The Boxcar Blues (30 page)

“
You gonna cut through
Moose Pass and fly the west side of the Kenai Mountains, or stay on
the leeward side?”

Fighting the controls and struggling to see
through a rain soaked windshield, Curly said, “We’ll see how it
looks when we get to the pass. I think we’d be better off to stay
on this side of the mountains.”

“
Yeah, I’d rather die in
the ocean than slam into a mountain.”

Curly looked at Catwalk to see how serious
he was and said, “Would you really?”

“
Sure. Drowning is
supposed to be peaceful.”

Curly jammed the throttle forward as a
downdraft threatened to drive the plane into the surf. The engine
revved and after precious seconds they climbed back to a safe
altitude, where he retarded the throttle before they climbed into
the overcast. He then watched as a spit of land passed by and the
wind increased from the west. They were over open water at the
south end of Prince William Sound, and he steered into a thirty
degree crab just to hold their course. Without his protection of
the shallow water close to shore, the rolling swells were getting
dangerously close.

Several minutes later, fighting to keep the
plane above the spray of the swells and below the storm clouds, he
said, “Who says drowning is peaceful? If someone drowns, how the
hell are they going to tell you it’s peaceful? Can you answer
that?”

Ignoring his question, Catwalk said,
“There’s some islands up ahead and one of them’s got some pretty
good hills on it.”

“
I know, but there ain’t
no way we’ll see them until we see the surf starting to
break.”

Several minutes later, Catwalk said, “There,
at eleven o’clock. Shallow water.”

Curly saw the water beginning to break over
the reefs and steered to the west to avoid the hills on the island.
A bolt of lightning crashed in front of them, hitting the island.
Both men instinctively turned away from the flash. Curly shouted,
“Shit, that was close!”

“
I don’t think it hit us.
All the instruments look O.K.”

“
I ain’t so sure this was
a good idea, Cat.”

“
We’re doing all
right—except for the ice.”

Curly turned to look at the leading edge of
the wing. He saw the shiny glow of a thin coat of clear ice. It
wasn’t bad now, but he knew it could accumulate enough to spoil the
lift of their wings—before they could find a place to land.

Reading his mind, Catwalk said, “If we need
to land, we’re coming up on Seward, but I don’t think we can find
the field in this stuff. Probably have to set it down on the
beach.”

“
I’m climbing into the
weather to see if it helps.” Curly advanced the throttle and the
water below disappeared as they ascended into the
clouds.

Watching the compass, Catwalk told him,
“Thirty degrees left.” Flying in the weather, their one objective
was to stay away from the mountains—they had to stay over water. To
that end he had to make sure Curly didn’t get pre-occupied with the
ice and drift toward land.

Curly looked at the wing, then told Cat,
“The ice has disappeared; that’s in our favor.”

Cat said, “If the ice becomes a problem
again, at least we know how to get rid of it.”

Curly slowly descended out of the weather,
but found himself over the angry, turbulent water of the open sea.
Again, he let the plane slowly drift toward land until he saw the
breaking surf.

At the end of the Kenai Peninsula, Curly
turned west-northwest, toward Homer and into the teeth of the wind.
They had a quarter of a tank of fuel left and Catwalk summed up
their situation. “We’re not going to land with a lot of fuel
left.”

“
If we land with a pint
left, that’s just fine by me.”

Forty five minutes later, they saw the field
a half a mile inland. With his fuel gauge on empty, Curly slammed
onto the dirt runway and chopped power. They breathed easier, but
still, the storm threatened to flip them over. Taxiing in, he said,
“We’re halfway, partner.”

“
Yeah, but if we refuel in
this rain, we risk getting water in the fuel tank.”

“
I’ll see if they got a
tarp we can throw over us while we fill the tank.”

Catwalk stayed in the plane to study the
chart for his leg of the flight. Once they got to Kodiak, he wanted
to be able to find the town with no delay. Curly walked into the
line shack and a tall, young man in white overalls said, “You must
be Curly Levitz.”

