Chapter 6

Act as if you cannot fail...

Wednesday's trip to dialysis took a turn that surprised Patricia. On Wednesday morning Robogym stopped at the house to take them to dialysis, which was expected, but he couldn't drive them, he had to get their car running today because his Uncle needed the space in the garage, so he handed the keys to his truck to Patricia and said to take good care of it.

Reminded of the ribbing the previous day that Robogym got from Rogigilo things became a little clearer for him regarding how Robogym felt about Patricia. He had to have strong feelings for her, what guy would turn over the keys to his most prized possession to anyone unless they were very special to him. This also didn't seem to be lost on Patricia as she must have thought about it the entire trip as she was oddly quiet, which was very unusual as she normally couldn't go five minutes without talking.

When they pulled up to the garage their car was parked outside, washed and polished. They parked next to it and went inside, "Robert, where are you?" yelled Patricia, not in anger but with joyful surprise.

Robogym walked out of the office, "So you've seen the car?"

"Yes I have, all clean and polished. Looks great!"

"Yeah. And it runs pretty good."

She walked up and hugged Robert saying, "Thanks. I appreciate it." She released him from the hug and gave him a quick peck on the cheek. But as she pulled her head back she held her gaze upon him and slowly leaned back in and kissed him on the lips. Stories have been told of when for the first time someone opens themselves up to love, and Patrick could now say that he had seen it, and would have his own story to tell.

The car was indeed done and ran better than ever, according to Patricia. When his dad came home from work he took it for a drive and he confirmed that it never ran as good as it did now. Robogym was indeed the man of the hour, if not the week!

After dinner Robogym stopped by the house and talked to Patrick's dad about the car and how it was running or if there was a problem with it, Patrick's dad said it was great and he appreciated all the work he had put into the car, to which Robogym said no problem and that he was glad to do it for Patrick. Well, he might have said Patrick but he was looking at Patricia when he said it.

With the car talk over Robogym asked, "Would anyone like to go for ice cream?"

Patricia was the first saying, "I would love some ice cream."

Patrick's mom said, "Oh I don't think your Father and I would want any."

Patricia looked at Patrick and asked, "Care to join us for ice cream?"

He smiled and said, "Not tonight, I'm kind of tired."

"Where is Valerie?"asked Patricia.

Patrick jumped up, "She's in her room, I'll get her."

He moved quickly and knocked on her door.

Valerie answered and asked, "Hey Patrick, what's up?"

Quietly he said, "Listen Robogym is going to ask if you want to go out for ice cream, say no, okay?"

"But I would like some ice cream" she whined.

"I think we should let Robogym and Patricia go alone."

She scrunched her face and said, "Why?"

He gave Valerie his duh look and said, "Really?"

"Oh. Duh! Okay" and walked out to the front room and said she didn't want ice cream and walked back to her room.

Patrick walked back into the front room and sat down, but gave a quick look to Patricia. When he saw her looking at him he winked and quickly averted his gaze to the TV. One way or another he wanted them to, at the very least, get some time by themselves to see if there was something there for the two of them.

A couple of hours later the two walked into the house laughing and carrying on. When Robogym saw Patrick he said, "Hey Patrick, Patricia and I talked and IF you're still interested in going up in an airplane she'll bring you over to the garage tomorrow morning."

"Really?"

"Yeah. Seamus O'Boyle agreed to take you up after his morning runs."

"Cool! How much?"

"Nothing. When I told him of your list, and with you being a fine Irish lad and all, he agreed without hesitation."

"Wow."

His mom said with worry in her voice, "You will be careful. Won't you?" She then turned to Robert and asked, "Is this Seamus a good guy?"

Robogym smiled and said, "Yeah, a real good guy."

"See Mom, nothing to worry about."

Patrick was so excited about going up in an airplane the next day he had a hard time sleeping that night. But when Patricia came to wake him up at 10am he was wide awake and in the shower preparing for the day's events. A quick breakfast and they were out the door, heading to the garage.

They pulled up to the garage's parking lot but were unable to find a parking spot as it was full so they parked along the side street a block away and walked back to a packed and very busy garage.

Robogym must have seen them coming and met them at the door.

"We can't go in, well, it's really you don't want to go in, way too many people."

"What's going on?"

"Once a year my Uncle closes the garage and invites several of his friends to show off their cars inside the garage. Over the years it's turned into a big party and not so much a car show. It gets a little wild so people under 21 or females that aren't showing cars aren't welcome, if you know what I mean."

"Oh."

"Anyway, why don't we drive over to the airport and I'll introduce you to Seamus."

