Chapter 9

The days rolled by to Easter it had been a short week and I canceled open mic I told Kim I did not have time to prepare besides I had another Denton trip on my mind. She understood and told me to be prepared the following week. I grinned and agreed as we hung out near the computer lab at Dickey Hall. Donna offered to watch the café while I was gone. She had less of a home to return to then I. My folk's home in Denton was simply a place where I went to lay my head while I saw friends I was missing.

The flight to Denton was fun and as I was fueling my airplane at Fox 51 a familiar face rolled up in a cup waiting to use the pump after I did. I stood there momentarily stunned as she got out of her dad's Piper Cub and I heard the comment, "Nice wings Ace. You bought em?" I recognized the voice the voice of naivete the dilemma of to destroy or not to destroy. I replied, "Graduation gift along with the Backroads Buzzard's cafe." I stood on the ladder topping off the left tank eyeballing the tank and trying not to be rude. I was finished and I wheeled the steel ladder over the grounding cable to the right side of the airplane. I heard Ellen respond, "You mean the place where the whacked out missionary pilot committed suicide." She had approached the subject matter with the delicate touch of a sledgehammer. I responded, " Yep I built it I own it. By the way if you must spin a Cessna 182 deliberately and definitely don't spin it below 1500 agl. I had a raw grin on my face she did not see I at as funny. Laughing about it sure beat crying about it though. I continued That though has been the only crash and there have been an estimated thousand successful takeoffs and landings of customers." She then asked if the food was any good. I told her, "Why don't you and your dad take y'alls Cessna 185 down there one weekend and find out. I can tell you that the burger is cooked over Mesquite and oak." She then commented, "I'll just take the Cub down and say hi next weekend." I replied, "Sounds like a winner to me." I looped the long fuel hose and put the long nozzle back in its holster and quickly disconnected the grounding cable from the strut of the main gear. She gave a friendly wave as I got a hold of the tail lifted it up and swung the airplane one hundred eighty degrees so it was now facing the taxiway I had taxied in on. I started the airplane and found a tie down spot near Air Denton. I went inside the small office paid for three days of tie down and my father picked me up.

That Easter flew by. I was once again hanging out with friends from Denton and I was enjoying myself. The low point came on Easter as I borrowed the car and drove to church alone. I sat through the service alone. I felt odd I was the only person there without a family sitting besides me. The divide between my parents and I was once again made crystal clear.

Monday arrived mercifully and that morning I was back at the airport heading home. As the airplane was near Lampasas just for kicks I tuned my VOR to 108 and tuned flicked over to have it play through my headset. I was listening to Texas Rebel Radio. It was a little distorted. I shouted in the airplane, "Thank God I'm home!" As I crossed over Fredricksburg while setting a slow descent into Kerrville I found myself singing an old familiar song: "I tried hard to tell you I was now kind of dancer you took my hand to prove I was wrong got in me gently though I thought I would never we were dancing together at the end of the song." Robert Earl Keen I sighed is one great songwriter.

I went back to my dorm and started brain storming for my speech and debate tournament essay. I could think of the gags they were a dime a dozen. One of the biggest gags was C/X speak. C/X speak is not so much a foreign language as it is an endless stream of semi organized Bs read at an unbelievably high rate of speed designed to confuse even the most rational mind with pointless hot air, all being done with long meaningless pointless non communicative sentences such as the one you are reading. I had the sentence but making it work from a grammatical standpoint was pain. I also had combine with a blunt description of the mind altering effects of caffeine sleep deprivation punctuated by moments of extreme mental stimulation followed hours of boredom. All the elements present at speech and debate tournaments created wild events where people where suits could be seen tossing airplanes around or be found playing with bright hunter orange yo-yos. Neil Young's "Edge Of Night" was the perfect sound track for the events that for first timers were more hallucination then real event. A real potent gag was Friday eleven or so at night announce to the crowd in the cafeteria, " You are not here this is a dream you will wake up in your sixth period social studies class this dream is a product of a sick and twisted mind." The real reason why the statement arose both ire and laughter was simply because at that hour one felt as if one was suspended in a dream and the sights and sounds of a speech and debate tournament are in and of themselves surreal. The work was entertaining to say the least as I had fond drive down memory lane as Neil Young played from my stereo in the background. It helped flush forward many a memory.

