Saturday March 16th
“On behalf of the rest of the crew, I would like to welcome you to Bogota Colombia. We are approaching El Dorado airport and will be landing in the next few minutes. We wish you an enjoyable stay and thank you for flying…”
Vixen tuned out the captain’s voice as she peered out the small window of the airplane. Rolling her neck, she straightens up in the seat and returns it to its upright position. Stowing her tray in its place, she picks up the seatbelt and clinches it over her lap and then lets her hands move to the seat arms. Even though she flies everywhere, Vixen still couldn’t cope with the landings.
“We are making the approach to el Dorado airport. Please fasten your seatbelts,” says the voice of one of the stewards. At the warning, Vixen’s eyes slowly close tightly as her hands clutch at the seat arm knuckles whitening. Vixen murmurs with her fear as she feels the descent of the plane. With one final gasp, she holds her breath as the squeal of the wheels on the tarmac can be heard. Once the squeal fades, Vixen takes a gulping breath and pries her fingers from the seat arm as the lady across the aisle looks at her and chuckles.
“First time you are flying miss?” the elderly lady asks as she pats Vixen’s hand. “I am an old hand at this and you have nothing to worry about.”
Vixen shakes her head as she smiles at the lady. “Nope, not first time flying, just hate the landings,” she comments with her own shaky laugh. Looking out the window, Vixen can see bunkers along the runway, seeing every third one having someone on its roof, a weapon in their hands as they watch the plane taxi towards the airport. Counting along the thirteen mile runway, Vixen noted about twenty soldiers watching the plane taxi in.
The plane finally stops at the terminal and the passengers disembark from the plane. As one of the last passengers, Vixen grabs her overnight bag from the overhead storage and then wheels it towards the door where the smiling stewardess is standing. “Hope you have a great stay here,” she says as Vixen passes her, waving as she does.
Stepping out onto the tarmac, Vixen takes a deep breath, the thinness of the air not feeling like she took as deep a breath at all. She heads inside the terminal noting as she does that her breathing is shallower and it was harder to breathe and walk faster. Finally, she arrives at the luggage rack and grabs her matching bag and goes to the entrance of the airport. Looking through the crowd of drivers with signs, she spies a cab and makes her way towards it. The driver gets out of the car and helps her put the luggage into the back and then climbs back into the car. “Where you go?” asks the cabbie.
Vixen reaches into her bag and pulls out a piece of paper. “I want to go to the Hacienda Royale,” Vixen says. Leaning back in the car she tries to relax. As she does, the cab driver can be heard talking to himself it seems. Vixen closes her eyes, cracking them open for only a few seconds to see him with an earpiece for a cell phone in his ear.
“Si, Senorita Vixen in my cab,” he gleefully says. “SI, she is muy caliente.”
Vixen chuckles and again closes her eyes. Breathing in and out slowly, she gets comfortable in the vehicle. Only moments later, the cab pulls up in front of the hotel. Vixen gets out of the car as the driver rushes to grab her bags. He puts them in front of her and then dives into the car and grabs the picture from the paper. “Can you sign dis?” he asks. Vixen nods and reaches for the page and then gives the driver a look. He sheepishly holds out a pen and she takes it and signs before handing back the page. He grasps her hand that is handing back the page and shakes it violently. “Gracias senorita, gracias!” he exclaims. He gets back into the cab and leaves the hotel drive with his voice raised as he rants to someone on his cellphone.
Vixen heads inside and gets checked in. Lead to the elevator, she heads up to her room with a young Spanish man who doesn’t really talk, being starstruck at being in the elevator with one of the wrestlers. He finally turns to Vixen and begins to speak. “You are Vixen si?”
“Yes, I’m Vixen,” she answers. He grins and then nods. “You are a luchadora si? I have tickets to see Sin City Wrestling. I cheer for you.” The elevator opens and he walks her bags to her door. Opening the door, he wheels them in and then waits to talk again, still very excited. “You have main event and you win title.”
“I hope to,” she comments softly as she reaches into the bag at the foot of her bed. Grabbing a few pesos, she puts them into the hands of the bellhop. “But we both know that I am going to be doing my best to beat Magni but he is a tough wrestler and he can take a beating. I am pretty sure though that he thinks that with the win at WrestleClassic, he knows just how to beat me. But I may have dominated that match only to lose but this time, I know what I am getting into and I know with the air being so thin here, I need to get prepared for this match in the thin air. Speaking of getting prepared, is there a gym around the hotel?”