They piled into his truck and drove over to a small entrance on the side of the airport, leading to a small hanger. They parked and Robogym said, "Wait here, let me go see if we are good to go."

With that he walked into the hanger and was gone only a couple of minutes before returning saying "Okay he's checking on the plane so come on inside and we'll get you ready."

They walked into the small hanger, which was empty save for a small office that they walked into and several workbenches along the outside walls. Inside the room was a short barrel chested guy in grease covered mechanics overalls smoking a cigar who looked none too happy.

Robogym walked up and said, "Jim, this is Patrick who'll be going up and this is his sister Patricia."

You'd expect to hear him have a rough gravelly voice but it was more like Mike Tyson, high and with a slight lisp, "Hey. So Patricia, you're over eighteen?"

"Uhm yes?"

"Okay, I need you to sign some papers being that you're an adult. Rob, go show him the plane."

They walked into the hanger and parked just outside was the plane they were going to take. It was a biplane, a two seater of course, and painted bright yellow with a red painted tail. On the body was the plane's identification number and the name "Ruff Landing" written under the cockpit.

"I thought I was going up in a crop duster?"

"They are doing some maintenance on the crop duster so they are using this one."

"Oh."

As they made a circle around the plane Patricia came out with Jim the mechanic, who said loudly "Patrick, come with me we got to get you ready for the flight."

He smiled broadly at his sister and walked off quickly back to the hanger following Jim. Back in the room Jim said, "Okay first of all you'll need a coat, helmet, goggles,, gloves, and a parachute. Looking at you I'd gather you're a medium?"

Before he could say anything Jim said, "Don't matter, all we have is large. Come on over here and we'll get you set up."

He walked over to the lockers that were along the side of the room, Jim opened up the first locker and pulled out a leather coat, LONG leather coat. He took it from him and had to catch himself as it was heavy. He put it on and it was way too big, the sleeves going at least two inches past his outstretched hands and ran down to his knees. He was about to say something when Jim said, "Zip it up and let's take a look."

He gawked at him but followed his directions and when it zippered up he looked back at Jim expecting him to say it was too big. But Jim pulled the jacket to him, it gave about a foot and a half, and said, "A little big but it'll do."

"What?!?"

"You'll be fine. Okay helmet is next" and pulled an old leather flyer's helmet that looked like it was from WW1, "Here try this."

He took it and put it on, and it was a couple of sizes too big, not as bad as the coat, but big none the less.

"Once again he looked to Jim who said, "It'll be fine, once we get the goggles on you it'll hold it in place. Here are the gloves and I'll get the parachute."

He tried the gloves and of course they were big. What, don't they have smaller people who fly? Or are all the flyers the size of the green giant!

The next thing he felt was a huge weight being placed on his back as Jim said, "Okay, this is the parachute. I'll help you get it on."

At some point when the straps were placed around him he was certain that he had been molested by Jim. There were straps around his shoulders, between his legs, around his stomach, and a couple that he had no idea where they went. All he knew is that when Jim was done and all the straps were pulled tightly he felt completely locked in.

He looked in the mirror and he must say he looked like an idiot. As he was checking out himself out a pair of hands placed a set of goggles on his head and said, "Okay, out to the plane."

Before he could say anything Jim was out the door. He quickly followed him. Quickly? Nope not quickly. He waddled out the door following Jim back to the plane.

When he got there another gentleman had joined them, "Patrick, this is Seamus. He'll be taking you up."

"Hi Patrick."

"Hi, uhm, can I call you Seamus?"

"Sure can, everyone else does. I see Jim set you up already."

"Uhm, yeah,"

A yell came from a man running from the hanger next them "Seamus! Hey Seamus!"

Turning around they saw an old man walking quickly towards them. Seamus turned to Patrick and said, "One second" and walked towards the old man. After a brief conversation he came back and said, "I'm sorry but I'm needed for another last minute run. But not to worry, there's another pilot that will take you up, if that's okay with you."

"Yeah, sure, no problem!"

"Great, let me go get Crash for you."

"Crash?"

In a few minutes the door that Seamus went through, opened and a man stumbled out, took a few steps and stopped. He looked around, almost falling over, until he saw him and the plane and stopped. He pointed in his direction and put his head down and began walking towards him. After several haphazard steps he began drifting over to the left moving slightly away from the direction he intended.

"Uhm, hey" yelled Patrick to get the attention of the wandering pilot.

The pilot stopped and lifted his head in the direction he was walking. He stumbled to a stop and looked around, again, until he saw the plane. He once again pointed and began walking towards him with his head down.

