turning the knobs.”
He tried to kiss her, but she backed away. He complained, “Aw, come on. You don’ give me none. I set up this whole thing you know.”
She answered, “You opened the door, idiot, but I brought all the tickets.”
“Yeah, yeah. You go pick through all his stuff, and I’ll get these huge boxes open.”
“Use all your mechanics skills.”
“Don’t you go makin’ fun o’ my profession. Wasn’t for me, you’d still be havin’ breakfast with him and waitin’ for him to die o’ old age.”
“Just get them opened. I’ll be back in a few minutes. I’ll be up in the living room so call me if the numbers are too big or somethin’.”
“Real funny.”
Julie (Morgan) Larue
Julie lived in Mineral Wells all of her life. Growing up, her parents had warned her to stay away from the soldiers at Ft. Wolters. She didn’t follow their advice and had fallen in love with Bobby Lowe one summer after high school when he was a student at the helicopter school. She lost her virginity to Bobby, before he transferred to Ft. Rucker in Alabama. He came back on leave to see her after graduation as a new pilot and he looked so handsome in his officer’s uniform. He was a W1 Warrant Officer. If her parents had ever met him, she was sure they would be pleased that she had violated their rules.
After Bobby left for his first assignment in South America, they wrote almost every day. He would write about his adventures and new friends, especially Jake Ramsey, and she would write back about her days at Mineral Wells, where she was taking classes at Junior College. She missed her period shortly after he departed and introduced the idea to him that she might be pregnant. He responded that he wanted to marry her. It turned out to be a false alarm, but her last letter to him, explaining it, didn’t arrive until after he was killed. The Army didn’t know about their relationship, so she never got any more official information except the returned letters. She had difficulty confirming his circumstance and she worried for weeks, until someone she called at the Department of the Army confirmed he was KIA (Killed in Action). Jake finally wrote to her, but it was mostly about his kinship with Bobby and nothing about his last day.
She was heartbroken and pulled out of school for a semester but was able to return the following term and ultimately went on to finish her degree at the university and earned her teaching certificate. She met Paul LaRue at Texas Southern University, another teaching major. They fell in love and were married for over twenty-five years before he died suddenly of an aneurism. She was unable to get pregnant despite their desire to have a family. Although she was happy with Paul, she never stopped thinking about Bobby Lowe and wondered what life might have been with him. First love lingers for a lifetime.
She was overwhelmed when Callie Ramsey (Callie Murray) contacted her saying her father had flown with Bobby. She said she was Jake Ramsey’s daughter and had looked for Julie after her father told her about his experiences in the Army and especially about the drug wars in South America. She said he called Bobby Lowe his best friend in the Drug War and told her about his regret that he had never contacted “Julie” after he got back from South America. Callie found Julie by searching alumni databases online with help at the library and calling people in Mineral Wells. It only took three calls to find her.
They agreed to meet, and Callie drove from Abilene to Mineral Wells, staying with Julie for two days. When the doorbell rang, Julie wasn’t quite sure how to react. She opened the door to see this beautiful young woman with a radiant smile. She assumed it was Jake’s image she was looking at. “Oh, Callie, it’s so nice to see you in person. I feel like we’re kin.”
They hugged on the front stoop, then Julie invited her inside. “Oh, Mrs. LaRue, I cain’t tell you how excited I am to be here. My daddy, he talked about Bobby Lowe all the time, and near his end, talked about how much he regretted not coming to see you.”
“Here, sit, dear. I was afraid to ask, but your daddy is dead too, isn’t he?”
“Yes, ma’am. He stayed in the Army, then was a pilot in Louisiana. He was killed during Hurricane Katrina tryin’ to rescue people.”
“Oh, dear. You must have been very proud of him.”
Oh, yes, ma’am. He was my hero.”
“So, tell me what made you look for me?”
Callie smiled, “Well, I think he thought about you all his life, even though he didn’t know you personally. I think he and Bobby Lowe was like brothers, and Daddy always had some guilt about not comin’ to see you. I think at first he was ashamed, then just lost track ‘a time.”
