My turn was next right after a guy with lady dancers. The crowd was huge, and the
Smell of sweet cakes that just came out of the oven in the back filled the room and made me hungry. My head filled with worried thoughts.
“What if they don't like my music?”
“What if the crowd is silent and starts booing?” I worried even more.
I knew my turn was up the manager said
“And now, for the newest rock and roll man, it's Ritchie Valens!”
I went up with my guitar in my hands, sweaty grip, the lights were so bright and at that moment everyone was looking at me. At that moment I could hear crickets in the background. I knew this was my moment and I started singing La Bamba, one of my newest hits. After that I sang Oh Donna. I wrote a song I wrote for my beautiful girlfriend Donna Ludwig. She was pride and joy and every moment I was thinking about her. I was also thinking about how my parents and how proud they were of me. After the longest 10 minutes of my life I stopped singing.
My heart was filled with joy seeing the crowd here to hear me sing. I've made it so far in my music career that my face couldn't stop smiling. The concert ended around 12:00 a.m. I'm so tired and can’t wait to get on the plane. I feel a certain way about riding planes. The pilot Roger Peterson flips a coin for me at the last moment when the coin is half way in the air I scream heads. Ironically it lands on heads. My other pal Tommy Allsup is now getting on the bus to North Dakota. Before tommy leaves I say
“Hey Tommy, that's the first coin flip I ever won”.
We both laugh and say goodbye. Me and Buddy Holly get on the plane.
The plane smells so bad not to mention it's snowing outside. The plane takes off and we are in the air. The plane starts to rumble and shake. The pilot says it's just the snow and the weather. I start to get worried about it. The plane started to shake and rumble even more. The snow doesn't seem to be going down, the snow is getting stronger and stronger. Buddy made a ridiculous joke and said
“I hope your ol plane crashes”.
His stupid jokes were never funny and they made no sense half of the time. Roger said
“We're going down!”
I thought it was one of his stupid jokes like Buddy holly butt everyone started screaming. It wasn't a joke. They were all panicking and I was hoping I would make it home to see my mom, dad, Mario, Connie, Irma, Bob, and my sweet love Donna. A few minutes later Roger tried to steer the plane.
I can see a lake a short distance in front of the diving nose of the plane and I think of all the people I love. I think of my mother, Father, Donna, and all of my brothers and sisters. I said my last prayer and then was off into the sky. Now I was the one watching over my family. I was finally put to rest in San Fernando, Los Angeles next to my beautiful mother. I'm finally happy.