He bought me a drink in the Dallas airport and then another and soon we began spending all our layovers together. He was charming and handsome, and something about his flying an aircraft just hypnotized me. I’d seen those controls. I’d imagined myself trying to learn everything he’d had to learn in order to fly, and if I thought about it, it made my head swim. He carried all of us safely in the air. It was a lot of responsibility and made him all the more attractive to me. Robert Friedberg, the cutest pilot to ever fly the friendly skies, was interested in me, and he proved to be the perfect antidote to thinking about Vesey Washington. By this time, Vesey was married, and he and Beulah Washington were farming away as husband and wife, digging in the soil, selling their produce on the side of the road. I could picture them. It was quaint, really, and I was happy for Vesey. Truly, I was. I was glad he finally had a happy ending to his life. There you have it. I was no longer responsible for his happiness or sadness—not that I ever had been, but I’d carried the weight of it, for sure.
What do You think about Beyond Molasses Creek (2011)?
