John Mellencamp "Paper in Fire"

One ordinary Sunday morning in 1996, a boy named Blake phoned into the radio station where I was working. He made one simple request: "Will you make me a paper airplane?" Since my prankster friend Pat had a bizarre college friend named Blake, I assumed it was the two of them teaming up to interrupt my Sunday morning. Not wanting to be rude, I played along with "Blake" and assured him that I would gladly make and throw a paper airplane his way. He then quickly rattled off his mailing address and hung up the phone. Later that week, I cornered Pat and asked him if he knew anything about "the paper airplane kid", and he pleaded ignorance. A few weeks later, I walked into the on-air studio and heard the DJ talking on the phone with Blake. "Wait a minute," I thought. Blake is a real person?!? Sure enough, Blake was a regular caller who asked anyone who answered the phone for a paper airplane.

Fast forward about seven years and, again, I walk into the on-air studio and begin chatting with the DJ. He pauses mid-sentence and picks up the request line where a now grown-up version of Blake asks for a paper airplane. Blake no longer sounds like a child, as his voice is now deeper like that of Barry White. I asked the DJ if Blake has ever called before and he rolls his eyes and says, "All. The Time.". I then learn than Blake's family moved to one of the Carolinas, but he still kept up his phone calls requests for paper airplanes.