Duxford Airfield (the band) Pt. 10

After she died, Danny cried openly for the remainder of the day. A day later we buried Ovia in the courtyard between her two sons, Danny's father, David, and his uncle, Philip. Half the town of Odessa showed up for her funeral.

The next morning Danny said goodbye to the rest of the elderly people living in Prominent House, they were people he'd known and loved his entire life. Danny then threw an old guitar into the back seat of the Buick and we left Prominent House forever..." Alan said, staring out the window.

"...Where did you go?" Helen asked after a silence.

"We rambled for a good while, the Countess had left Danny gobs of money so we just drove and drove, aimlessly. We met a lot of people and smoked a lot of dope and Danny played his guitar. Then one day Danny learned that the rest of the band members were together again in L.A., everyone was back from Vietnam now. Danny's garage band, in those days, had been called 'Desert Mystique', which wasn't a bad name but it wasn't very hip for the nineteen-sixties.

Danny and I were in Arizona someplace when we started the journey to L.A. in the Buick, and we began trying to come up with a better name for the band then. Finally we settled on Duxford Airfield." Alan explained.

"Why Duxford Airfield, Alan? What was the significance with the name Duxford Airfield?" I asked, very intrigued and leaning forward now.

Alan sighed heavily and closed his eyes. He was silent for several long seconds and I began to believe that he wasn't going to reply to me.

"...The answer to that question is complicated, Tim. The name Duxford Airfield was very dear and personal to Danny, and I am currently the only living person in the world that has ever known why Danny selected Duxford Airfield as the band's new name. The only other person that ever knew the true answer to that question was Danny himself" Alan answered.

" - Alan, you don't have the answer that question if you aren't comfortable in doing so" Helen replied, gently.

"Helen, Danny was in love with you and Andrea, both, so I think the question deserves an honest answer. Danny also chose you to write his biography so I'm going to tell you everything that I do know. That's what Danny wanted" Alan said, suddenly looking very tired.

"I understand" Helen nodded.

Alan now continued.

"...Danny told me that, when he was five years old, a very strange man came to live with them. The Countess and everyone in the house made a big deal about this strange man coming to live with them. Danny said the man's eyes were vacant and that sometimes the man would curl up on the floor with a blanket over his head. The man's hair and beard soon became long and straggly and the Countess would have to feed him, like a little kid, otherwise the man wouldn't eat.

Danny didn't like this man and he was also afraid of him. The man would sleep all day and then be up at odd hours of the night. The Countess also had to bathe the man because he wouldn't do it himself. Danny then said that one day a greying Black gentleman came to talk with the Countess, and that they talked for a long time. Danny said that this Black gentleman then sat down with him and explained that he was going to try and help the strange man that was living with them.

Danny said the Black gentleman then went into the strange man's room for a talk behind the closed door. Soon there was loud yelling and also sounds of anguish. Danny said that Mary Wickersham and the Countess were in the kitchen and crying while this was going on. Danny finally found the courage to open the door to the strange man's room and found the two men seated together as the strange bearded man cried with deep sobs. Danny had never seen a grown man cry before...

The next day, very early in the morning, the grey Black man came back and soon sat down for coffee with the Countess and Mary Wickersham. Then the strange man came down from his room for coffee too, only now he had shaved and looked brand new. The grey Black man and the strange White man were soon working outside with hand tools as they began to create a new garden. They worked until late in the day, then they came inside and the Countess and Mary Wickersham fed them supper.

The following day the grey Black man came back and the two men worked in the garden again. This cycle repeated itself for many weeks. Then one day Danny said he looked down from a window and saw the grey Black man with his arm around the strange White man as the White man cried and held his hands over his ears, shaking violently. Danny said that airplanes were flying close to the house when that happened.

The strange White man had been Danny's father, David. I don't know who the Black man had been but I suspect he'd been a World War One drill instructor from another country. Danny said that he had spoken in an accent that he'd never heard before.

Danny later learned that his father had flown with the British during the war, under the sur name of Wickersham, - Mary the nanny's sur name. The Countess had not wanted resentment to follow her son, due to Isaac King's treason twenty years earlier, so David's last name had been legally changed at the insistence of the Countess.