The bellhop thinks for a moment and shrugs. Since he doesn’t know, Vixen smiles and guides him out of her room, turning after closing the door and trying to draw a deep breath as the scene fades out.
Early morning, Sunday March 17
Getting to the roadway in front of the Hacienda Royale hotel, Vixen pulls her hair up into a ponytail. Once she finishes, she begins to jog along the street, her breathing laboured almost from the beginning. Shaking her head she continues to jog but is forced to slow down. Finally she stops, wiping at her head as she gasps for breath.
“I don’t understand this,” says Vixen who straightens up and looks around. Heading back to the hotel, she can only walk as the thin air doesn’t allow for a deep breath at all. Finally she gets back and walks into the hotel. “I thought I would be ready for this but this thin air is not good for strenuous activity right now. And I need to be ready to take on Magni in like a week.”
Once she gets back to her room, she hears the phone in her bag ringing and rushes to pick up the phone. Answering it, breathless, she listens to the voice on the other end. “Don’t worry Devlin, I know that I have the title defense coming up and I am preparing for it,” she says before listening again. “Devlin, the air is thin here since we are like in the middle of the Andes. I want to make sure that I am not going to lose my wind in the middle of the match.”
Reaching into the small fridge in the room, she pulls out a bottle of water, sipping it slowly as she listens again. Finally, she interrupts her brother who is ranting at something about the title match. “I know that Magni is going to try to pull the same deal from WrestleClassic and he is probably going to talk about that all the time in preparing for this match but if I know him, he is probably still back in Canada doing what he does best. Me, I am here in Bogota getting myself acclimated to the atmosphere. And to do that, I need to get out and working out. I love you Dev.”
Hanging up the phone, she grabs her bag and decides to do the feminine tourist thing and shop. And how convenient was it that the Hacienda Santa Barbara mall was attached to the hotel. Walking through, Vixen looks at the windows of the mall stores. Working to speed up, she can tell when the air gets to her. Walking around the mall, Vixen shops and searches through the stores, occasionally stopping to buy one or two things.
Slowing down again, she saunters towards the food court. Sitting on the third level, Vixen goes to the counter of a restaurant. Ordering her lunch, she then goes and sits on one of the seats facing the open area. As she does, she pulls out a book and begins to read. Suddenly, a child’s face appears in front of her then disappears again. Surprised, Vixen looks over the railing to see the child’s face appear before her again, a squealing laugh escaping the boy. Looking at the boy, Vixen is amazed as she sees the child with a pair of bungees attached to his waist. He is bouncing on a trampoline and being helped to bounce higher.
“Ostie, that is so dangerous,” she mutters to herself. The child finally stops with the bungees stopped high up on the pair of poles. Vixen quickly grabs her camera and takes a picture of the child who is swinging on the bungees. “No one will believe this back home.”
As she wonders at the boy, her food comes to her on a sizzling platter. Muttering gracias, she puts her camera back in the bag and begins to eat.
Tuesday March 19
A camera view is seen as Vixen steps into view and smiles.
“Magni, I hope you know that I have been prepared for this match. You managed to pull out the win at our last match but I want you to realize something right now. I know that you will be coming here for the weekend where you will face me in MY home federation for your title. I came down to Bogota to prepare because there is something that you maybe didn’t think about. Bogota is eight thousand feet above sea level and the air is pretty thin up here,” she says.
With her smile confident, she continues. “With the fact that the air is so thin, it takes a bit to get use to the thin air. And that will mean that when we get into the ring, I might just have a bit of an advantage because I will have been here for a full week and will be more use to the thin air. So when you lose your breath in the match, just remember, preparation might just make it that much easier for me to beat you in the ring.”
“But Magni, I am not going to put you down because I have seen what you can do in the ring. I have respect for you but one has to realize that I am not going to underestimate you where you are probably underestimating me. This title match is in MY home federation and in a place where I have made myself comfortable. And I still have five days to get more use to this thin air. So trust me Magni,” Vixen states as she crosses her legs and holds on to her knee, “this time this match is going to have a different ending and that means that I am going to be walking out with the title.”
With that, she moves out of the camera view then the camera goes to black. But in the background, the sound of a cell phone's dial pad is heard then a voice is heard, "Hi Spike, can I speak to Eden, want to wish her a happy birthday."
