Read The Quintessence of Quick (The Jack Mason Saga) for Free Online

Linda,” she said. “Don’t suppose you have a chance to see much of it, as yet.”
    “Actually, she saw all of it about an hour ago,” said Jack, grinning. “From five thousand feet.”
    “Jack! You devil! This girl’s just barely unpacked, and you shove her in to Gene Debs’s old airplane? Shame on you!”
    Jack laughed. “Don’t get mad at me; she made me do it.”
    “I’m a pilot, myself, Mrs. Terrell,” said Linda. When Jack told me that one of his uncles was a crop duster, I gave him no peace whatever until he promised that we’d go flying as soon as we got here.”
    “My goodness! Well, in that case it’s easy to see how the two of you got together. Jack came by the flying bug naturally, what with Gene Debs and all. And poor Moses Kubielski. I’m sure Jack’s told you about him.”
    “Yes, he has. He must’ve been a wonderful man.”
    “And like a father to Jack, and Ricky too, for that matter,” said Melinda. “Such a tragic way to go, and him so young. Oh, I’m sorry to bring all of it up, Jack; it’s just that I can’t bear the thought of anything happening to y’all.” She paused, looking at Jack with a face gone somber. “I guess I should wait and let him tell you, Jack, but I just can’t. Ricky got a notice from the draft board to report for his physical exam.”
    Jack took a minute before breaking the room’s dead quiet. “Is that right? From the Bisque draft board? I would’ve thought that he’dve changed his legal residence to Baltimore.”
    “He mentioned it a time or two, but I don’t suppose he did anything about it. You know how he puts things off.”
    “Well, it sure is bad timing. He had a great rookie season, and I’m sure the Colts’d be giving him more playing time this year. Even Ray Berry has to catch his breath now and then.”
    “Well, I was hoping he’d get it out of his system after a couple of years anyway, and get a regular job,” said Melinda. He didn’t get a degree from Georgia Tech for nothing, you know. And I worry day and night about him getting hurt. Maybe this is the Lord’s way of telling him it’s time to let football go.”
    Jack’s eyes transited the room’s ceiling tiles before they returned to her face. “That’s certainly a possibility. There’s also the possibility that he could fail the physical. Or he might get into the National Guard or Reserves. Has he given you any idea of what he’s thinking at this point?”
    Melinda’s hands were knotted in her lap. “Not a bit. We’ve only talked to him once since he got the notice; he said he’d be checking with some people in Baltimore to get their advice. I don’t expect that we’ll hear from him again before he gets home next week.”
    “Well, please try not to worry too much about it between now and then, Mrs. Terrell,” Linda said. “Even if he turns out to be drafted, we’re not at war, and with any luck we won’t be for the time that he’d be in the Army.” She looked at Jack. “It’d just be for two years, right?”
    “That’s it, as far as I know,” he said.
    They visited for a while longer; Greta, Rick’s sister, now a sophomore at Bisque High, was agonizing over whether or not to try out for cheerleading, and weren’t the new property taxes outrageous? Graciously declining the proffered BLT once more, Jack and Linda left Melinda Terrell to ponder her children’s destinies, promising to come to dinner one night next week.
    “She’s quite a lady, “ Linda observed as they backed out of the driveway.
    “That’s for sure,” said Jack. “Sometimes I feel like she raised me, too.”
    “She literally lives for her kids, doesn’t she?”
    “And ol’ Richard. She loves the shit out of that man, open debits and all.”
    “What the hell is an ‘open debit’, anyway?”
    “That means one of his agents quit, or got fired,” Jack chuckled. Seems like he’s had at least one open debit since Rick and I were little bitty boys.”
    “Agents?”
    “Life