Hokuma Aliyeva flitted through the skies hundreds of times on Azerbaijan Airlines. One of those times the plane almost crashed. But it did not, and so in her mind it never would, certainly not flight 8243 from Baku to Grozny, an hour and a half hop on Christmas day.
However, Aliyeva was primed as anyone to know that nothing is certain. A graduate of Baku State University, she was a lawyer before she became a flight attendant. It is unclear why she changed careers, maybe the need to satisfy some unfettered wanderlust.
A drastic change came, nonetheless.
Everything was not as it always had been. Vladimir Putin’s craven insecurity put Aliyeva and the plane she was stewarding in the crossfire of a senseless war, its tail wing pockmarked with anti-drone fire, its hydraulics battered. The pilots maneuvered. A passenger said of the plane, "It was as if it was drunk - not the same plane anymore."
As the fuselage twisted in the sky, Aliyeva, likely because she’d been here before told the truth she believed over the plane’s intercom, imploring passengers to stay calm, declaring, “Everything will be fine.”
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November 1st, 2023 I brewed a double Nespresso and threw in a hint of hazelnut creamer as I have about 300+ times a year for at least the last five.
I flipped open my work laptop. Because I am internet geriatric I checked the modern version of the National Enquirer, the Yahoo landing page. I avoided the clickbait Taylor Swift stories and instead looked in on my beloved Detroit Red Wings.
I put on an Illini t-shirt that morning. It made me look like a neon pumpkin. I was a Michigan grad. Why would I commit such an atrocity? We had just toured the university with my son. I was excited that despite Illinois governments long history of corruption and financial malfeasance, that there was still a world class educational institution in our backyard that had “reasonable” tuition costs.
I was in year eight of my current job. I’d never had better work/life balance. I was very good at it.
A random “all hands” meeting was called. My previous meeting ran over, so I joined the “all hands” late. The meeting which had started five minutes earlier was already over.
Thirty seconds later I received a pop-up window on my laptop.
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Ivan Valdez, a son of Logan Square enlisted in the Marines, worked his way up to corporal over six years before discharging and studying to be a chef at Kendall college. He joined the kitchens of Lobo Rey and Quiote. He worked for The Fifty/50 group becoming an accomplished chef de cuisine for Homestead on the Roof on Chicago Avenue in the summer of 2020.
And then his mom fell ill.