Finally he got to the plane and walked up to Patrick saying loudly, "Uhm, h, h, hello, I'm" burp "your pilot Wi, uhm, Wil" burp "Bill Daniels. You can call me" burp, "Crash" and stuck his hand out.

The smell of alcohol and cigars got to him before his hand did. "Uhm hi. Have you been drinking?"

"Who are you the drinking cops?" he asked accusingly.

"Uhm, no. I'm just"

But he was cutoff as Crash continued, "Good. What the hell are you wearing?"

He looked at himself and asked, "What?"

"A parachute? Jesus" burp "do you think we are g, gan" burp, "gonna crash?"

"Uhm, no, but the guy said to"

"Then take the god darned thing off!" he said with a sweeping arm.

He took off the parachute and dropped it on the ground. But when he looked at Crash he saw that he had one on. "But, how come your wearing one?"

"One What?" he eyed him critically.

"Parachute. Why are you wearing a parachute?" as he pointed to his back.

"In case I have to bail out!" he exclaimed as he waved his arms around, nearly falling over in the process.

"Bail out?"

"Come on now we got to get up in the" burp "air before it starts snowing."

"Snowing?" What the fuck is he talking about as he looked up to see a nice clear blue sky.

Cash climbed up on the plane and got in the cockpit and began looking around inside the cockpit, like he was looking for something.

Nervously as he got into the other cockpit he asked, "Looking for something?"

"Yeah, the stick! Where's the fucking" burp "stick? How can I fly the plane without a fucking stick!"

As Patrick sat down he saw a stick between his legs and said, "I've got a stick in mine."

Crash quickly tried to turn around to see him as he gave out a loud, "What!"

"I said I have got a stick back here," loudly.

"Are you going to fly the" burp "plane?" he screamed.

"Uhm, no."

"Then you're in the wrong seat!" he screamed.

"But"

"Can you move out of my seat please! Jesus Christ!"

He quickly climbed out of the seat and onto the ground and watched as Crash began to move from the back seat to the front seat, nearly falling off the plane a couple of times in the process.

"Are you okay?"

"I'm dandy!"

He did not look good, nearly falling out of the plane, so he asked, "Are you sure you're okay to fly?"

"Yes yes" burp "yes. Jesus H Christ are you a freakin" burp "fundamentalist?"

"Fundamentalist? No. What a Fundamentalist?"

"Then get in the plane so we can" burp "take off."

"But"

"Come on son, we're burning" burp "daylight."

He climbed into the cockpit and plopped into the seat.

"Take that stupid looking cap and goggles off your head and put this on!"

Looking up he saw a helmet flying over Crash just in time to catch it before it hit him in the head.

"Don't for, four, fur" burp "to plug in the thingy."

As he looked at the helmet a cord was connected to it, like a headphone jack for a cell phone or iPod. He found the end and looked around the tight quarters until he found the jack underneath the dash in front of him. He connected it and put it on snapping the chin strap in place and moving the microphone just before his mouth and lowered the face plate.

As soon as the plate was down he heard very off key singing over the headphones. "Okay, I've got it on and plugged in."

The singing stopped as Crash said, "Okay then make sure you're buckled in so you don't fall out. Especially since you're not wearing a par, Pare" burp "chute."

He was about to start arguing with him about not wearing a parachute when the engine started. All thoughts of arguing escaped him as he began to feverishly look for the buckles to get him locked in so he wouldn't fall out.

The first buckle was set when the engine roared and the plane began moving forward. "FUCK! Can you wait for me to finish buckling in!"

"Sure. You've got about sixty seconds before I'm going to take off."

"SHIT!" and began furiously trying to figure out how to get himself buckled in. He got the next one connected when he heard Crash say, "Thirty seconds."

"Shit!" he screamed as his hands fumbled over the archaic buckles. Another buckle was connected when her heard Crash say "Twen, twin" burp "nineteen seconds."

"Can you just wait for me to get this, fucking buckle done!"

"Su, sure. Ten seconds."

He got the third buckle connected and as he was working on the fourth he got a lovely countdown from crash, "five, four, thr, thr" burp "two, one!" and he was thrust into the back of the seat as the plane took off down the runway.

Finally getting the last buckle connected he looked up. They were flying down the runway now as the plane began to sway left and right as if Crash was having problems going straight. They swayed left and right about six times before the plane left the ground for a count of two before it touched the ground, bouncing him all over his seat, thank God he was buckled in. The plane lifted off again and climbed about thirty feet before it took a quick left turn bringing a scream of fear from him.