Music of the Soul 1, 2, & 3 Starter Bundle

by Erik Schubach

  The engine and the smoke stopped just as the plane hit its apogee. The plane seemed to just hang in the air for a moment. Then it pivoted silently on its wingtip before dropping soundlessly into a severe dive. A simple word [[ deadstick ]] crackled over the radio in her voice. I was standing now, I couldn't breath, Bev was at my back holding my shoulders as the little plane shuddered and slowly leveled out and aligned itself to the runway at a dangerously low altitude.

  The tower spoke, [[ Tango alpha three niner we have you on glidepath. You are coming in hot, feather out and bleed some speed. ]] Riley responded, [[ Roger that tower. In process. ]] The plane pitched up slightly, almost into a stall, then the nose came back down just as it reached the runway. I started breathing again as Violet touched down and Riley coasted her off the runway into a grassy area before rolling to a stop [[ Tango alpha three niner wheels down. ]] was her simple calm statement as the tower kicked in [[ Welcome home tango alpha three niner. ]]

  Then the camera zoomed back to Katherine. The people standing around watching this all unfold were cheering. I was crying as Katherine Granger stood so that you could see the plane in the background as she spoke, [[ This is Katherine Granger live with a XZN exclusive. We just witnessed an amazing emergency landing of a single engine plane without power here at the VanCourt Airfield. ]]. They were replaying the clearing of the ridge and the pullout from the dive in slow motion in a window in the upper corner of the screen with a scrolling ticker announcing 'Exclusive Footage'.

  My heart was beating fast once more as I saw the tops of the trees being sheared off by Violet's landing gear again. I relived the anxiety. I saw Riley helping the passengers out of the plane behind Katherine as airfield trucks arrived at the plane. I quickly texted to her [ im glad u r ok ] I saw her check her phone on the TV and a moment later I got a [ thx ] from her! I put my hand to my mouth and choked on my tears. She responded.

  Katherine was wrapping things up, [[ XZN will keep you updated as this story progresses. We now return you to your regularly scheduled programming. ]] And just like nothing had happened, we were back to the canned laugh track of the sitcom. Bev turned the TV off and let me cry it out into her shoulder on the couch until I fell asleep.

  I woke up on the couch under a blanket a little after five o'clock to see Bevi watching the local news. The weather was just ending and they announced an exclusive interview with local pilot 'Jane' McKay coming up after the break.

  “Sorry I was such a baby, Bev. I was just so scared,” I said softly, looking down sheepishly.

  She turned to me with a soft smile and said gently, “Hey, there you are... Don't worry about it, Kru. I was scared for her, too. She's a hell of a pilot from what I've been hearing today. Seems she used every trick in the book to keep them aloft long enough to get to the airfield.”

  The commercials ended and the anchor announced the exclusive interview again as they played the footage of the emergency landing again. My heart felt like an elephant was sitting on it as I relived the terror of seeing it. Why did it effect me so much each time I saw it? I knew she was safe now.

  The scene switched to a familiar hangar, where Riley was standing by an oil stained Violet beside Katherine Granger. [[ This is Katherine Granger with XZN with an exclusive interview with Jane McKay from McKay Air Tours. The pilot that made that amazing emergency landing here at VanCourt Airfield in Issaquah Washington today. Thanks for taking the time to speak with us after such a stressful event. ]] Riley just projected so much charisma as she replied, that I melted a little [[ Not a problem Katherine. I wasn't stressed at all, I knew Violet here wouldn't let me down. ]] she said with a smile as she lovingly patted her plane.

  Katherine smiled and had a thoughtful look on her face as she asked, [[ Could you tell us what happened up there? ]]

  Riley nodded and responded calmly, [[ I had a couple who chartered an air tour into the Cascades. We were on the return leg of the tour when it appears that I lost a seal in the engine and we started losing oil pressure. We were still about twenty minutes out and between ranges, I throttled back and started looking for a suitable landing area, but the dirt switchback roads were not wide enough and the only paved road I could find was criss-crossed with power lines.

