A Cessna in the Sky
After canvassing on 161st street,
I decided to go by the old nabe, and pay my old barkeep mentor a visit, at Pat’s bar on one hundred fiftieth street, and Brook Av. I was walking south on St.
Ann’s Av on that warm, clear, happy, and sunny day. At about one hundred and fifty second or fifty first street, I heard a strange, sputtering sound above me. I knew I’d heard it before in
countless war movies, the Sky King series, and others, so I looked up. In that clear
blue sky above, I saw a beautiful red, and yellow Cessna in trouble. It was spewing
gray, black smoke, and red, orange fire from the sides of its engine. It was
coming down fast at a very steep angle, and it was going to crash.
“Oh sheeeeeet!” I
found myself screaming.
From what I could see
the plane was headed towards St. Mary’s Park. If not it would have been one horrible, ugly event. Brownstones cover the
eastern side of that avenue, and if it hit there, it would have taken out a few
houses. It would have been a catastrophe.
On the south side of
one hundred and forty ninth, sits the park, with a huge boulder sticking out of the ground, just a few yards from the
street. We used to play cowboys and Indians on it. In the summers we used to spread
dirt on it, and ride pieces of cardboard down its smooth, sloping surface.
In front of the
boulder there is a small lawn. Well, it’s supposed to be a lawn, but in reality it’s really a patch of dirt, intermittently
covered with weeds, grass, rocks, pebbles, and the parks department being what
it is, broken glass. We used to play sand lot base ball there from time to time too.
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