The Boxcar Blues (36 page)

He read the article then showed the magazine
to a fellow inmate and said, “See that black bastard, Clem. It
won’t be long before I’m getting out of here. When I do, that
fella’ is dead.”

“
What the hell did he do
to you, Alton?”

“
Something no nigger does
to a white man if they expect to live.”

CHAPTER FORTY-FIVE

Three weeks after the conversation in
Austin, Catwalk had flown a load of well heads to a natural gas
field in Wyoming. He was filing his flight plan to depart when he
received a call from his maintenance chief saying one of their
planes was grounded because it failed a CAA inspection.

He asked, “What did they ground us for?”

“
The bolts on the exhaust
headers aren’t safety wired.”

Catwalk thought, there’s no requirement for
those bolt to be safety wired; they’re just torqued down. He said,
“Tell Lenny to make whatever repairs the inspector asked for and
not to question him.”

“
Sure thing,
boss.”

“
Say Dale, did they
inspect anyone else’s planes?”

“
No, I asked around the
airport. We’re the only ones they hit.”

Once again Catwalk smelled the familiar and
ugly stench of racism. He wondered who had planted the roots of
this virus? On the flight back to Midland, he thought about this.
His problem was, there was no one in power throughout the
government who’d take his side. A white man had the option of
complaining to his congressman or state representative about the
actions of a federal agency. His complaint would never be acted on.
He wasn’t sure what he could do, but he wasn’t going to sit idly by
and get pushed around. He had a feeling that this had to be nipped
in the bud, or it could cost them a lot of money in lost
revenue.

When he landed, he called the CAA inspector.
His maintenance chief was on the extension when he said, “You
grounded one of our planes because the exhaust manifold bolts were
not safety wired. There is no requirement for those bolts to be
safety wired. The requirement is to torque those bolts to sixty
foot pounds. My mechanics had done that.”

“
Mr. Jackson, this is an
old airplane that has seen a lot of use. We have the authority to
ground the aircraft if we see something that is not required by the
regulations, but in our opinion should be changed to meet our
standards.”

“
Are you saying you can
impose regulations on the spot?”

“
That’s exactly what I’m
saying.”

“
Why was our aircraft
inspected and not others?”

“
I told you. You’re flying
old aircraft that have a lot of hours on the airframes and power
plants. These planes warrant closer scrutiny than newer
aircraft.”

“
Who told you to inspect
our aircraft?”

“
The directive to spot
check older aircraft came from the Flight Standards Division in our
Dallas office.”

“
Thank you.”

After the call, Catwalk told his mechanic,
“This might not be the last episode of this drama. Make sure all
the bolts in question are safety wired as instructed. Keep a log of
how much time we spend on these mods and leave a carbon copy on my
desk.”

Catwalk decided to keep a close eye on this
situation. He spread the word with his maintenance staff to contact
him if there were any more inspections. He was on the phone with a
freight forwarding company when Curly walked into the office. He’d
just returned from flying a load of drill bit assemblies to Morgan
City, Louisiana. His look told Catwalk he’d heard about the
inspection.

When Catwalk hung up, Curly said, “It sure
looks like someone is out to get us. Who do you think is behind
it?”

“
This had to come from a
politician, because the CAA would have no reason to increase their
work load so they can cause us problems. Most of the politicians in
Texas are racist and many of them have been in the Klan, in fact,
some still are. The list of possible enemies is not
short.”

Curly lit a cigarette and took a bottle of
blended whiskey out of a cabinet. He asked Catwalk, “You flying
anymore today?”

“
No, I’m done until
Wednesday.”

Curly poured two glasses half full and
handed one to Catwalk. He said, “Do you think it would be worth our
time to bitch to the head of the CAA? Or better yet, how about I go
to Austin and start raising hell.”

“
You’d probably end up in
jail.”

“
I’ll bet I could find out
who’s pulling this crap.”