  I radioed in my intention to get over the south range to I90 where I'd have room to land, but I was losing power slowly and wasn't sure we could clear the ridge. Our airspeed had dropped to just over sixty five knotts by then.

  So instead I followed the valleys downrange, riding the thermals and catching the updrafts by the ridges to help maintain altitude and not bleed any more airspeed. This low altitude caused us to lose radio contact with the tower for a bit. We didn't have the power to maintain a proper altitude.

  When I realized which valley I was following I knew there was a low ridge to the north. The only problem was that I needed more altitude so I veered to the ridges there and found an updraft and climbed as high as possible bringing us almost to a stall before diving deep into the valley to gain as much airspeed as possible.

  I opened up my baby to full throttle and pulled back hard, and we shot up the ridge at treetop level. She gave me everything she had, and that extra boost was enough to slingshot us over the ridge to the airfield. But I pushed her too hard and I lost her engine.

  I rode the stall around to avoid a flat spin and got us some airspeed in a dive so that we could glide to the runway. And here we are. ]]

  Katherine looked at her in amazement, just as Bev and I were. [[ You say that so calmly like it is an every day occurrence. ]] Riley smiled and shook her head. [[ Well it's not how I like to end my air tours. I'd like to let your viewers know that isn't included in all my tours. But really any pilot would have done the same. ]]

  Katherine shook her head with a smile. [[ That's not what we've heard from the other pilots around here. By all accounts you shouldn't have made it back to the field and should be part of a mountainside somewhere. Your modesty does you credit. ]] Riley shrugged coolly at that.

  Katherine continued, [[ So what does this mean for you now? ]] Riley laughed, [[ You mean besides the FAA investigation? ]] Katherine smiled, shaking her head, [[ No I mean your company. Is your plane ok, do you have other planes? ]]

  Riley faltered for the first time but regained her composure quickly. [[ No. Violet is my one and only. She might need a complete engine rebuild. This and her downtime might mean I'll have to fold the company and return to DC. The banks won't wait for payments, and without an income, my reserves won't last long. ]] My heart dropped. Return to DC? She can't!

  This revelation hurt almost more than losing Riley. At least now I knew she was still around. I could see her flying over the city from time to time and that always gave me a tiny sliver of hope, but if she leaves now... everything is gone.

  I watched as they interviewed the passengers, they remarked on how Riley was so calm throughout the entire thing, and explained everything she was doing to them as it all unfolded. Her composure and confidence kept them from panicking the entire time. [[ Through 'thermal doohickeys' and 'updraft thingamabobs' right down to the landing. Though the last ridge certainly scared the hell out of us, the trees looked so close and were going by in a blur, the plane was shaking and straining. But even through that stall she smiled and spoke to us. Let me tell you when that engine cut out I thought that was the end of us all. ]]

  They affirmed that she should be lauded as a hero. Though they may not be flying again anytime in the near future. I was so proud of her, and I didn't want to lose her for good.

  I looked at Beverly with a look of confidence that belied my underlying panic. “To hell if she's going back to DC. Whether she wants to be around me or not I'm not letting her company go down. You with me?”

  She gave me a lopsided smile. “Where else would I be, sis?”

  God I love this tall redheaded girl. We hip bumped and sat down at the kitchen counter with for a quick dinner with our iPads out to start planning Operation Violet.

&n
bsp; Chapter 11 – Operation Violet

  Working with Bevi on this project reminded me of some of the schemes we'd come up with back in our early teens. In the eighth grade, we wanted to get a local girl band who had just signed with a label to play at our homecoming dance. It was 'Leather and Heels'... yes, THE Leather and Heels before they became platinum selling artists. I thought fondly of the coveted autographed albums of theirs I have in my collection now.

  There were a couple huge problems. One, they were a punk band and the school didn't approve of that music. Two, how the hell were we supposed to get a hold of them? We decided on a two pronged attack, first I called in a marker from the school cook, Rhonda, who's kid I tutored for free in algebra. She made up some of the favorite dishes that the Principal, Mr. Babcock and the girl's PE Instructor, Mrs. DaTary (Who, to this day, I still believe is really a man), since she was in charge of the homecoming committee.

