Crotchet The Leper
This is not for you.
I still get nightmares. In fact I get them so often I should be used to them by now. I'm not. No one ever really gets used to nightmares.

For a while there I tried every pill imaginable. Anything to curb the fear. Excedrin PMs, Melatonin, L-tryptophan, Valium, Vicodin, quite a few members of the barbital family. A pretty extensive list, frequently mixed, often matched, with shots of bourbon, a few lung rasping bong hits, sometimes even the vaporous confidence-trip of cocaine. None of it helped. I think it’s pretty safe to assume there’s no lab sophisticated enough yet to synthesize the kind of chemicals I need. A Nobel Prize to the one who invents that puppy.

I'm so tired. Sleep's been stalking me for too long to remember. Inevitable I suppose.

Sadly though, I'm not looking forward to the prospect.

He was blind as a bat.

Almost half the books he owned were in Braille. Lude and Flaze both confirmed that over the years the old guy had numerous readers visiting him during the day.

Some of these came from community centers, the Braille Institute, or were just volunteers from USC, UCLA or Santa Monica College. No one I ever spoke with, however, claimed to know him well, though more than a few were willing to offer me their opinions.

One student believed he was certifiably mad. Another actress, who had spent a summer reading to him, thought Zampanò was a romantic. She had come over one morning and found him in "a terrible way."

"At first I assumed he was drunk, but the old guy never drank, not even a sip of wine. Didn't smoke either. He really lived an austere life. Anyway he wasn't drunk, just really depressed.

He started crying and asked me to leave. I fixed him some tea. Tears don't frighten me. Later he told me it was heart trouble. 'Just some old heart-ache matters,' he said.

Whoever she was, she must have been really special. He never told me her name."

Obituary

Local pilot, Donnie ________, died last

Sunday on route ___ when the Mack truck he was in

swerved into a ditch and caught fire. Reportedly the

driver, who survived, had fallen asleep at the wheel.



Throughout his life, Mr. ________ was

a dedicated flier. As R. William Notes said of his

friend, "Donnie always seemed most at home in the sky."



Born in Dorset, Vermont on _____, 19__,

Mr. ________'s family soon movied to Marietta,

Ohio where he graduated from __________ high

school. After a stint in the Air Force, he worked for

several years as a crop duster in Nebraska, a mail

carrier in Alaska, and for one winter flew a spotter

plane off the coast of Norway. Eventually, he took a

job as a commercial pilot for American Airlines,

though on time off, he enjoyed performing aerial

stunts in regional shows.



Late last year, Mr. ________ decided to

take a job as a pilot for _____________ in order to

spend more time with his family. Tragically, during

the standard physical examination, doctors discovered

he had unknowingly suffered some time

ago—probably in his sleep—a cardiac infarction. The

results were sent to Oklahoma where the FAA voted

to suspend his ATP license for six months, pending

further evaluation. No longer able to earn an income

as a pilot, Mr. ________ sought work at a

trucking company.



He is survived by his wife, _________,

and one son, ___________.



— The _______ - Herald, July __, 1981