David had become a flight engineer aboard the Avro Lancaster bomber, he was a Yank in a Lanc', as it had often been said by the British fly boys. David did well flying with the British until his forty-third mission. On that day he boarded the aircraft but he couldn't function any longer, he just shook violently and had to be carried off the aircraft and replaced.

I should say, at this point, that courage is similar to a bank account. In war, a man is continuously drawing on that account and sometimes there's no more courage for him to draw upon. No man has an inexhaustible supply of courage, and it has nothing to do with his 'Moral Fiber' as some have suggested. He's faced fear so often that his mind has become numb with shock and his body simply refuses to function any longer. I understand this, and I have experienced this myself.

Nevertheless, Danny told me that regardless of setbacks, the two men kept working in the garden and then one day the grey Black man brought two bicycles with him that morning. Instead of working in the garden, the two men rode away on bicycles, they were gone a long time.

- Coincidently, I don't know if any of you were aware of this or not, but David and his brother Philip had been barnstormers, between the wars. The two brothers had worked odd jobs and then purchased an old World War One biplane - the Countess did not buy it for them. Airplanes were cheap and plentiful after the First World War, and a lot of guys were buying them. Against the wishes of the Countess, David and Philip began flying the thing around the oilfield, and they got pretty good at it.

Once David had returned from Britain, and after months of working in the garden and bicycling hundreds of miles, the Black gentleman began to insist that David fly the biplane again, that he MUST fly it again. David had to face this fear if he wanted to get well and recover.

Danny then said that his father and uncle drug out the old biplane and began working on it for several days. After the brothers had made the machine airworthy again they would sit in the plane and just taxi it around the oilfield but David refused to put the machine into the air. Danny said that after several days of this, taxiing around, that the Black gentleman walked over and talked to David for a long time as the two brothers sat in the airplane.

David was shaking again but nodding his head on occasion to what the Black gentleman was saying. Danny said that his uncle Philip then got out of the airplane and the Black man took his place. Philip then swung the propeller and the engine came to life again. After sitting with the engine idling for several minutes, David slowly turned the ship into the wind and took to the air.

- As I've said, I don't know who this Black gentleman was, but I seriously doubt if he'd ever flown in an airplane before, he was probably an old cavalry soldier from somewhere. The thought of flying probably scared the living hell out of him but he was willing to face his own fears, in an effort to help another man walk through his. That, to me, is extremely admirable.

Danny told me that when the two landed, there were tears and hugs all around and Danny saw his father smile for the first time, in his young life. In the weeks that followed, Danny began taking rides in the biplane with his father. Even the Countess, and Mary Wickersham went up on one or two occasions. Danny said that one day he realized that he loved his father and wanted to be just like him when he grew up.

Soon, David began working for a local air freight company, as a mechanic, where he was employed for a little over two and half years. On weekends, Danny and Philip would go for rides with David in the biplane or the three of them would go fishing or ride bicycles. David was even beginning to date again and he'd met a very lovely blonde girl named Lori, whom Danny liked a lot.

Danny then told me that one day his father came home from work and the two of them had a heart to heart, man to man talk, Danny was eight years old by this time. David explained to his son that there was a very important mission that needed pilots and flight crews. David then told his son that he would be gone on that mission for several weeks, but when he got back, he would take Danny and Lori to a wonderful place where there were lots of big airplanes and pretty stewardesses.

The year was nineteen-forty-nine and the place that David was going to later take his son and girlfriend, was Duxford Airfield" Alan said.

"The year David was killed..." Andrea whispered.

"Did they go to Duxford Airfield?" Helen asked quietly.

"No, Danny never saw his father again" Alan replied.

"Oh my God, I'm so sorry..." Helen gasped, shaking her head and covering her eyes.

"...Then, I would suspect, as a child, Danny must have envisioned Duxford Airfield as some sort of Nirvana, a happy and mystical place..." Andrea speculated.

"He did, he said that whenever he heard the name Duxford Airfield, that it would evoke warm memories of his father on the day he climbed out of the biplane with the Black gentleman, after having flown again. That was the day that Danny learned to love his father" Alan answered.

