I dreamt I talked to Don Langford last night

Photo: Don Langford and me with our Saturn Skies

    Don Langford was a bird without wings. I was only 15 the first time I flew with him. He was the most trusted pilot I ever knew, and I have flown with him more than anyone else.

   Don had trouble with one of his eyes in recent years. He underwent experimental surgeries in an attempt to maintain his flight status. I asked my father if it was a good idea to go flying with Don while he was still undergoing his eye treatments, and my father replied, "Don is a better pilot with one eye than most people are with both."

   Don wasn't flying the airplane he crashed in. He was the passenger in a two-seater. He had just sold a lightweight seaplane to someone; a man I didn't know. They crashed into the Tennessee River earlier this year, for reasons unknown.

   Don was my friend, my flight instructor, my advisor on all things aeronautical. I saw him clearly in my dream last night. He was glowing pale blue like the transcendent Jedis do in the Star Wars movies. He looked very frail, like he was going to disappear out of thin air at any second. I seemed to have knowledge that he wasn't going to be around much longer, but I didn't want to tell him that in case he didn't know.

   I looked him straight in the face and said very carefully, "Is there anything you want me to tell anyone?" And he said, without hesitation, "We're all going to the same place anyway."

   He was gone, and I was left wondering what he meant? Did he believe in Heaven? Is there another plane from another dimension, where we might actually meet up once again and go flying together? Or was he being cynical, and meant we all end up in the ground? I don't know.

   But it was so good to see him again.