Volume: 1

Ulysses

Flying north to Half Moon Bay, a recollection of an encounter with one of my flight instructors.

It was time to leave Harvey's mansion and continue north. The marine layer stayed about ten miles offshore, allowing for clear flying. Through one valley, over a mountain range, through another valley, over another mountain range, I passed the San Luis Reservoir on my left. After landing at Los Banos I taxied around the field and then parked, too curious.

I pedaled the still familiar, brief distance east to a development with streets named for states. Farther on, they changed to letters, then to numbers, as if the city planner ran out of words. I pedaled up to Kira's house. Kira, long ago, was one of my flight instructors.

Donny, her husband, a killer trained by various military academies, now in his sixties, looked like he could still remove my head with a single swipe of a fingernail. In his front yard, he appeared to be watering the concrete driveway. I asked if Kira was home.

"Who's asking?"

"Ian Young." I imagined his synapses reconnecting. I straddled my bike but decided not to approach him.

"I remember you." An awkward silence.

"And Kira?"

"She's off flying somewhere. Still works for Delta."

"Maybe tell her I stopped by? She no longer answers my emails."

1988

It pisses me off when someone in a car shouts at me while I'm on my bicycle, or when Tad tells me of a $70 million deal, or I watch Randy do crazy-ass things without repercussion. I lament that unthinking people seem to continue on. But I don't see their whole story while I do see mine. There is justice in this world, if I'm patient and care to look for it.

A Friday night of nothingness, which I'll normally take, loomed, but there was some itchy restlessness brewing. I called Kira, guessing she was home from Sydney, to see if she wanted to get together. I needed to fly, to remain current, having not been aloft for two months. I wanted to fly to Los Banos, have dinner with Kira and fly home. A gruff sounding voice surprised me on the phone. He passed the phone to Kira and we made our plans.