  She was to discretely mention as she delivered the food, just how popular other school's staff became with the student's when live music and more modern music was allowed at the dances. Laying the groundwork for Bevi, who was handing out Leather and Heels fliers to the student body. They were everywhere. You'd have to be blind not to see them.

  We made sure to mention within earshot of the principal how cool the principal of a made up school in California was for allowing local bands to play at the dances. And how morale at those schools skyrocketed.

  I pulled in half a dozen markers from students to get them to say similar things around him and Mrs. DaTary. I got one of the cute popular girls, Bethany, who owed me for finding her some imported diet snack bars to get the school bully and his buddy to fake a brawl in the halls about how lame the dances are at the school and needed to change, while the other thought that they were fine that way, then there were more kids skipping out that they could harass at the mall.

  Now that the basic groundwork for the scheme was laid, we needed to find an in with Leather and Heels. Bev remembered that my dad's buddy, Clint, was a reporter with the local paper with a lot of contacts. His son, Rich, was looking for a 45 of Jenny Lynn Preston's 'Love and Blood' extended mix that I just happened to have a copy of.

  I almost called everything off then and there. “No way, Bevi! Do you have any idea how rare that is and how many favors I had to call in to get my copy!? It was a limited pressing! They are selling for hundreds now on the Internet!”

  She did her famous non-logic logic on me. “Krustallos, just think about it. Would you rather listen to a reproduction of a band's music or hear the real thing live? I mean one song on vinyl or a life defining night full of songs?”

  Don't ask me why I thought any of that made sense, but I found myself at Clint's house knocking on the door. When he answered the door, he smiled and asked a little too enthusiastically, “Hi, Crystal! You here for Rich?” I shook my head, he looked disappointed, then I said, “No actually, I'm here to see you and see if I can't ask a favor of you.”

  I slowly pulled my prized single out of my backpack and handed it to him. His eyes went wide when he realized what it was. Then he smiled as he took it, “Well, don't just stand outside. Come on in. What is it that you need?”

  I was able to get the contact information for Penny, the lead singer of Leather and Heels through his contacts. But I let him know that he still owed me one, that record was the crown jewel of my collection after all.

  Penny was an amusing girl, I don't think I've ever heard someone use the 'F' word as a noun, verb and adverb all in one sentence before. She listened to my story and commented about how resourceful Bev and I were to get that far, but there wasn't much she could do for us. They had a publicist now that they had signed with a label. I asked to speak with him and if she could put in a good word for me. She agreed.

  The next day Bev and I got a visit from the publicist guy at my house, Nick Sebastion. My dad let him in, shaking his head realizing were were up to one of our schemes. God, he looked like a tool with his boy band 80's throwback looks and his stupid floppy hair. He couldn't have been more than eighteen or nineteen himself. But he wound up being a pretty decent guy. He explained how there was no upside to them playing at a junior high homecoming.

  I had anticipated this and had already pulled in a favor from my dad's boss at the teen help hotline to contact the school and get them to donate a portion of all the dance ticket sales to the charity. All parties win! People helping people!

  I smiled. “What if I were to say that I could guarantee local coverage in the paper AND you could get more publicity by touting that the band is supporting the local teen help hotline charity? Publicity like that is like printing money.”

  He had laughed at that and inquired if I'd be pursuing a job in publicity after high school. He agreed to my scheme to call the school principal after he failed to convince me that they wouldn't be receptive to the kind of music that Leather and Heels play.

  Bev laughed as I smirked at him and laughed out, “As long as you can get Penny to not use the 'F' word at the dance, you'd be surprised what they will agree to.”

  He squinted an eye at me as he dialed Mr. Babcock's home number which I had procured by pulling in a marker from the school's office secretary, who I had located some rare hybrid flower bulbs for last month.

  After Mr. Babcock readily agreed to the band playing the dance and they exchanged contact information to solidify the plans later, Nick hung up. He opened his mouth to speak, but stopped, looking between the phone, Bev and I. Then he finally spoke. “That's one out of two. How are you going to guarantee the local coverage?”