The next open Mic was thoroughly entertaining. A couple of locals joined in spouting cowboy poetry and played old cowboy tunes. I found myself blissing out on more than one occasion. The more quiet locals stayed to hear the cowboy poetry and tolerated Kim's work. After my essay I had a couple concerned parents say that that were taking their kid's out of speech and debate. I told them I considered speech and debate one of the best things from my High School career. I was operating at my very limits of mental endurance and stress tolerance. I was put under the burner and was forced to adapt. Speech and Debate tournaments were the main reason why I was prepared for college and the assault on my belief system. John Huddleton at his sharpest was a dull debate compared to those I had in the cafeteria of Plano High School. One understood the other did not.

The rest of the week passed by fairly rapidly. It was a clear cool day when I saw a Piper Cub in the pattern ahead of me. I got the radio on 122.75 and asked "Ellen is that you on base for The Backroadsbuzzard Cafe." I heard her respond "Yep." She elegantly turned final as I turned base. I watched her taxi off and as I was on final and I made one of my better landings. After I taxied in she helped me tie down the airplane.

She ordered a burger and coke. I went right to work and it was up for her. We chatted and then she told me"Oh by the way I have a new friend Rachael Doughterty she will be my roommate at college." I turned towards Donna and her face said it all. Ellen was still clueless. I looked to Donna knowing that she had the finesse to pull this off or I hoped she did anyway. Donna read my face as well. Donna started out "I would watch my back if I were you." Ellen asked why Donna responded trying hard not to laugh when she referred to me by my nickname: "Ace tells me you were on the same crosscountry team together." Ellen was still clueless while Donna was slowing and gently coming into firing position :"Well you know how Ace loved and hated New Braunfels?" Ellen responded with a quiet "Yes." Well let's just say Rachael and her manipulation of the system was responsible for some of the fire." Ellen looked at Donna with a scared baffled look that I had seen many a time. She responded, "Well she seems nice to me besides how do you know about her?" The end of my junior year I had been taken by the dark side of New Braunfels I was too part the fuel in that raging inferno behind Ace's eyes." Ellen was more confused now and getting hostile Donna realizing her finesse was not working handed it off to me I felt hopeless knowing that full blast would do nothing to the situation other than adding legitimacy to the statement "we did all we could." I looked Ellen dead in the eyes as I said "Ellen you want to be Mrs. Airline pilot you are in a world where ideas kill. I don't need to list names grow up stop running to daddy for your shelter. You are no better than any of us just cursed harder both Donna and I learned that sin was deadly early on. Grow up before it's too late and you become like Kat." Ellen looked at me and said, "You always scared my dad you and Donna are just losers." She finished her burger and left. I did not even bother to watch. I just hoped she saw the remains scorch marks from the cafe's opening day. I hoped she realized that the person who did was once like her. Donna looked at me as I uttered "Damn!" She asked what I was cursing? "I should have given that lecture a year or more ago", I said angrily. She then said, "You did what you had to do. Destroying Ellen would have destroyed what you felt you were fighting for. She was a reminder of innocence and you drew from her hope even if it was a false hope." She then had this sly grin I have a remaining source in New Braunfels.

I asked her "What?!" A quiet grin was on her face as she uttered, "Don't you know talking about a revolution and yes the tables are turning." The look was even more baffled on my face. Donna continued "Dr. Camposilas is going to run for school board things have gotten so bad that the winds of change will finally howl through Hotel Unicorn." I was hanging on baited breath, "Your aunt and a group of yuppies are going to support him it will be a battle along with the Hispanics from the West End but it just might work." I shouted, "Viva la revolucion!" Donna grinned and asked "Are you ready to dance of the graves of Doug Erin and Madaline if she is dead?" I replied ,"On their bodies and by their senseless deaths finally hope that the madness will end." Donna looked at me we poured two cups coffee and said simply "That is a toast." I raised my cup and said, "To the memories of Doug Erin and others if you are dead a revolution is gathering may it set right the wrongs that ruined your lives." We touched cups and drank the warm fluid-soothing deep down inside. Donna then made a comment "The battle is not ours." I replied, "If it succeeds the victory will be we fought when the cause was lost and others took our place we can pray for it but our time on that battlefield is over with we did our time we tried the best we could to carry out the mission. Let's cheer on the winds of change."