A little East of Paris: Close Air Support

Upon reaching the Student Health Services building, they were greeted at the door by somebody who knew Violet. Olivia was immediately whisked to a private examination room. Since Olivia refused to let go of Gwain’s hand, rather than make a scene, he too was soon in a room.

An intake tech wheeled the inevitable computer terminal into the room and started asking questions and feeding them to the database.

Name...Student Number…Date of birth…ID... all the usual information. Olivia answered with a bare minimum of words.

When the intake tech asked “Reason for visit” Olivia locked up.

Gwain supplied the answer. “Symptoms consistent with a Panic Attack”.

The tech looked at Olivia who nodded “Yes”.

Basic vital statistics like heart rate, O2 Levels and BP were taken and then the impersonal tech ushered himself and his device out of the room.

Olivia was shaking and struggling to keep herself together.

“Is there anything I can do for you?” Gwain asked, gently.

“No” Olivia squeaked out.

Thinking about their experience for a bit, Gwain asked “Would it give you comfort to talk with your dad?”

“I can’t” said Olivia.

“That wasn’t my question. But why can’t you?” Gwain asked.

“I let him down. He was so proud when I went off to college. I let our whole family down. I failed” Olivia whispered.

“Nothing that happened was your fault” Gwain said.

“He will be so disappointed….” Olivia continued.

Gwain knew that many Hispanics have an “honor” culture. He also knew something about the depths of a father’s love.

“If your father is the man I think he is, the only way you could disappoint him is if you DIDN’T call him in your hour of need” Gwain assured her.

Olivia burst into tears and was almost inconsolable. “I just CAN’T call him. I don’t have the energy.”

Gwain was silent for a minute.

“What if I call him?” Gwain asked. “What if I give him the barest facts of the matter and we let him decide if he wants to talk to you?”

Olivia gave the faintest nod of agreement.

“Give me your phone” Gwain commanded.

She wordlessly unlocked it and handed it to him.

Scanning through the contacts, Gwain found “Dad” and pressed the icon to make the call to his mobile phone.

***

Near Kingsville, Texas a few miles southwest of Corpus Christi, Texas, Tony Benavidez was toweling off after his shower. He worked second shift at the refinery and was getting ready to go in for his shift.

His phone went off and it was the ring-tone of his oldest daughter. They hadn’t been in-touch as much as he liked recently but he supposed that was normal for a kid who was at college and caught up in the whirlwind of new experiences.

“What’s up, Baby-doll?” he asked.

He was totally unprepared for a man’s voice to respond in the dry, papery tones of northern New England “My name is Gwain McCampbell and I am one of your daughter’s professors. I am with her at the Student Health Services building where she is being treated.”

“The first thing you need to know is that your daughter is physically safe. She is recovering from a Panic Attack and more than anything else in the world, she needs to hear your voice….”

And with that, Gwain handed the phone back to Olivia.

Olivia immediately released Gwain’s hand as she took her phone from his hands. Gwain moved away from her to give the illusion of privacy. After five minutes, it was clear that Olivia was going to be just-fine.

Gwain edged into her cone-of-vision and gave her a small wave to indicate he was leaving and she gave him an abesent-minded wave of her hand.

As he walked back to his office, Gwain texted Jana “Something came up. I am going to be VERY late.”

Jana responded “Is everything OK?”

Gwain responded “Everything is under control. There are a lot of loose ends to take care of.

Jana, reading the texts deduced that everything was NOT “OK” but that Gwain needed to minimize the damages before he was comfortable heading back home.

“Take all of the time you need, Sweetheart. Drive safely if you leave after dark. I love you.” was all she responded.

Then Jana asked Diane if it was possible to order enough pizza, delivered, to feed both her family and Jana’s. It had turned into a delivered-pizza and Jane Austin kind of night.

Returning to his demolished office, Gwain used the “flash” feature on his phone to take photos of the door-frame. He took a dozen pictures.

Then he looked at the 21 pages (!) of text that Olivia had filled during their ordeal. He quickly read through them, noting some very minor misspellings and punctuation.

Then he scanned them into a PDF and attached the images he had taken. He then submit it as if it was an assignment he had given Olivia Benavidez, Student Number 867-5309. He graded it as 100%. Olivia had slam-dunked the WWHWWW every place it was appropriate. She had also woven in her emotional state and connected it to the events. She even mentioned her father and grandfather, imagining their experiences in the Navy and the terror of being locked into the bowels of an iron ship during the war.

Pondering the screen for a moment, he realized that there were only two more papers required for the term and he wasn’t sure if Olivia was going to find the intestinal fortitude to finish. The twenty-one pages might have enough words in-total to meet the departmental standards for the last two exams.

“Hell, a picture is worth a thousand words” Gwain rationalized. He then put grades of 100% into the cells reserved for the last two papers.

 

On the exposed page of his day-planner Gwain scrawled "Offer entire class option to turn in a story illustrating "The Spirit of Texas" to raise their grade.

***

“I have the key in the ignition and I am only eight hours away” Tony told his daughter, the apple of his eye. “I can come and get you.”

“What about work, Daddy?” Olivia asked.

“I texted my boss. Told him it was a family emergency” Tony told her.

One great thing about working where he did. They understood the importance of family. They asked him to work very long hours but made up for it by knowing that sometimes a man just had to miss work. His boss appreciated the notice and the first-shifter whoever would be held over from first-shift would appreciate the over-time.

Compressing her lips, deep in thought, Olivia made a decision. “No, Daddy. I can do this.”

It tore out his heart, but he agreed to let her stay. But sure-as-hell she was going to have the advantage of close-air-support courtesy of the Tony Benavidez old-boy-network. She might not know that it was there...but it would be.

After hanging up, he texted Hank Lewis. Hank was one of the other Fourth Degree Knights at his K-of-Columbus Chapter.

“Hank. I need a lawyer. Money is no object.”

Tony got a return phone call from Hank sixty-five minutes later.

 

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