  Bevi grinned smugly and handed me her phone, “You're up, Kru.” I wiggled my eyebrows at Nick and dialed Clint. “Hi Clint? Yeah, it's me, Crystal. Yeah, I got them. Want to clear our marker? Thought so. How would the paper like to cover the dance that Leather and Heels will be playing at the junior high for charity? Cool... no problem. I'll have their publicist get a hold of you. You too, I hope Rick enjoys the record. Bye!”

  As I hung up Nick started laughing with nothing but mirth in his eyes. “How old did you girls say you were?”

  Bev grinned. “Thirteen.”

  Nick just shook his head and checked his back pocket then his wrist. We looked at him, wondering what he was doing, he winked. “Just checking for my wallet and watch before I leave.”

  We were the heroes of the school at the dance, everyone but the principal and Mrs. DaTary knew what we had pulled off. And while we were backstage where Penny and her drummer Amanda were making out, we got my Indy records and their new album signed by them.

  Penny got my address and promised to send me autographed copies of any future albums the band made because she loved our spunk and, “You're gonna be a heart breaker when you grow up with those fucking awesome eyes!”

  I smiled at the memory, realizing that we were wheeling and dealing even back then. We didn't have to do anything as elaborate now though. It involved more of me and Beverly calling in some of my power markers and doing some networking. I don't know how many calls ended in me saying, “No seriously... then we're even. No I'm not shitting you, you'd be free and clear.” Or the more dreaded, “No really, thanks! Now I owe YOU one!”

  ***

  As I walked around my Violet, cleaning her up and pulling pine needles from her landing gear, I shuddered at the memory of the call from my mother this morning. She was going on and on about how dangerous flying is, and this close call just proved it. I was knocked out of my thoughts when one of the other pilots yelled out from the office to me, “Hey Jane, the guard says there's a mechanic at the gate, want him to let him in?”

  I looked under my plane to him and yelled back, “Yeah Rudy, I'm waiting for a few guys to come out for an estimate.” I stroked Violet's side, I really hated seeing her grounded like this, she belonged in the air.

  Rudy replied, “Okay, you got it, Jane!”

  I grabbed a shop cloth off my rolling toolbox and wiped the oil off my hands as a huge service
truck with a rear crane and flatbed pulled up. King County Aviation? I didn't call them did I? They are the mechanics for the elite pilots.

  A solid looking man with a crew cut got out of the truck, wearing some clean, professional looking olive drab overalls with a name badge sewn on, 'Mac'. He was holding a clipboard and a large tool bag. The man looked around then smiled when he saw me. He walked over and offered his hand. “You must be Jane. I'm here to look at your plane.”

  Did I call them? I called so many maybe I did. I took his hand. “Hi. Yeah this is her. I lost her engine the other day.”

  He smiled shaking his head in appreciation. “Yeah, I saw. Damn that was some fine flying!”

  I felt the heat of a blush on my cheeks. I wish people would stop saying that... it was all Violet. I diverted the conversation. “Well, I'm on a tight deadline here, I can survive a month without her. Maybe two if I stretch and eat Ramen noodles every day. So I'm looking for estimates.”

  He just nodded thoughtfully and headed toward my baby's engine, calling back over his shoulder, “Okay, let's take a look at her and see what we got going on here.” He deftly started removing the engine fairings.

  I watched for a few minutes then I left him to his diagnostics and went into the office area as Rudy was leaving. We exchanged nods then I went looking for my notes, I seriously don't remember contacting them. And speaking of, two shops have missed their appointments this morning.

  I looked up the numbers so I could call them and stress the importance of this to me. I dialed the first one and they told me that they got a cancellation message for the estimate. What the hell? I rescheduled. Just as I was about to dial the second one Mac walked up to the office door and knocked lightly as he walked in to announce his presence. I glanced over and my heart immediately sank when I saw the sad look on his face as he slowly shook his head.

  I put the phone down. “Okay, don't sugar coat it, Mac, how bad is it?”