"...What was the important mission that David was going on, Al?" I asked quietly.

"Danny may have told me, Tim, but I don't remember now. They were flying multi engine planes, and David's crashed, killing all onboard. That's all I remember" Alan replied quietly.

"Oh my God, how sad" Andrea sighed.

Alan continued.

"As Danny and I were travelling in the new Buick, enroute to L.A., I suggested that we get on a plane and go to Duxford Airfield, ourselves. However, Danny declined this offer, saying that he wanted to preserve the memory of his father, exactly as it was. Years later, we did view Duxford Airfield online together and Danny said it looked exactly the way he had always imagined it. Seeing it online made Danny smile at the memory of his father" Alan replied.

"...Duxford Airfield, now I understand" I said quietly.

"Duxford Airfield, the band" Helen echoed.

"Tell us about Danny's mother, Genevieve, please" Andrea requested.

"...When David enlisted with the R.A.F. in early nineteen-forty, he genuinely believed that the British would instantly place him in a Spitfire and that the whole experience would be like some romantic movie, complete with a beautiful British girl to come home with.

He did marry the girl, Danny's mother, but the rest of David's time in Britain was a daily nightmare of death and destruction, in the air as well as on the ground, that's what war is.

It was said that Genevieve had been David's steadfast rock and that no matter how brutal the air war with the Luftwaffe became, David could manage, with her by his side. He later sent her here to the States, in nineteen-forty-one, just before Danny was born. She wrote to him every day after that.

She was a lovely girl, from the sound of it, and the Countess spoke highly of her. However, Danny didn't remember Genevieve, which was probably fortunate. She's buried in the family plot beside David and the Countess" Alan said.

"We saw it today" Kendall replied.

"What happened to her, Alan, do you know?" Andrea asked.

"She was riding horseback on the property when her horse got spooked and took off at a full run. The horse ran under a tree and Genevieve was too inexperienced to duck her head and she hit a tree limb. She was dead before she hit the ground. The Countess blamed herself for the accident and never forgave herself. The loss of his young wife Genevieve, alone, probably pushed David over the edge" Alan said quietly.

We were all silent for a brief moment before Alan continued.

" - We drove the heck out of that new Buick, that summer, but Danny always had time to stop at hospitals along the way and play his guitar and encourage people. He lifted many spirits and he even set up an answering service so he could keep in touch with the new friends that he made along the way. Some of them became life long friends.

We were leaving one such hospital late one evening when Danny said something to me that I've never forgotten. He said that he was never going to have another bad day in his life again, he was going to see the humor in everything. He stuck to those words, as you well know, ladies" Alan said, looking at Helen Lunsford and my wife.

"Only good days ahead" my wife now quoted Danny Wickersham.

"...Only good days ahead" Helen echoed softly.

Both ladies were wiping a few more tears from their cheeks now.

There was a full minute of silence that followed.

Looking around the room, I suddenly realized that the two oilfield workers, Jack Gillette, and Rod Lewis, had left.

"Andrea, remember whenever Danny would get really drunk, that he'd talk with a Texas drawl? I always thought that he was just hamming it up and talking that way for fun, but it must have been his native tongue coming through" Helen now speculated with a smile.

"I always thought the same thing, Helen! As you must recall, Danny could also speak with a perfect Australian accent, almost as if he'd been born in Sydney, himself" Andrea said, smiling back.

"...Al, what ever became of David's friend, the elderly Black gentleman?" Helen suddenly asked.

"Helen I don't remember if Danny ever told me or not. It's been more than fifty years since Danny and I crossed the country in that Buick. I think the only name, if you will, that Danny ever knew the man by was, Sergeant. Otherwise I could have probably found some history on the man by now" Alan reasoned.

"Aw, thats too bad, what an interesting man he must have been" Helen replied.

"Yes, quite a man, from the way I heard it from Danny" Alan nodded.

"Alan that's another question that's been nagging at us for a very long time now, Danny's own past history, prior to nineteen-sixty-eight. Essentially there is none, at least not on paper anywhere, do you have any idea why that is?" Andrea asked.