“
That’s right.”

“
Hank called and said, ‘If
you guys end up drowned in the ocean or dead on the side of a
mountain, you’re both fired.’”

“
I figured as much. You
got a tarp we can use to cover us while we refuel?”

“
I can’t believe you guys
flew over in this stuff. You must be nuts.”

“
We ain’t got a lot of
time, friend.”

The man took him outside where he handed
Curly a folded canvas tarp. He then gave them a hand holding it in
place while they refueled under the cover of the tarp. Catwalk
noticed the storm was not letting up and most of his leg would be
over open water.

After refueling and a quick cup of coffee,
Catwalk departed into the same weather they’d fought on the first
leg; fifty to sixty knot winds, driving rain, and now sleet, which
meant the rain was freezing, and their chances of icing up were
increasing. After he passed the fishing settlement of Port Graham,
they were over open water and the swells seemed to leap up at the
plane, trying to smack it, as if to say, “You’ll pay for this
foolishness.”

Once he found a comfortable altitude, just
above the swell and just below the overcast, he felt better for a
while. It was always in the back of his mind, however, that the
condition of the seas or the level of the cloud bases could change
in an instant, and there was always the chance that they could
encounter a rogue wave that could knock them out of the sky. They
were completely at the mercy of the storm.

He looked over at Curly and remembered that
day in the box car several years ago. During their run from the law
that followed, he was thankful to have Curly by his side and he
felt the same comfort at his presence now. He said, “You think this
is better or worse than running from Jones and the railroad
bulls?”

“
This is much better.
Ain’t anyone shooting at us and we got plenty to eat.”

In spite of having to wrestle with the
controls to hold his course and altitude, Catwalk smiled. They’d
come a long way since those days and he wondered, where were they
going?

He returned his thoughts to the storm
because the wind seemed to increase and the plane was being thrown
around like a kite. Then, he and Curly heard it at the same time;
in unison they said, “A miss!” Curly reiterated, “God damned
engine’s missing. What do you think it is? You think some water got
in the fuel?”

Catwalk listened and watched the tachometer.
He said, “It doesn’t sound like fuel contamination. I’d say a plug
wired got shorted by the rain.”

“
One ain’t bad. We could
fly to Hawaii with one bad cylinder, but if it gets worse, we’d
better prepare to ditch.”

“
How far from land are
we?”

“
Twenty miles.” As soon as
he said it two lightning strikes lit up the sky in the windshield.
Crack!—Ka-boom! Two loud crashes reverberated through the cockpit.
The engine was still missing but it seemed like there were longer
intervals between the misses; or was this just wishful thinking.
He’d learned from experience that when you’re flying in a high
pressure situation, you often hear things that aren’t there and
don’t hear things that you’d prefer didn’t exist.

Ten minutes later they saw the surf crashing
on the northern shore of Shuyak Island. Catwalk headed for the
shoreline and felt relieved that the worst part of the flight was
over. He and Curly looked at each other. Both of them felt like the
worst was behind them, but neither of them wanted to jinx the
flight by saying anything.

Catwalk felt the wind let up. He thought it
was due to the high terrain to their right and knew, even though he
had less wind, he’d have to be careful of downdrafts.

They’d just crossed the inlet between the
islands when Curly said, “The town is right up ahead, we got it
made partner.”

“
Not so fast.” And just as
he said it, the engine started running rougher, then it quit. In
the deadening silence, Catwalk looked for a level spot on the
beach, but the rain still limited visibility to a hundred feet or
so.

Curly shouted, “There after those boulders,
the beach is as flat as a pool table.”

Catwalk saw the spot and began to flare the
plane to land. The wheels had just touched down when he saw an
unbelievable sight.

“
Son of a bitch!” Curly
yelled.

Catwalk stood on the brakes but the fallen
tree, no bigger around than his waist, was laying across the beach
and coming up too fast. His wheels hit the tree trunk and the nose
went over. In a grinding crunch, the propeller dug into the
sand.

