Flying Naked by Michael Bleriot

Author:Michael Bleriot
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: flight, aviation, military, jungle, panama
Publisher: Michael Bleriot
Published: 2017-05-17T00:00:00+00:00

8. Quito

Walt talked the squadron into sending me to a language school in Quito, Ecuador. It wasn’t easy since the Air Force had already sent me to a school in Guatemala. It made no sense for them to spend more money if I hadn’t learned enough Spanish the first time.

But Walt convinced Major Farnham that a lull in the ops tempo was coming up and that perhaps a compromise was in order. To wit: Farnham would give me the time off but I would have to pay for the trip myself. Since the school in Quito was only nine dollars a day, this was a bargain.

“I’m surprised,” I told Walt after buying my tickets. “I didn’t expect the chief scheduler would be willing to lose a pilot for a month.”

“Pure self interest,” he replied.

“How so?”

“Ecuador is ground zero for our treasure hunt. Take the list with you.”

I patted my breast pocket which held the list we all carried. “What in particular? Which one?”

Walt crossed his feet on his desk and put his hands behind his head. “Doesn’t matter,” he said. “You’ll think of something.”

I arrived in Quito late on a Saturday night. The school sent a driver to pick me up and deliver me to a local family who had agreed to host me for a month. Their house, and their neighborhood, and in fact much of the airport where my plane landed was enduring a nightly rolling blackout due to electricity shortages so it took the driver a while to find his way. When we finally found the house, all I could see was a shadowy structure and a tiny front lawn.

“Beinvenidos,” said a small voice at the front door. It belonged to a middle-aged lady with a bright smile. “Bienvenidos al Ecuador!”

She stepped aside and motioned for me to enter the house. The doorway was narrow and in the dark I tripped over the threshold and fell backward over my own suitcase, tumbling through the foyer and into the living room. The only thing hurt was my pride but the injury compounded when I learned Señora Lidy Digard wasn’t alone.

Five young women sat on couches along the wall. Candles burned on the table between them, the leaping flames throwing shadows as though it were a coven of witches. But unlike witches, the women didn’t cackle. Instead, they gasped as I made my entrance, falling as though dropped from the roof. When they saw I was unhurt they collapsed into giggling.

Welcome to Ecuador, indeed.

“Buenas noches,” I said from the floor.

The tallest girl was Karla, Lidy’s daughter. “We’ve been waiting for you,” she said.

I looked around the room, wondering what she meant. “Do you all live here?” I asked. My enthusiasm must have been obvious because they broke into laughter again.

“No, pobrecito! Solamente en tus sueños!”

My dreams aside, this was still better than the house full of children that I had endured in Guatemala.

“Bueno,” Señora Digard interrupted, bustling around with an excitement that was flattering. “Let’s get you to your room.

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