Training Time
As morning light shined through the window Dusty woke up. He looked at the alarm clock which read 4:55 a.m.
"4:55…a.m…Wait what?! I'm supposed to meet Skipper at 5:00!" Dusty exclaimed.
Dusty quickly drank a can of oil and flew outside to meet Skipper at his hangar. By the time he got there Skipper was already there.
"Your late!" he said.
"I-I'm sorry Skipper! I didn't mean t-to I just usually sleep until 8:00." Dusty stammered.
"I thought you wake up at 4:00 to dust the crops?" Skipper teased.
"It's Saturday Skipper…" Dusty said flatly while rolling his eyes.
"Any ways let's get started. Down the field there are 3 silos waiting for you. Do a Radial-G around them."
"Okay."
"Then do some tree moguls, do a loop and catch him in the dive at the finish line. Got it?"
"Wait race who?"
"That's John. You're going to be racing his shadow. Now go!"
Dusty took off the run way and headed for the silos. He leaned from one side to another in order to complete his Radial-G's.
"Your Radial-G's are horrible!"
"Yeah!" said Sparky.
"Oh shut-up Sparky!" yelled Dusty into his radio.
Next Dusty did some tree mogul's which were decent so Skipper didn't say anything.
"Okay begin your loop! Good, good…now dive!"
"Okay, okay." Argued Dusty.
"Never-mind. You already lost." Said Skipper.
Dusty landed. Skipper was waiting for him at the end of the runway.
"That was horrible! You fly to low and to slow!"
"Hey Skip!" said Sparky as he pointed to the sky.
"Let's see how high you can fly." said Skipper.
"O-okay."
Once again Dusty took off the runway as Skipper stayed on the ground ready to coach him.
"Okay, begin your climb now!" Skipper instructed.
"A-a-alright…" Dusty said nervously.
"Why are you stammering?"
"I-it's cold here!" Dusty lied.
"Well we're not exactly in Africa are we?"
As Dusty flew higher and higher his altitude meter began to show 1000 feet…2000 feet…3000 feet. At that moment Dusty looked down. He gasped and clenched his eyes shut. To him the ground looked like it was swirling-trying to make him crash.
"What are you doing?! Open your eyes! Get your nose down. Get your nose down you're going to stall!"
But Dusty didn't listen. He was just relieved to begin his decent back down to the ground.
"What's he doing?!" mumbled Skipper to himself.
Dusty landed and approached Skipper.
"What was that?" yelled Skipper.
"I-I'm low on fuel…" Dusty said.
"You think I was welded together yesterday?"
"No!"
"Then weld yourself together! My squadron, The Jolly-Wrenches, have a motto: Volo-pro Veritas. It means I fly for truth! Obviously you don't. Push me back Sparky."
Dusty just stood there afraid to tell the truth. He knew that without Skipper he couldn't compete in the race. He knew he had to tell the truth.
"I'm afraid of heights!" he yelled.
Chug, Sparky and Skipper froze. If Skipper was in mid-air his engine would've stalled. Chug broke the silence.
"Dusty-but-you're a plane!" he whispered.
"Of-coarse I am! But I'm a crop-duster… I've never flown higher than 1000 feet. I'm used to low heights…" he answered.
"Huh! Afraid of heights and you want to compete in a race against the toughest racers! You might as well try to fly underwater!"
Dusty sighed, "I guess it was just not meant to be…"
Everyone stood in pure silence. No one knew what to say. Dusty was sad, Sparky and Chug were astonished, and Skipper was thinking.
"Tomorrow…tomorrow we will work on that. Come on Sparky! Push me back to the hangar!"
And with that the day ended.