Catwalk smiled. This was one of those times
when he was tempted to let Curly go and follow up on his threat. He
had no doubts, if he encouraged him, Curly would find out who’d
arranged the inspections. Unfortunately, as he’d learned from
Barney, he was in a business where your mistakes and bad judgment
can resurface in the future and cost you dearly.

He took a healthy drink and felt it burn as
he thought of the possible consequences. He and Curly had talked
about starting a passenger airline once the freight operation was
showing a steady profit. To do this they’d need to have routes
approved. Making waves with the CAA now could haunt them in the
future. He said, “It’s hasn’t cost us too much so far and it won’t
put us out of business. I say we document everything that we have
to do, and keep quiet about it for now.”

“
I hate the thought of
some asshole politician getting away with something like
this.”

“
I do too, Curly, but we
don’t know who it is and there’s the possibility it didn’t come
from a politician. Maybe someone in the CAA wants to hassle
us.”

“
O.K., so I find the
inspector and throw him in the shit house like you did with
Jones.”

“
He’s just doing his job.
His orders are coming from higher up.”

Curly finished his drink and poured another.
He walked over to the window and watched a C-46 park in front of
the hangar. He then walked back to the desk and said, “They’re
fucking with the wrong guys.”

Catwalk swore under his breath. If Curly
decided to go off half cocked and drunk, he might do damage that
couldn’t be repaired. He stood up, looked his partner in the eye
and said, “Curly, it’s not a big deal right now; it’s just an
inconvenience. Let it go. Don’t do anything we’ll regret
later.”

“
Let’s go over to Diamond
Lil’s and get some dinner.”

“
Good idea, I’m
starved.”

As they drove to the restaurant, Catwalk
worried. He suspected Curly was planning on retaliating, and might
very well do something that would burn them later. He wished he
could keep a close eye on his partner, but with their flying
schedules they sometimes went days without seeing each other.

When they were seated he said, “I’d hate to
see you do anything we’ll regret, because this really isn’t your
fight, Curly.”

Curly smiled and said, “Cat, it wasn’t your
fight back in that box car when we threw those two hoboes off the
train, but you stepped in, and I’m glad you did.”

Curly had that gleam in his eye.

Catwalk didn’t enjoy his meal.

In the next two weeks there were three more
inspections. They all resulted in trumped up but minor
violations.

Curly was at the airport in Midland when the
last inspection took place. He waited until the inspector had
written up his report, then with a smile, asked him if he could
talk to him in the office. The inspector agreed.

Curly closed the door behind him and faced
the inspector. “You report says our aircraft is grounded until we
replace all the fuel strainers with new units.”

“
That’s correct,
sir.”

“
I’ve got a problem with
this. See, the fuel is filtered when it’s put on the trucks to be
delivered. Then, it’s filtered again when it’s pumped into our
tanks. When we pump it into an aircraft, it’s filtered for the
third time, and then it goes through the fuel strainers. I’m
worried that if we filter our aviation fuel any more, there won’t
be any gas left for us to power our engines with.”

The inspector held up a protective hand and
started, “Now, Mr. Levitz, you must understand that I’m only
following orders and doing my job, which is critical in the
interest of aviation safety.”

Curly walked toward him, his ire apparent.
“I would like you to tell me why we need to replace our fuel
strainers with new units. Just give me one good reason!”

The inspector tried to speak, but Curly
pressed, “Hell, I flew over a thousand hours in the Boeing Model 80
and they didn’t even have fuel strainers. Flew two thousand hours
in a Jenny and never replaced a fuel filter, just cleaned
them.”

“
But, sir….”

Curly grabbed a handful of the inspector’s
shirt collar and drew him close. “Who’s giving the orders to fuck
with our airplanes?”

“
I don’t….”

Curly drove a fist into the guy’s gut. “Who?
God damn it, give me a name.”

The inspector doubled over, let out a moan
and looked up at Curly, “I’m not sure….”

Curly punched him in the nose and the guy
went down, with blood pouring from both nostrils. “Wrong answer.
You get one more try, then I break your arm.”

