The Boxcar Blues (26 page)

John Sullivan drove to the Albuquerque
airport and asked the operations clerk, “I need to locate Catwalk.
Is he on flight status?”

“
Yes, sir. He’s R.O.N. in
Phoenix and he’ll be coming back on an early morning flight; flight
eighty-four leaves at six thirty.”

“
Thank you. Our pilots
stay at the Arizona Biltmore, don’t they?”

“
Uh, he has to stay at the
Stratford Arms, sir.”

Sullivan knew the word of Catwalk’s firing
would spread like wildfire and he didn’t want him to hear it
through idle conversation. He walked into a vacant office, dialed
the hotel and asked for Mr. Jackson’s room.

“
Hello.”

“
Catwalk, this is John
Sullivan. How are you tonight?”

Catwalk immediately knew something was
wrong. There was no reason for Sullivan to call him unless he had
bad news. He worried that something had happened to Barney.

“
I’m fine, John. Is there
a problem?”

“
Catwalk, there was a
board meeting tonight. It was scheduled at the last minute so
Barney couldn’t attend. A vote was taken and you are no longer the
president of Rocky Mountain Airways. You have been reassigned as
the Director of Personnel and Training.”

The news infuriated, upset and insulted
Catwalk, but it didn’t surprise him. When your position requires
that you make the difficult management decisions, you have to focus
on the future, and in which direction trends are moving the
company. You can’t afford surprises. He’d seen the changes in the
board and with each new member, he knew the board was moving toward
a more conservative, and socially acceptable management style. He
asked, “Who is the new president?”

“
Theodore Davis,
Franklin’s son.”

“
And they asked you to
tell me so they didn’t have to face me, right?”

“
I called so you’d find
out about it firsthand rather than through gossip.”

“
John, I appreciate the
call. Does Barney know about this?”

“
No, he
doesn’t.”

“
I’ll call him. Good
night.”

Catwalk hung up the phone and walked over to
the window. Looking out over Central Avenue, he thought about the
obstacles he’d overcome and the monumental progress he’d made at
the airline. Nobody could take that away from him. Those
achievements were his no matter what happened and this brought a
measure of comfort. Then he thought about his future. He had a
feeling that he wouldn’t stay with Rocky Mountain Airways much
longer. Regardless, he should call Barney before it got any
later.

When Barney answered he said, “Barney, this
is Cat. I just got a call from John Sullivan. A board meeting was
held tonight and I’m no longer president of Rocky Mountain.”

“
Those God damned sons a’
bitches! It’s Davis and his bunch. I knew they were going to pull
something like this. It’s a good damned thing I can’t move or I’d
kick some ass.”

“
Take it easy, Barney.
You’re taking this worse than I did.”

“
Those gutless bastards
make me sick. What are you going to do?”

“
Well, I was just thinking
about that. They want to reassign me as Director of Personnel and
Training, but I don’t want that job if we have an inexperienced man
at the top. I wouldn’t get any support with the tough battles, such
as with the unions or the politicians at the Civil Aeronautics
Board. This will soon be an airline that I’d not like to work for
anymore.”

“
I know what you mean,
son. Every change lately takes the company in a direction I don’t
want it to go. Well, don’t do anything rash. Give this a lot of
thought before you make a decision. I’m coming out to Albuquerque
in the next few days because I want to tell some people just what I
think of them. We’ll talk then.”

“
Good night.”

Catwalk then sat down and wrote his Momma.
Without going into particulars, he mentioned that he was caught up
in a racially motivated struggle; a struggle in which they both
knew the odds were stacked against him. He mentioned that he might
not be working for this airline much longer.

Then, for the first time in his life, he
walked down stairs and went to the bar. The bartender, a tall
handsome black man about fifty took his order, “Bourbon on the
rocks please.”

When the bartender brought his drink, he
said, “You’re the guy that runs Rocky Mountain Airlines, ain’t
you?”

