Page 121 - The Jazzsipper Novel

120

THE JAZZ SIPPER

Chapter Twelve---Straight, No Chaser

The plane landed about 2:00 pm Friday evening New Orleans time. From the
time Aunt Jessie called him at 9:00 am that morning Vance had a hard time
getting his thoughts together. She told him that his Uncle Frank had been
rushed to the hospital unconscious. Aunt Jessie said that Uncle Frank was
found in his work truck slumped over the steering wheel. Vance noticed how
scared Aunt Jessie sounded on the telephone; she had called Vance while
waiting for her neighbor to get dress and take her to the hospital. Vance
assured Aunt Jessie that everything was going to be all right and that he was
on his way. As soon as Aunt Jessie hung up the telephone, Vance started
moving, getting himself together so he could get to New Orleans as soon as
he could. Within an hour he had gotten dress and had packed his suitcases.
Now, he was waiting on a taxi to take him to the airport. The earliest flight he
could get going to New Orleans was a flight that was leaving Atlanta at 1:45
pm Atlanta time and arriving in New Orleans 2:00 pm New Orleans time.
Vance had tried to past the time in the airport by calling the hospital to check
on Uncle Frank. He kept getting the run around. But, the last person he talked
with told him that Uncle Frank was still in surgery. This raised Vance’s
aggravation even more. Once the plane landed, Vance hit the ground running.

This was his Aunt Jessie and Uncle Frank. To Vance it didn’t get any more
serious than that, he would have fought to his death for them. Once in the taxi
Vance told the cabbie to take him to Charity Hospital. It had been seven years
since he had left New Orleans to go into the military. He was in the Navy three
years. Then, he moved to Atlanta and had been living there for the past four
years. Wow! He thought to himself time waits on no one.