Julie sat reflectively, delicately holding Callie’s hand. “You know, I had a wonderful marriage to a man I loved with all my heart, but I lost him last year -- just like you lost your daddy. What about your mother, dear?”
“Oh, my momma left us when I was a baby. Daddy raised me alone. I don’t remember anything ‘bout her.”
“All right then. You and I should get to know each other.”
Over the next two days, the women bonded. They drove around Mineral Wells, and Julie showed Callie where Ft. Wolters had been. It had closed over twenty years earlier. Jake and Bobby had both learned to fly helicopters there. On the second evening, just as Callie was preparing to leave, Julie opened an old metal box in the garage and showed Callie the letters Bobby had sent her. She read several parts aloud, particularly the parts about Jake. Callie was brought to tears at one point with the vicarious experience shared with these two young men. She also appreciated the depth of feeling Bobby had for Julie.
Julie commented, “You know, dear, I haven’t read these letters in almost thirty years, and they’ll go back in the box again until I’m gone. The memories are just not worth revisiting. I have my dreams, and that’s enough.”
“Well, Julie, I hope we can stay in touch. It’s real special bein’ here and feelin’ touched by my daddy again, and Bobby.”
“Dear, I’m so glad you came. I never expected to hear anything about this again, and I wish I had known your daddy. Now, that will never happen. I’m not sad now since you came here for him. I’ll always cherish this time with you.”
The following morning Callie had everything packed in the car at dawn. Julie made her a lunch for the road. “Where will you go now, dear?”
“I’m goin’ to California, Julie. Jake has a brother he hadn’t seen in a long time. I wanna go see him.”
They hugged and Julie placed her hand on Callie’s shoulder, “You travel safe now, sweetheart, and I wish you all the happiness in the world.”
“Thank you, ma’am. I have so much more to be happy ‘bout now that I met you.”
She backed out of the driveway and drove slowly away down the tree-lined row of ranch homes, heading for the Interstate. Her destination wasn’t California. She was heading for Louisiana, as fast as the old Buick would drive. The visit was more than expected. It was incredible. Not only did she know details about Bobby that would establish her background story, she had the letters! Julie would never know they were gone and would never look for Jake in Louisiana.
Survival
Jake had to get on top of the platform. He needed rest, and out of the water his body temperature had risen closer to normal, renewing his energy. He stood on the narrow maintenance ladder, suspended above the water. It took at least a quarter hour, but feeling returned to his hands and feet. He felt more limber and able to climb. Sixty feet above, there was a small hatch to the deck above. His muscles ached pulling himself straight up, one rung at a time.
It took several minutes, struggling to reach the top of the ladder. It was almost a hundred feet down to the churning water, if he fell. The hatch was about two feet in diameter with a hand wheel in the center. He tried turning the wheel with one hand. It didn’t budge. By releasing both hands from the ladder and suspending awkwardly with both hands on the wheel he was able to turn it about fifteen degrees before it st
opped. There was a metallic sound from the chain locking the wheel from above. He knew the platform had been fully secured before people left. It was normal for all hatchways to be locked closed to prevent trespassing. It was implausible that anyone would purposely try to climb up the stanchions and risk smashing a boat in the boiling water below, but it was still normal practice to lock all hatches. He cursed out loud.
He rested for a few moments with his arm hooked around the top rung. He would never be rescued while hidden from view under the platform deck. He had to get above. The current below was moving fast and his fear of sharks was justified. The water was dark in the shadows of the massive platform, but he knew the creatures were there, he’d seen them many times when landing.
His only chance of survival boiled down to clutching the I-beams above that supported the deck and hand-walking to the edge of the Platform. At the edge, there were strong horizontal stainless steel rope nets all around the platform to protect workers from falling into the ocean. When he was in his twenties, in good shape, he wouldn’t hesitate to pull himself along the overhead beams, his arms supporting his weight. But he wasn’t young anymore, and he weighed more. He hadn’t worked out on overhead bars for three decades and didn’t know if he could even hold his own weight, much less move twenty feet to the netting.