“
Yeah, that’s me.” Catwalk
reached across the bar and shook his hand. “Catwalk Jackson. How
are you tonight?”

“
Harry Porter, and I’m
fine. Say, I’ve seen your picture in the paper and read stories
about you, and I have to ask, how’d a young black man ever get to
be president of an airline?”

Catwalk took a sip of the bourbon. It felt
good, burning off the misery as it went down. He said, “Well,
Harry. I met an exceptionally good man, and I was in the right
place at the right time when the airline was started, so I grew up
with it. That’s all there is to it.”

“
Dang. That’s got to be a
cushy job, flying all over the place and seeing different cities.
I’ll bet you wouldn’t give that up for the world.”

Catwalk grinned and said, “You never know,
Harry. Sometimes things just aren’t what they seem to be.”

Catwalk flew back to Albuquerque the next
morning. Without coming to a conclusion, he thought about his
future for the entire flight. He knew, compared to the rest of the
country, how good he had it, and he was apprehensive about throwing
in the towel on his career. His job was a one in a million and he’d
never get another like it. In fact, if he resigned from the
airline, even though he had over five thousand hours flying time,
he didn’t think he could get hired as a line pilot for another
carrier, much less as a senior executive. One man’s desire to move
his son into a position, for which he wasn’t qualified, had
completely upset his life, and there wasn’t a thing he could do
about it.

After landing, he checked his schedule to
make sure he still had two days off. He saw a message that said to
call Curly at a long distance number. He dialed and waited, then
recognized Curly’s voice. After last night it felt good to hear his
old friend.

Catwalk said, “I suppose you’re looking for
a flying job.”

“
Hey Cat, how you doin’,
man?”

“
I’m O.K., how about
you?”

“
I’m ready to get off this
farm, Cat. How are things at the airline?”

Catwalk told him the entire story of
Barney’s accident, becoming president of the airline and his
downfall at the hands of the board of directors. He admitted he
wasn’t sure what the future held for him.

“
Those fuckin’ bastards.
Good thing I ain’t there. I’d wipe the floor with their faces. Are
you serious about quitting?”

“
Dead serious, but I want
to talk to Barney some more first. I owe him that much.”

“
So here we are, two out
of work pilots. Why don’t we buy one of the Jennys off Barney and
go out barnstorming?”

“
Because people aren’t
paying to see that anymore. Speaking of barnstorming, Billy Sue is
working for the airline. She’s the Vice President of Market
Planning.”

“
No kidding. Tell her I
said hi.”

“
I will. I’ll tell her to
tell your son hi too.”

A prolonged silence. Then Curly said, “Are
you shitting me?”

“
No. She brought him to
the farm a couple months after you left. His name is
David.”

“
Why didn’t she tell
me?”

“
She thought you’d be no
more interested in raising a child than you were about getting
married, and trying to get some help from you would be futile.
She’s doing fine by herself.”

“
Oh Jesus! I feel terrible
that she thought that of me, Cat. I guess she had me pegged right
though. I feel like the world’s biggest jerk.”

Catwalk didn’t agree with him because of
their time on the road when Curly’s support during some life
threatening predicaments had earned him a lifetime of tolerance for
his human imperfections. He said, “Curly, you’re not the world’s
biggest jerk, but you have your moments. Why don’t you give her a
call. Here’s her work number….”

“
I can’t give her any
money, we’re just scraping by out here.”

“
She knows that, but I
still think you should call her.”

“
I will. Listen, you let
me know as soon as you decide what you’re going to do,
O.K..”

“
Sure thing, Curly.” The
call to his old friend had definitely helped Catwalk’s disposition.
It hadn’t, however, pushed him any closer to an answer to the
question: What was he going to do with his life?

CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR

Barney, as Catwalk knew he would, tried to
talk him out of resigning. “What are you going to do? You know how
hard jobs are to come by. Are you going to go back on the
barnstorming circuit?”