"It's because the Countess spent the last forty years of her life, and many hundreds-of-thousands of dollars, obliterating any trace that Isaac King had ever existed. Before her sale of the oilfield, the Countess had possessed tremendous power and influence, and in this one case alone, she had wielded it to the absolute fullest.

She hated the name of Isaac King with a livid passion, and as a consequence of this, the name of Dennis King also got washed away with that of Isaac King, undoubtedly by deliberate design of the Countess. She'd probably envisioned, all along, that her grandson would eventually take the sur name of Wickersham but she had left that choice entirely up to Danny, himself" Alan explained.

"...I understand now" my wife replied.

"You toured with the band, at first, didn't you, Al?" Helen now asked.

"Yes, I was Danny's bodyguard, per se. At that time, even with just one arm, I could still be a pretty salty character when I wanted to be, and no one was going to mess with Danny when I was around" Alan nodded.

"Why did you leave the band?" Andrea asked.

"When the band, now known as Duxford Airfield, cut the 'Johnnie's Girl' album, we believed that it'd do fairly well. None of us had any idea that it'd go nuts, the way it did. Danny had changed his name to Wickersham by that point and the song Greenland Rose went to number thirty-six on the top one-hundred chart, and when it did, our whole world went completely wild. If I'd stayed with the band, I'd probably be long since dead. We were all getting pretty out of hand during those days and drugs were everywhere.

Another reason I left the band was because a magazine article picked up on the fact that I'd worked with the C.I.A. at one time, and some people began hinting that I was some kind of a Narc.' All of us strongly denied that allegation, of course, but Vietnam was still raging then and many people were anti-establishment at that point. I didn't want to taint the image of the band or limit their success, so I left" Alan answered.

"That must have been when Danny started telling the press and everyone else, that he was an F.B.I. agent and all the other nonsense that he used to feed them" Andrea said rolling her eyes.

"He played it to the hilt alright. After he started telling everyone all that stuff, no one believed it any more. That's when the newspapers and talk show hosts began diving into his past, but couldn't find anything at all. The Countess had already obliterated it completely" Alan nodded in agreement.

"...Greenland Rose, my God, how many people have recorded that song since Danny wrote it, I wonder?" Helen asked as she stared off into space.

"I don't know, Helen, about a dozen or more, I think" Alan replied.

My wife reached into her purse and pulled out her poker chip from the Dunes casino and held it in her hand as she stared at it.

"...Al, what's with the poker chips that Danny left us?" Andrea asked, looking up at the man and handing him the hundred dollar chip.

"Andrea, I honestly don't know, Danny never told me. He was in love with both, you and Helen, so maybe he just wanted you to remember the fun times all of you had shared there at the Dunes casino" Alan said, handing back the chip.

"...Maybe so, Alan, maybe it really was just that simple" Andrea replied quietly.

I saw a single tear flow down my wife's cheek now, in memory of her friend, Danny Wickersham.

"Alan, we found some music, that the Countess wrote, many, many, years ago and we want to have someone record it. None of us want any royalties, we just want to see that her work isn't lost or forgotten. Could you help us with the legalities of that, please?" Helen now asked.

"The album will be out next month, you and Andrea will get the first two copies. Danny spent the last year of his life secretly composing and recording all of her music himself. The album will only be available in vinyl and will be entitled Ovia Epps, Castle of Weeds" Alan replied in a whisper

My wife and Helen now broke down in tears at hearing this.

"...We found the music for Castle of Weeds and had someone play it for us, it was unbelievable!" Helen sobbed.

"The Countess worked on that piece from nineteen-sixteen until nineteen-forty, when David went to war. There are many instrumentals on the new album that you will cherish, Danny played several of them for me" Alan answered.

"...I'm so glad, I'm so very glad to hear that Danny himself, recorded her music, Alan" Helen sniffled.

"Alan, why couldn't the Countess speak?" Andrea asked abruptly, wiping her own eyes.

"Andrea, she could speak, when she wanted to, in fact she had spoken several languages fluently at one time. Danny told me that she often told all of her boys that she loved them but she wouldn't verbally say much of anything else" Alan said.