“Real or not here I come."
J. Niebo
The survey says that there are a number of road maps in
prose and poetic form that seem to be required to fill the closeted rooms of
spiritual spelunkers. Jake often worried that a few selected probably banned in
Boston texts in his private library would get him locked up with Patrick McMurphy
as a roommate in some long lost institution. Jake was careful to hide these selected books with his
marble coated journals. He wasn’t sure if these peculiar writings of others
were providing insight or a waste of burning candlelight. The Beatle boot box
was just the right size for securing this collection and he covered it up in
the crawl space where he once trapped a squirrel. Every once in a while he
checked in on them as a father would check a sleeping child. The
Interpretations of Dreams; Being and Nothingness; and The
Marriage of Heaven and Hell were hidden under a separate layer of newspaper
in the box. He hidden these as a preteen would hide Playboy magazines from his parents,
hidden but quickly to access when feeling alone. Of course he had other books some
were semi-secrets and others his trophies, standing obvious and proud for
anyone who wanted to see. Sundance was never concerned about such things and
his complete library was open and obvious to everyone. Jake wondered about how
many secrets Sundance had not shared.
“Everyone has
secrets”
Naturally articles about Timothy Leary’s Harvard Project
popularity supplemented both boys’ collections, as the reports seemed to be the
sugar cube sweetener for their self-investigatory plunges. Attempting to
replicate Alice’s sojourn down the Rabbit hole became a desired pursuit for
Jake and Sundance. While Grace’s incantation was necessary for Sundance to take
the leap all Jake needed to do was to close his eyes.
Sundance
called out
“Jake hurry
quick they need you!”
“What? Who?
What?”
“They need
you!”
Jake
continued to fumble his sweaty fingers over the worn marks and numbers on his
combination Master Lock.
“ I can’t
remember! I can’t remember!”
Sundance now
went to grab Jake.
“What are you
talking about?”
Jake still
frustratingly furiously fumbling with the combination lock,
“ I can’t
remember the combination! How am I ever going to get this lock opened? How will
I ever get into my locker again? I need to get in there!”
All Jake
could see was Sundance, the lock and the box-like locker.
Sundance was
completely befuddled
“What’s so
important in there?”
“I am not
sure what’s in there. I think I left my books, my poetry in there!”
Sundance
laughed
“Who do you
think you are, Paul Simon?”
“I don’t know
who I am.”
Sundance
began to boil and now annoyed yanked on Jake and started to lead him down the
hallway.
“Look you have
people who need you now! So let’s get your guitar and get you onstage.”
It didn’t
take Jake long to get completely confused. He had no idea what Sundance was
talking about or where they were going. Sundance explained as he dragged Jake
that there was a band onstage that needed another guitarist to complete the
group so they could play for the gathered audience.
Jake
protested
“What stage? Where?
Who? Why? I don’t have a guitar with me!”
The next thing Jake knew was that some
dark dressed stranger was strapping a Guild electric around Jake’s neck,
plugging it in to an amp and pushing him onto a stage. The other faceless
musicians onstage pointed to the microphone as one shouted out to Jake
“Twist and
Shout in C”
“Am I singing
lead? Am I playing lead? Who’s counting off? Wait I can’t sing it in C!” “
One of the
musicians lifted his head from the dials on the control panel of his amplifier
and carefully walked over to Jake. He looked just like George Harrison! It was
George Harrison!
George leaned
to Jake’s ear and whispered
“ Don’t worry.
Just Play and enjoy yourself.”
George turned
to the band and started in an authoritative Liverpudlian drawl, counting off ….
“One, Two, One,
two, three, four….”
“ Jake! Jake! Wake up Jake! Jake!”
Jake felt a rough physical shoving this way and that with
intermittent slaps on the face. He finally opened his eyes. There was
Sundance’s nose almost touching his own as Sundance shouted
“Jake! Are you ok? “
Isabella was standing over Sundance half worried and half
annoyed as she thought that this was a typical stunt by Jake. She screamed
“Are you on something? You know did you take some little
pill or something?”
Jake gradually started to gain back his senses, though he
really wanted to get back to playing in the band with George Harrison, opened
his cotton-dried mouth,
“Nah, I think I just fell asleep and got lost.”
Sundance sat Jake up and asked if Jake could remember their
names.
Jake paused, smiled a smile of success and satisfaction
“Isabella, Jake and George!”
He didn’t tell them about the dream. He really wanted to
get back to playing music in the dream with George and the band.
Sundance and Isabella stared at each other. They didn’t
know whether to call for an ambulance or laugh! Sundance began to laugh. Jake
remained in his state of in and out of present consciousness. But that was
normal for him. Sundance and Isabella continued their conversation, as Jake
remained on his quiet private sojourn downstream.
Isabella smiled as she finally gave Sundance that “good cup
of coffee” that Sundance had requested before Isabella had departed the two
boys earlier.
“So what did you guys decide to do?
Sundance told Isabella
“Well, we decided that no decision is a decision! So you
could say our eventual decision was default. ”
He continued to explain about how he and Jake had come to
the somewhat half-hearted conclusion to call Jake’s old neighbor, Diana, to
secure a place to crash for the night. They called her and Diana was
surprisingly delighted with the call and prospect of having guests. Besides
Sundance is the one who spoke with her and she sounded attractive. Sundance
gently pulled Isabella aside
“We will need directions to Diana’s place in Somerville.
You know Jake, he refused to let me ask Diana for directions when I spoke with
her. He said she lives somewhere near Cambridge and that since he was able to
find Fairfield he could find her place!”
Isabella giggled quietly
“No problem it is easy from here. You won’t even need a
map.”
Satisfied, Sundance went on to share how and Jake had
thought of going to Symphony Hall to see if they could get tickets for the Jose
Feliciano concert that evening. Sundance described how it took some real
negotiating and bribery to convince Jake to sit through a Feliciano concert.
Just as Sundance was about to mention the invitation for Isabella to join them
she interrupted
“ I need to study, really! I need to get an A in this next
exam!”
Jake was good at pretending that he didn’t hear any of this
conversation, and wondered privately what ever happened to visiting Kerouac and
Salinger? He didn’t recall any of what Sundance was talking about. Was Sundance
making all this up to get what he wanted out of this trip? He asked himself
“What did I
win in the negotiation with Sundance?”
Silently scrounging his synapses he wondered if this was
all a dream. Jake tried to focus on his watch and saw that it was now almost
three in the afternoon. He concluded
“Time moves
regardless of one’s state of mind or point of view and moves much faster than
the The Charles’ lumbering current.
But
everything moves faster than the River Charles.”
The last glance Jake had made at his watch the time was not
quite nine am. He had lost a few hours. He shook is head as if to loosen it up
to recall what else he may have lost.
The universe was in its continued state of movement and
expansion while Jake had remained still and silent for hours .For the first
time in a long time Jake was trying to stop worrying about waiting or trying to
remember things like the combination to his lock. Then, just for that moment he
just was completely present….
Enlightenment sometimes happens with the blink of an eye….
Jake swiftly stood up with arms stretched out wide.
He sang out
“ two – twenty five – forty three “
It was George Harrison’s birthday, five years before his
own! The numbers to the secret combination of the lock!
He continued
“Illumination!”
Excuses quickly evaporated realizing that sooner or later
the lock would need to be opened.
