L 219 F

It is on the third of June in 1992. The telephone rings.

" Jane ? How are you?"

"Dad? I'm fine , thanks. And you?"

'Thanks. Jane, happy birthday! Tha call is because I have forgotten to buy flowers. You know, I was in the cemetery at your mother's tomb and I was talking to her for such a long time that
it was evening when I got home. So, I could not buy you anything but to give you my best wishes."

" Thanks. It is like a flower to me. You know in the army almost everyone sent me a red rose but none of them was as beautiful as your wish for happy birthday."

"Darling, would you come to your dad the day after tomorrow? What about celebrating your birthday in a friendly company?"

"All right, dad. As you want. But tomorrow evening Iam going to fly with Kate, you know with that F-117A which had something to repaire in the data recording system."

"Nice. My daughter is a pilot, my son is a businessman. If your mother lived she would make my face squared with her own nails."

"Father, you are great. Let me have a break. Bye!"

She put down the receiver and looked at the clock. It was almost midnight. For her tomorrow will be a hard day, the first test of the data recording system. She began thinking about the system. If it does not function she depends only on the earth control. It did not work always. There is for example the case of her father. He began his service in the army in 1947 with the last model of the ME 163 fighter. It is an old and very dangerous type. The probability that the aircraft catch fire is in a very high percentage. The place of the tank is the worst that can be imagined to say nothing of the pilot's position. When her father's aircraft was taking off one of the wings got on fire. After it her father decided on continuing the taking off and he
succeeded carrying out his task. At landing the only problem was that he was unable to leave the plane so his left leg stucked in and burnt. On this way he was not capable to continue flying so he had to retire.

This happened many years ago. But as she put back the receiver Jane had a very bed feeling. It was similar to that feeling when she and her father flew together at the first time.

Her mother was crying and did not want to watch the event. So she went away in the street to take a taxi and went home. They remained alone. She was frightened. The only question she asked from her father was why her mother went away. Instead of the answer her father pushed her into the cab than she could feel that the aircraft started very slowly than became faster and faster. Suddenly lots of spotlights appeared in front of her and she was siezed with such a fear that she had to close her eyes and was unable to move any more. Then she heard her father ordering her continuosly to open her eyes. When she did it she saw the most beautiful thing that can be seen in the world. The green medows below her and the rivers like a blue ribbon. The whole picture was similar to the one she saw in her story-books.

It was a wonderful experience.

Than the picture became obscurer continuosly and the picture of the yard appeared among the barracks. It remained in her mind almost uneffaceably with its red slag where every morning they had to run great circles on bare-foot and thousands of press-up were required in order to make the body strong as Mr Brown, the captain noticed every occasion. It is such a tiering exercise, she never loved it.

"Good morning ladies and gentlemen. You are listening to channel seven."

It is the reality-she realized in her awakening moment. "Why on earth should I go back in the army?"-asked herself. "Just do it."-heard her father's voice as clearly as at the first
flying. Slowly, very slowly she crawled from the bed then took her uniform that layed on the sofa where she put it two days ago. It was time to go.

At the gate Jim was on the guard so after a kiss she could go on. She presented herself at the post to give the daily order. Coming back to her barrack she stopped at the door and looked
very surprised. The daily order did not contain the test-flying but an order to go in the cemetry for the funeral of captain Brown. He tested the aircraft instead of her. During taking off
one wing of the plane caught fire and the whole machine became a fire- bird. He had enough time to jump out but his parachute was not so strong to bear his weight. Its straps opened at his thighs and he fell down as an object from a height of more than 12000 km. He died on the spot. At his funeral the quality of the FX-10 parachute was not mentioned only his courage that drove him into death. At that moment she thought over the possibility that she could have died on the similar way but at the same time she remembered the feeling of being in the air and seeing the earth like a story-book picture and forgetting everything that is going on the earth. As she thought this the volley could be heard and then the dull sound of the clods.

Arriving back to the barrack she wished for flying. She started the engine of the plane and went higher and higher not noticing that the engine did not function periodically but the
only thing she could concentrate on was to forget everything.