where were we?” Sunset asks.

“We were on the topic of diet.” I say suppressing a slight déjà vu.

“Oh. Yeah, I wanted to see what would happen if I increased protein in my diet. At the time, I was struggling with bloating.”

“I can understand that, though in my case it’s usually aggravated by traveling.”

“How would you keep weight down then if you made a career out of it?”

“Haha, good question. I was always big growing up. Then after I got sick of being unable to keep weight off, and motivated by horrendous and incessant fat shaming, I got a gastric sleeve, a lap band, and a gastric bypass.“

“Oh my goodness. How did you survive all those procedures?”

“I got them incrementally. First the lap band, to curb hunger pangs and discourage me snacking. Then the bypass since the lap band already constricted the stomach opening. The sleeve then followed not shortly after. Three countermeasures to stop me from eating more than I needed to. They were also intended to help with my blood pressure. I dropped half my body weight, which is exactly what I wanted, but my blood pressure is still high.”

“Aw.”

“Just the curse of being me. Long and deep family history.”

We get our drinks and place the order. For Sunset’s sake, I order The “Lou” because despite my build, I’m craving a vegetable pizza.

“That’s unfortunate.”

“Yeah. On both sides of my family, with one or two exceptions, everyone I’m related to has died of either a heart attack or stroke. The one exception was from sleep apnea, and the other was killed in Bataan during the Japanese invasion of the Philippines in World War II.”

“Geez. I’m sorry.”

“I don’t let it get me down. It just means I have to hope that I don’t become another statistic. Of course, with the amount of stress my life has given me, among other things, it isn’t exactly helping.”

“Yeah. Talk about life stress. It’s not easy to run a practice like mine.”

“How long have you been there?”

“I took over as head a few years ago, but the previous owner didn’t run it well. It’s been in financial trouble since I began, so I’ve had quite the uphill battle myself.”

“I see. Well, I’m just glad you were able to rescue it.”

“So am I.”

“Isn’t it great to be able to bond over our own career struggles?” I say as I half-raise my glass.

“Yep.” She says as she clinks hers with mine.

As we continue to wait, we start talking about our careers. Since Sunset wanted to understand how people tick, and how the brain reacts to stimuli, she chose to study both psychology and psychiatry, going for her doctorate in the former.

Soon, our pizza comes, and because of the recent holiday, how else would it arrive but in the shape of a heart.

Sunset goes red as her hair before the mistake is caught.

“Oh my!” Our server exclaims. “This was for another table. Sorry!”

We all share laughs over it as it’s taken away.

“Sorry!” I exclaim. “I’m not that forward.”

Still bright red, she reassures me with, “no no, yeah, I know. That was kind of cute though.”

“They are cutesy. They’re on special until the Sunday following Hearts and Hands day.”

“Hearts and hands?”

“I tried.”

Sunset then laughs. “Oh my. I haven’t been back in a long time. I’ve been wanting to, too.”

“Funnily enough, the now former Princess Celestia and Luna want me to. Luna specifically said she wanted to see the nightmares I had after the family disowned me.”

“You’ve told a few stories about your family. When did they disown you?”

“It became an official disownment when I attempted suicide.”

“Seriously?”

“Yeah. Because not only was I a bastard for, or rather, not fit to be in the family by not going into the medical field to begin with, or in their words, ‘something with good money,’ attempting suicide was the, um, nail in the coffin.”

“Your family disowned you because you attempted suicide?”

“Yep.”

“That’s fucked up.”

“Don’t you speak about my family like that.”

“They drove you to suicide, dumped you when you actually did it, and yet you still speak highly of them?”

“‘Friends are fleeting, but family is forever.’”

“The pot said to the kettle.”

“Excuse me?!“

“Family is forever, they said, but when you needed them most, they spat on you.”

“Because “I betrayed them.” I wanted something they didn’t, and I got mad because they said no.”

“I can understand that. I had the exact same thing happen to me. I wanted something I wasn’t meant to have, and when I was denied, I retaliated. And who pays the price?”

“Us.” I utter out as memories start to resurface.

“Yeah. I got plenty of flak for that.” Sunset says.

“I can imagine. They tried everything in their power to get my head out of the clouds. ‘Being a pilot is a great second choice,’ they said, ‘but you need something with more job security.’ Meaning, a *guaranteed* six-figure salary. ‘You want to be a pilot? Ha! That’s so preposterous.’”

“You do now. You have enough money for anything and everything you could ever want.”

“It truly is a miracle I never married a gold digger. It’s like I’m not even in the family. And never was.”

“I’m sorry.”

“I was very much spoiled rotten otherwise.” I shrug. “It’s where my sense of entitlement comes from.”

“Entitlement? I can see it, but I wouldn’t call you entitled.”

“I was willing to give up my social life for a fully loaded résumé. Looking back, I did give up my friends, and my résumé looks like it belongs in the reject pile.”

“But you’ve made it so far since then.”

“Yeah.” I nod. “I remember though when I first got into the thick of pilot training: ‘in a perfect world,’ I would tell myself, ‘I would’ve had all my licenses and flight instructor permits by the time I graduated except for ATP. 7 certificates I could exercise before I qualified for the airlines.’”

“Sounds ambitious.”

“It really was. Undoubtedly overambitious as a matter of fact. I also distinctly remember telling myself, “if I had the opportunity, I would’ve said ‘all those certificates by 21, but I would give up my social life.’ My friends would see me as antisocial. I’d be super engrossed in my studies.”

“You were willing to give up your friends for your career?”

“No. I was willing to give up my social life for my career. And you know what? It happened anyway. I graduated late, lost the airline career opportunity of a lifetime, and lost my friends in the process.”

“You have Twilight, Rarity, Fluttershy, Pinkie, Applejack, me… Rosalina, and what about Melody and her family? They still love you.”

“I really shouldn’t be complaining, but I gave up a lot to try and make the most for my career. And not only did I have to settle for a consolation prize, I drove myself to suicide, lost my friends, and then my family not long after that.

“Sunset,” I then sigh, “I don’t have much in my life to be proud of; but at least I can say I did it.”

“And what did it cost?” She asks with a sinister smirk.

“Everything.”