Kodiak Bear Blues by Stephen Wishnevsky

Author:Stephen Wishnevsky [Wishnevsky, Stephen]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2017-10-25T23:00:00+00:00

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Usually there are only two passenger seats in a Gunship, we had to wait while the mechanics bolted another one to the floor, and off we went. There is a seat for the loader, Tinkerbelle usually does not carry one, we rarely fly combat, and one belt of five hundred is enough for self-defense. I took the loader’s position so I could look out the windshield and scream the occasional comment to Don the copilot. It was fourteen hours to El Paso, we had to refuel and refresh our tired asses in Oakland. I had been trying to talk to Mo and Shemp, they preferred their stage names, on the way down, but it’s a losing battle to converse over the engine sounds. The Tin Gooses are made of corrugated steel, and the whole damn plane vibrates in tune with the engines. No insulation, of course, that would add weight. And we had forgotten to bring anything to read.

I did find out that the boys were from Brooklyn, and Shemp was their mother’s mispronunciation of Sam. She had little English and a thick Litvok accent. They seemed nice enough, Shemp was quite the handsome guy, about my age, a little older. “We wanted to just play music, we play about everything they make between us. But, we had to do blackface and slapstick to make a buck. You know how it is.”

There had been another brother, Jerome, but “He didn’t make it. The IB. You know.” I did know. The whole country was a bleeding wound because of the Investigation Bureau. And fuck the ghosts of their rotting corpses. Eight hours of drone. We got there after dark, they had the field lit up real well, we thought we could catch a few winks, but they loaded us back up, and off we went by ten. “Don’t worry, Miles, the Euacs and Pacifica have set up searchlight beacons along major air routes for the Airmail guys. We’re good.” Don said. We better be, I didn’t say. I had bought a couple sets of earphones, handed them out to the Howard boys, and off we went. I even napped a little, bundled up in blankets they provided. All routine. All welcome.

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The last lap was in daylight, we landed at El Paso, which seemed to be all airport, except for the parts that were railyards and artillery parks. It looked like the fucking Texans were about to get fucked. We had to lay over this time, the Williams could not take any more, and the plane needed servicing. They drove us to a sandblasted hotel in what passed for downtown, and we ate too much, drank a few, and laid around the seedy lobby waiting to stop vibrating. Air travel might be fast, but you pay for it one way or another.

We were just thinking of improving the hour with a nap, when a staff car pulled up, an aide came in, looked us over and asked which one of us was Colonel Kapusta.

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