Dylan | Teen Ink

Dylan

October 15, 2009
By Alaskanguy BRONZE, Bethel, Alaska
Alaskanguy BRONZE, Bethel, Alaska
1 article 0 photos 0 comments

Favorite Quote:
A man's strength is not measured by the size of his fist, but by the size of his heart.


The day started out like any other day. I got up, had breakfast, and played game. Around noon my mom decided that we should go have lunch over at the Teen Center. Teen Center provides lunch for people every now and then.

That’s when my brother told me about Dylan. I just got done eating my lunch. My mom and I were talking about when I was going to Kako.
My brother came up to us, and started saying something about a one of the camp pilots dieing just a week before he went up. I ask him which one. Kako had about four different pilots. I knew most of them. So I began to worry.

My brother started talking about how the pilot had died, but I didn’t catch his name the first time. I asked him who was the one that died. It was Dylan. When I heard him I ask him again, to make sure I heard right, I did. I couldn’t believe it.

I met Dylan my second year going to Kako. He was the pilot that picked me up, and my counselor. When you get to Kako you’re assigned a cabin. Along with four or five other people, and each cabin gets assigned one counselor. So for the next four days you’re glued, along with everybody else, to your counselor

After my brother told me I went outside and tried calling Kako on my cell phone. I tried twice, but nobody picked up. I started to get angry. I punch the outside wall of Teen Center. I didn’t realize the pain at first. Cause I was so frustrated with the fact that one of my friends might actually be dead.

About ten minutes later I’d gave up on trying to call Kako and just went inside. I caught my mom just as she was about to leave, and told her I was going to see Roger (My Youth Pastor). I didn’t tell her that I knew Dylan. I didn’t want her to worry.

So I went over to my church. Roger lives like 50 or so feet away from the church. I went up to his house and knocked on the door. His wife, Charley, answered the door, and told me that Roger was out for a while. I deiced to wait on the church steps.

Twenty minutes later I decided to try and call Kako again. This time someone picked up. It was one of the camp cooks. I ask for Gary. Gary was the head of Kako, and an old friend. I wanted while she went and got Gary.

He greeted me with a warm “Hey.” I asked him about Dylan. So I could know if he did die. He said, “Yes he did.” I couldn’t believe what he was saying. Hearing it from Gary. He knew Dylan too. I started crying before he even start telling me how he died.

Dylan was out flying in a brand new plane with a college friend. When they called a mayday. The plane had run out of fuel, and thProxy-Connection: keep-alive
Cache-Control: max-age=0

we’re going to have to crash land in a forest. They managed to get their coordinates out before the crashed. The rescue teams managed found them, but by the time they got to them they were both had died.

I was crying the whole time he was talking to me. I just couldn’t believe that he was dead. I told Gary bye and hung up. I cried for about ten more minutes, and then opened my bible. I sat there until Roger got home.

When he got home I was still on the church steps. I told him that my friend died, and I didn’t really know what to do. That’s when he told me a story about when his friend died.

Roger plays guitar. So he went on a lot of band tours with a lot of people. Roger eventually they became close friends with them. One them joined the Army, got sent to Iraq, and died there. When Roger got the news, he was even more stumped than I was when I heard about Dylan.

Roger helped me a lot, and gave me some good advice on how to move on, but it’s hard not o think about a dead friend. After all he was one of the best pilots, and coolest guy I’d ever known.


The author's comments:
What I hope you got from this is that you realize death is a common thing. You see it everywhere. It's covered up by life

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