MICHAEL DENNIS MOONEY -- new writings

by tom nowak


we pulled into the drive and parked
the house was very rundown
the neighborhood was also rundown
so the house didn't look out of place
we walked up the creaky stairs
and came to a halt in front of an old door
i knocked a couple of times
we heard someone inside walking towards the door
the shade moved and a man peeked out
hey man i said
hey he said back
he opened the door and gave me a big hug
how are you doing, pete? he asked
i'm ok jack, this is wendy
wendy this is jack
come on in he said
jack was tall, thin and had very long hair
appropriate for that time
sit anywhere he said

the music stopped playing in the background
i'll be right back, jack said
he came back into the room and smiled
i have a timer set for one hour on the music
it stops every hour and i have to reset it
i do that because i lose track of time
i laughed, very cool i said
jack pointed to a plate on the table
help yourself, he said
the plate had a pile of cocaine on it
we just got this in yesterday
let me know how you feel about it
wendy drew us up several lines and offered the plate to jack
she always had a knack of knowing the rules
jack took the plate and inhaled the lines
i got it next
as the lines entered my nose
it was followed by a rather strong burning sensation
jack laughed at me
wendy, the old trooper she was, took the lines in with no problems
jack looked at her and said do more
she did and then the tears appeared at her eyes
we all laughed
that comes from our south american pipeline
i nodded

you remember bill west? he asked
yes i replied
he was a pilot in the air force, wasn't he?
jack said yes he was
now he works for john and me
cool i said
as i recall you came here to increase your weed trade, i said
yeah he said, we still do that
but the shipments from southeast asia
are going to come to an abrupt halt soon
the u.s. is pulling out of vietnam
and that means all our guys over there are coming home
we still have some shipments coming into hamilton and travis
but we don't know exactly when it will stop

it seems that when one wants to open an illicit trade
that can be supplied from a foreign country
it makes things easier if a war is happening
and you have troops there
the easiest troops to have help are draftees
because they really don't want to be there
and you need the help of the air force guys
the navy guys and the army guys
to make anything in vietnam work
you need the army to talk with local
black market guys
the air force to transport as well as the navy and army
and if you know the guys before they go over
it is easy to set up a machine
a well-oiled machine only needs one thing
to keep it running
money
and this machine had been running on auto since 1966
if the government had followed john's lead
money could have bought the whole country
john's shipments from vietnam leave tan son nhut air base
(because the customs service at tan son nhut is rampantly corrupt
heroin comes from laos on commercial planes, thank god for u.s. money)
empty military cargo planes are filled by the ground crews with
weed, hash and anything else that is sellable
the main supply is weed but the other drugs help with finances
as the shipments hit the u.s.
small airfields are used for the landing and discharge of the goods
hamilton is a great place because it is only a few hours away from san francisco
and it has no tower
no tower means that any plane with military markings can land
produce an order that is made by our contacts in the rear
and refuel and drop its load
the load is watched over by our guys here on the payroll
they load it into trucks courtesy of the u.s. government
and it is shipped to a central warehouse in san francisco

neat, pretty and very profitable
jack and john had now branched out
they were using ex-pilots from the war to fly down south
and run cocaine into the u.s. using the same field
hamilton was a key
the war was a key
the black market was a key
money was a key
jack poured more cocaine out onto the plate just as the music went off
an hour had passed