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© 2005, Scott A Seal, Minneapolis
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Learning not to get killed
We had 5 seconds until we crossed over the numbers on the runway but still we were in the clouds. I counted backwards from 5...4...3 I kicked the right foot pedal and turned the yoke to the left for about 1 second. This cross-controlled the airplane and it dropped like a rock. Plooof, just like that we were out of the clouds. In front of me and below were two big white numbers, a 3 and a 0. I dumped the flaps, closed the throttles and flared. The main wheels hit and we rolled down the runway. My chest was splitting open from the adrenaline. I looked at my copilot with affected calm and went, "Whey!" He was staring straight ahead. His whole face was scrunched into a knot and then it popped open all over me.
"YOU SHOULD HAVE ING GONE AROUND!"
Picasso and me
I nodded back at the Englishmen and stepping closer to them for a better view, I focused again on the old man. He was clearly somewhere else in his head, and he gave me the impression that he was ignoring the whole group. It dawned on me that the crew was working furiously to get the job done perhaps so as not to upset him. As I gazed upon him, it slowly occurred to me who the guy was.
Those first moments in Asia
Down the road is a pile of putrid trash. A large cow is standing hoof deep in it and picking out the ingestible. We passed an older woman who was standing off to the side. She had grabbed a section of her Saari and pulled it astride. A driving stream of urine was splattering in the dust between her feet, turning it to mud and pooling around her toes. For the first time the gumbo of Indian aromas merged in my nose: sewer smell, putrid piss, rancid rubbish, flaming firewood and the delicate, wafting scent of sandalwood.
The Emperor's box:
The spectacle went on for only about an hour, which was long enough to wind up the audience before letting `em loose on the town to spend their money. Mike and Steve and I finished that bottle just about the time the show ended. They were up for some fun... something against the law...something that meant trouble. Steven turned to Michael and said, "Let's break into the Coliseum and sit in the Emperor's box." The Emporer's box? I thought. Break in?!!! BREAK IN TO THE EMPORER'S BOX?!! IN THE COLISEUM? IN ROME?!!! Suddenly I started feeling my mom calling me.
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