I never met him… but he shot at me anyway

“I saw the flash.

Then something white came tumbling past the left side of the cockpit so close I instinctively ducked.

A deafening bang.

The Mirage shuddered so violently I thought it would shake itself to pieces.

It all happened so quickly I was still trying to understand what had happened.

Miraculously…

I was still flying.

But only just.

Training took over.

I turned for home, opened the throttles and pushed the aircraft down onto the deck, skimming the treetops at over 750 knots.

Then I heard my flight leader’s voice in my headset.

‘You’ve been hit.

You’re leaking fuel badly…

…and you’ve lost your landing parachute.'”

Arthur Piercy and Alberto Ley Rivas never met that day.

They never exchanged a word.

They didn’t know one another’s names.

In fact, they knew almost nothing about each other.

Yet both young men had been sent into the sky with the same impossible task.

If the moment came… each had been trained to kill the other.

Not because they hated each other.

Not because either had done the other any wrong.

Simply because history had placed them on opposite sides of a war.

Against all odds, Arthur nursed his crippled Mirage hundreds of kilometres back towards home.

Every warning light demanded his attention.

Every mile felt borrowed.

Somehow, he reached the runway.

He touched down safely.

But he was carrying too much speed.

Without the drag parachute to slow the aircraft, the Mirage thundered through the arrestor barrier. The nose wheel collapsed. The aircraft dug into the ground and finally came to a stop.

For one brief moment…

He thought he’d made it.

Then the ejection seat fired.

Instead of sending him upwards, it launched him forward like an artillery shell.

Arthur survived.

But the injuries would change his life forever.

That alone would be an extraordinary story.

But it isn’t the part that has stayed with me.

Over the years, Arthur found himself thinking about the man who had shot him down.

Not with anger.

Not with resentment.

Simply with curiosity.

Which is incredible as Arthur had lost the use of his legs on that day

Who was he?

Did he survive the war?

What kind of man had he become?

Remarkably, Alberto too had been thinking about that day.

His questions weren’t the ones you might expect.

He never wondered whether he’d won.

Or whether he’d completed the mission.

He wondered…

Did the pilot make it home?

I’ve thought about that a great deal.

Here were two young men who had never chosen each other as enemies.

Neither carried any personal hatred towards the other.

Neither had a score to settle.

They had never even met.

They were simply doing what duty required of them.

And when the war was over…

What remained wasn’t bitterness.

It was respect.

I find that deeply moving.

Because it reminds me how easily we confuse circumstances with character.

How quickly we decide that someone on the opposite side of an argument…

A disagreement…

Or a difficult moment…

Must somehow be against us.

Must somehow be the enemy.

Perhaps they aren’t.

Perhaps they’re simply another person trying to do the best they can with the life they’ve been given.

When Arthur and Alberto eventually met decades later, they didn’t meet as enemies.

They met as two men who understood something very few others could.

The fear of engagement

The courage.

The responsibility.

The weight of decisions made in chaotic moments that would echo for the rest of their lives.

That there is another human being in the aircraft you are trying to shoot down

Strip away the uniforms.

Strip away the politics.

Strip away the history.

What remains…

…are two young men.

Both frightened.

Both courageous.

Both hoping to make it home.

That connection reached across miles, across time and in their friendship they found far more in common with one another than they did differences.

They remain friends to this day.

One of the reasons I’ve always loved fragrance is that it reminds me that every person has a story.

We might notice the fragrance they wear.

But we cannot know the life they’ve lived.

The fears they’ve faced.

The sacrifices they’ve made.

The people they’ve loved.

The moments that shaped them long before our paths crossed.

This week, I hope I remember that.

To be a little slower to judge.

A little quicker to be curious.

Because sometimes, on the other side of a stranger…

Is simply another human being.

If You’re Curious to Explore

One of the wonderful things about fragrance is the way it quietly accompanies the people we meet and the moments we share.

Whether you’re discovering something new or adding another favourite to your wardrobe, we’d love to help you find a fragrance with a story of its own.

This week you can enjoy:

5 × 2ml samples for R100
3 × 10ml fragrances for R200

Or, if you’ve already found a few favourites:

Any 3 × 50ml fragrances for R675 to begin building a wardrobe you’ll enjoy reaching for.

Until next time

Rob

"Wearing perfume is like presenting yourself to others in olfactory technicolor."

Marian Bendeth

I never met him… but he shot at me anyway

If You’re Curious to Explore

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