Catwalk felt blood on his face. Then he felt
the gash on his forehead from the dash board. He thought, if that’s
all that’s wrong, I’m O.K.

He looked at Curly, who also had some small
cuts on his face where his head had slammed into the instruments.
He said, “You O.K.?”

Curly looked at him and actually had a smile
on his face. “Wait ‘til I find the dumb bastard that put that tree
there.”

“
I guess you’re
O.K.?”

“
I’m fine. And we made it,
Cat! God damn it, we did it. Now all we gotta do it take the serum
into town.”

“
I wonder what Hank’s
going to say when he finds out we wrecked his plane that we
stole?”

“
I wonder where we’re
going to work next?”

CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE

Using their first aid kit, Catwalk and Curly
hastily cleaned and bandaged their cuts. Once this was done they
walked toward town. Curly said, “Do you think we’re gonna have to
look for another job?”

“
We don’t know that Hank’s
going to fire us, but he probably will. I don’t know if I want to
stay up here or not. I’m kind of tired of the weather, but there’s
more flying jobs here than back in the states.”

“
I know what you mean.
I’ve kind of been thinking about going into the service. With this
war coming, I’d have to sooner or later. I think I’d like to fly
bombers.”

Catwalk looked at his friend. This was the
first he’d heard him talk about enlisting. He hated to see Curly
leave, but didn’t want to dissuade him. He said, “Why bombers?”

“
They’re like the Boeings,
except bigger. I’ll bet bomber pilots get a lot of
girls.”

“
Go for it, man. There’s
no reason why you can’t.”

Thinking of Catwalk’s situation, Curly felt
bad for his friend. Knowing Cat as he did, he knew he’d want to
join the service in the event of a war. But there were many reasons
why he couldn’t pursue a hitch in the service. He said, “Someday
they’ve got to change things in the military, so black men can join
up. It’s ridiculous that they keep you out.”

“
I think it’ll change, but
I’m sure they won’t make it easy.”

Seeing docks in the distance that were
packed with fishing boats, the men knew they’d reached the town.
They walked into the first open business, which was a restaurant.
Curly asked a waitress, “Where can we find the clinic? We’ve got
the serum for the two rabies victims.”

Seeing their bandages, the waitress said,
“Oh, my gosh! You guys look like you could use some patching up
yourselves. It’s down the street, same side, white sign, you can’t
miss it.”

“
Thanks.”

They turned to leave and she said, “You guys
get done there, come on back. Dinner is on us.”

Once at the clinic, the doctor thanked them
profusely and told them that his staff would clean them up at no
charge. He then left to help the kids who’d been bitten. True to
their boss’s word, the staff treated the two pilots like royalty.
They were given hot coffee and donuts while their cuts and
abrasions we’re treated.

While she tended to Curly an attractive
young nurse said, “I can’t believe you guys flew over in this
storm. That must have been scary.”

Curly jumped at a chance to impress her.
“Aw, it wasn’t nothing. Heck, me an’ my partner, we do this all the
time. If we can help someone, we don’t mind risking our necks.”

After they’d been treated, Catwalk said,
“We’d better go, Curly. We’ve got to find someone to repair the
Vega. If we can’t, we’ve got to find a way back to Valdez. We might
have to wait for a fishing boat.”

Curly’s mind was still on the nurse. With a
smile, he said, “I wouldn’t mind sticking around here a few
days.”

Two hours later Catwalk dragged him out of
the clinic and they returned to the restaurant where they were
served elk steaks and gravy, fresh fish and greens. As they ate
they were beset with questions about the flight over. Upon hearing
about the wreck, one of the locals said, “Denny, down at the
airport might be able to make that plane flyable if he can get the
parts. Problem is, the high tide might carry it off before you can
get it out of there.”

Catwalk and Curly looked at each other.
Curly shouted, “Damn it! The tide.”

Catwalk asked, “How high is your tide and
when does it comes in?”

“
It’s a fifteen foot tide
and it’s been coming in since about the time you
landed.”