The Floatplane Notebooks Read Free

birthdays in there?”
    â€œSo they won’t get lost.”
    â€œWhat will the FAA say if you got all—”
    â€œIt’s a record. That’s all it is. I’m keeping it. It’s my record. You want a record of something,
you
write it up. But don’t you go complaining about
my
record or how I keep it, or I’ll hide it. You ain’t no government official.”
    I asked him later about the lake being at sea level and he said all water has to be at sea level. You can’t tell him nothing.

BLISS
    Mr. Copeland was explaining about a company in Michigan that modified chain-saw engines for use on airplanes when Uncle Hawk stood and said, “I got to feed the dogs. Who wants to come?”
    I can’t get over the importance of dogs to this family.
    Mr. Copeland, Meredith, and Mark went along and Thatcher reluctantly followed, wanting to be with me, I firmly believe, yet not wanting, I suppose, to be the only man left inside among several women.
    They went out the back door. I momentarily harbored the thought of going with Thatcher out into the night to feed the dogs, but relinquished it.
    â€œWell, how about you, Bliss?” says Aunt Sybil, turning to me. “Where did you get a lovely name like that?”
    â€œIt was my grandmother’s name. She died before I was born.”
    â€œI think it’s wonderful to keep names in the family. Wenamed Lee after my sister, who had died a year to the day before Lee was born. Poor thing had a stroke and there is not the slightest history of stroke in the family. When’s the wedding?”
    â€œNext spring. May fifth. The day after the gravecleaning. Mr. Copeland suggested that—so you and Uncle Hawk would be up there too.”
    â€œWell, that’s just wonderful. Thatcher is such a nice young man. And I’ve been watching him grow up since he weren’t bigger than nothing.”
    In the back door comes all the men with the addition of a Dan Braddock, whom I had heard some talk about, but whom I had yet to meet. I knew he was Uncle Hawk’s partner at the store, but wasn’t around too much because of his other businesses.
    They came in and Uncle Hawk pulled in another chair from the dining room. Dan Braddock hugged a few necks, took a seat, and went into talking about his business. His appearance was singular. Most noticeable was his belt being extraordinarily high, with the main portion of his stomach below his belt buckle. He had a big, fat, red face, a Stetson hat, which he did not remove, but instead pushed back on his head. He had this noticeable manner of looking around at everybody without ever lighting down on one person. He went into talking about “the old days” and started using curse words and told about cheating the town of Lubbock, Texas, out of four thousand dollars on a land deal and about how he wanted to get into the real estate business full time.
    Miss Esther suddenly stands up and says she wants to go on back to get ready for bed. I also stood, knowing the languagewas getting too rough for my ears. Then Miss Esther told Mark he ought to go out and get ready for bed. Mark looked at Meredith, Meredith looked at his mother, Mildred, and said, “I want to stay.”
    â€œAm I talking too strong for the kids?” asked Mr. Braddock.
    I myself certainly thought so.
    â€œYes, I suppose. A little, I think,” said Miss Esther.
    â€œIt’s too bad Thomas didn’t live through the war,” Mr. Braddock said to Miss Esther. “You’d a had to get used to it.”
    â€œThomas never cheated nobody, Dan, and if he did he didn’t laugh about it.”
    â€œWell,” said Mr. Braddock, “I understand he might have cheated somebody.”
    Miss Esther didn’t say anything. She stood there staring at him for about five or ten seconds and then walked on into the bedroom.
    As I departed, I noticed that Mr. Braddock’s eyes were darting around