A mechanic stuck his face in the door and
said, “Mr. Levitz, have you…?” The scene registered and the
mechanic said, “What’s wrong with that guy?”

“
I’m teaching him the
finer points of inspecting our aircraft. Get out of here,
Stan.”

The mechanic disappeared and Curly returned
to the bloody inspector. “Now, you have one more chance.”

“
The orders came from the
section chief in the Dallas office. He said to look at Aztec’s
aircraft real close. Then he said if we value our jobs, we better
ground them for something.”

Curly lifted the guy off the floor and said,
“If you tell anyone about this, I’ll break both your arms. You
understand?”

In the interest of preventing any further
attack the inspector quickly nodded his head and left the office as
fast as he could move.

Catwalk landed later that day. He was
writing up his trip report when the mechanic who’d witnessed
Curly’s actions approached him. “Mr. Jackson, do you have a minute?
There’s something you should know about.”

The mechanic told him what he’d seen.
Catwalk asked, “Where’s Curly now?”

“
He signed out an airplane
and took off.”

“
Where was he
going?”

“
I don’t know, I didn’t
see the flight plan.”

Catwalk ran into the flight briefing office
where the pilots filed their flight plans. The board used to track
aircraft, merely listed the plane Curly had taken as, “Out of
service.”

Catwalk looked in the trash under the table
and found the copy of Curly’s flight plan. He yelled, “Damn
it!”

The mechanic asked, “Where’s he going?”

“
Dallas. He’s going to pay
a visit to the CAA.”

Catwalk looked at the aircraft status board.
There was only one aircraft on the ground and it was being loaded
with drilling mud and generators to be flown to Houston. He said to
the pilot, “Dave, I need you to take a detour on your trip to
Houston. Can you drop me off in Dallas?”

“
Sure thing, Cat. We’ll be
loaded in half an hour.”

Catwalk landed in Dallas an hour later and
took a cab to the CAA building. At the receptionist’s desk he
described Curly and asked if she’d seen him. She said no and he
felt relieved for a second, but his instinct told him Curly was
there. He asked, “Is there another entrance to the building?”

“
There’s the employee
entrance in back.”

“
What floor is the Flight
Standards office on?”

“
Fourth floor.”

Catwalk hurried to the nearest elevator and
took it up to four. He searched the hallway and found the office
three doors down. He approached the door, afraid of what he’d find.
When he reached for the doorknob, the door opened and Curly walked
out with a smile on his face.

With his usual nonchalance Curly said, “Hey,
pard. I kind of figured you might come after me.”

Catwalk didn’t like the smug look on Curly’s
face. It was the satisfied look of someone who’d accomplished
exactly what they set out to do. He pushed his partner up against
the wall and said, “Curly, what the hell did you do?”

“
It was Senator Bob
Connelly who leaned on them to hassle us.”

“
How did you find that
out? Did you beat on this guy until he confessed.”

“
I never touched him. Ease
up and I’ll tell you about it.”

They walked to elevator and got in an empty
car. On the way down Curly said, “Cat, do you know how you can tell
someone who’s got the hate against black people in them?” Before he
answered, Curly said, “Well, I can look people in the eye and tell
the ones who ain’t got any fight in them. This guy was afraid of
his own shadow. When I took him over to the window and showed him
how far he’d fall after I threw him out, he started singing like a
robin in springtime.”

Catwalk asked, “So what happens when we
apply for a passenger route? Are they going to remember us as an
airline made up of thugs who resort to violence?”

Curly smiled, “I told this guy, he’d have to
deal with Connelly himself and if we have any problems in the
future, it’s still a long drop from that fourth floor window.”

On the cab ride to the airport, Catwalk
didn’t say much. He didn’t like to resort to violence to get things
done, but he couldn’t argue that Curly had gotten results, where he
never could have. Whether his actions would come back to haunt them
remained to be seen. Maybe he worried too much. Maybe Curly didn’t
worry enough. Maybe their differences made them a good team. He
decided not to dwell on this. He still wished he had someone with
whom he could talk about business problems, someone who was more
level headed than Curly.