An old friend from my service days has re-emerged.
This guy made such an impact on my life that I have never forgot him. We served in the Air Force at Edwards AFB, on the Mojave Desert, in California. We saw the very first landing of the Space Shuttle. Edwards AFB is near Los Angeles. Dwaylon was from L.A., and that is where he is now. I found him on Facebook!
We are opposites: he grew up in the city/I grew up in a small town; he grew up with Rock-n-Roll/I grew up with Country Music. Dwaylon's skin is dark/my skin is light.
But one thing is the same - we both had kind hearts. It is that quality about Dwaylon that allowed me to not see 'color' when we worked together, ate lunch at the cafeteria, and rode in his car to the Dental Clinic and back to the dorm each weekday. We worked closely at the Dental Clinic's front desk for about a year, making appointments, pulling records for the next day's patients, etc. When I looked at Dwaylon I just saw a cute, quality person who was nice to me.
In 2000, I began a novel called "Derailing Dwaylon". I'm bringing the story out of the dust. Currently, there are about 43 pages. When full-blown, it should be about 250 - 300 pages. Spent some time tonight editing a bit...I think I'll spend some time tweaking and see where it goes.
This story isn't necessary 'about' Dwaylon. I don't know enough about my old friend to pretend I could write details of his life, thoughts, actions, hopes, and dreams as a young man living in L.A in the 1960s & 1970s. However, I have an idea of how the Dwaylon of my imagination would live, think, act, hope and dream. It is this aura of the person I base my main character on.
And so, I will now work for a year or more on my novel and see if it was worth the effort. I will blend what I know and what I feel, be it fact or fiction.
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