“
I’ve been thinking about
going up to Alaska.”

Barney looked at him like he’d lost his
mind. “Alaska? What are you going to do up there, besides freeze
your tail off?”

“
I’ll put in an
application with Wein-Alaska Airlines and if I don’t get hired I’ll
look for a job flying the bush. From the articles I’ve read, the
depression hasn’t had as much impact up there, and their racial
attitudes are very liberal.”

Barney said nothing; he couldn’t blame Cat
for wanting to get far away. The recent events had turned his
stomach and he wasn’t sure he wanted to be associated with the
airline anymore, even though he was the founder.

“
Well, you’ve got a good
head on your shoulders, so you’ll make the right decision. Have you
told you Mom yet?”

“
I wrote her last night
and I’m going out there for a few days. I haven’t seen the house
since Cecil finished it.”

“
I know how she’ll feel
and she’ll be immensely proud of you, Cat, because of everything
you’ve done, right square in the face of adversity. The undoing was
not your fault and she knows that better than anyone. Did you tell
her you’re going to Alaska?”

“
Not yet because I‘m not
sure myself. There’s another pilot from upstate New York that might
go up there with me.”

Even after his sudden departure, Barney
didn’t dislike Curly, so he was sincere when he asked, “How’s Curly
doing?”

“
He’s ready to leave the
farm. His brothers are running the place again, and they’re
beginning to show a profit. Curly’s ready to return to
flying.”

“
I just hope he doesn’t
drink like he used to. That liquor will do a man in faster than
anything. Listen, take one of the Jennys. Nobody flies them
anymore. If you decide to fly the bush, you might be able to trade
it in on a Norseman, or something suitable for that
weather.”

“
Can I buy it off
you?”

“
No. You’ve paid for it
ten times over, Cat. Just take it and fly safe.”

Catwalk tendered his resignation, then
worked at Rocky Mountain Airways for another two weeks. Prior to
his reassignment, he’d been busy making sure the airline conformed
to the new Civil Air Regulations that would soon be effective.
They’d been given a six month grace period, but he wanted to get it
done as soon as possible, and didn’t want to leave it for the
incoming president regardless of the circumstances. Among his
decisions about his future, he’d also decided he wasn’t burning any
bridges and he was leaving his job with as much professional
dignity as possible. He was going out, but it would be with his
head held high.

Theodore Davis, his replacement, showed up
at ten in the morning on his last day. From the moment he walked in
the office, Davis made it plain to Catwalk that he didn’t need any
help in assuming the position of president of the company. Catwalk
saw it for what it was, a white man that was too good to get help
from a black man. He didn’t let this bother him, but he felt sorry
for the employees of the airline because he knew this was a guy who
didn’t give a damn about them. Their working environment would
slide steadily downhill.

During their brief conversation, Davis saw
the Jenny sitting on the ramp and asked, “Who flies that old
relic?”

“
I do. Have you ever flown
in a Curtis Jenny?”

“
No, actually, I don’t fly
that much. I guess I’ll have to now.”

“
Care to take a spin
around the pattern? It’s just like riding in a sports
roadster.”

“
Sure, why
not.”

On the ramp Catwalk said, “You can sit in
the rear so you don’t get as much wind in your face.”

Catwalk took off and flew to an area ten
miles south of the airport. Then with a wide grin on his face, he
went into his acrobatic routine, wrenching the Jenny through the
maneuvers with as much ferocity as he could coax out of the plane.
By the time he finished the second loop Davis was puking his guts
out and screaming for him to stop. Catwalk was laughing so hard
that tears filled his eyes.

Oblivious to Davis’ misery he continued his
routine for another five minutes, then landed. When he parked, he
turned to Davis and said, “It’s hard to hear anything from the
front cockpit, did you say something?”

Davis, covered with his breakfast and red
with rage, was visibly shaking as he said, “You…!!”