16. Styx Flow

The pious paralleled paraclete partners propelled purposely piercing themselves through the pines on the distant bank of the Charles gliding just a wing flap above the river’s slight downstream ripples. In perfect syncopation suddenly one, then, just as quickly, the second secured himself together with the first one on a branch to take a breath before jetting upward again towards the sky and some unspoken destination. Meanwhile a solo pilgrim Canadian goose floats carefree and effortlessly with the river’s current just as another splashes behind and then another. Suddenly the three are joined in collaborative coasting letting the river take them to wherever. They are unconcerned as scullers redirect their sleek vessels to avoid collisions with the feathered floaters. As if guided by some greater hand the geese glide to shallow eddies away from the waterway’s human traffic. They are safe and they just are.

 

Jake watches wondering how the two unworried birds had decided to fly in formation and became concerned about what interior spiritual force intuits the geese and the birds to be companions on their journeys.

 

“Were the journeys of these creatures always mutual?”

 

For a moment he is lost in the peace of the flow of everything.

The solace unintentionally dissipates with Sundance’s voice

 

“Well, since Isabella is off to study and we are left to our own devices, let’s find a famous Bean Town watering hole to quench our spirits before we secure a seat at the Feliciano concert.”

 

Startled but alert Jake chimes

 

“I’ll drink to that!”

 

Isabella carefully gathered her things

 

“Jake, you will drink to everything”

 

as she touches Sundance’s hand and pecking Jake’s cheek with her lips.

 

“and call me when you either get out of the concert or get settled at Diana’s place. There may be another demonstration at the commons today and I might not be in my dorm room.”

 

Concerned, Jake peered into Isabella’s eyes.

 

“ Oh don’t worry ya big silly. We have been having daily bomb scares in the building and some suggested it is just a hoax to get students out onto the streets and hopefully involved with the anti-war demonstrations. Everyday there seems to be a new group sponsoring a new demonstration against he war. I guess they figured that when students don’t have their dorms or classes to go to because of bomb threats in the school buildings the students will join the party”

 

Sundance asked

 

“The Communist Party?”

 

Frankly, Isabella was surprised by Sundance’s naïveté’ and she chided him

 

“No, the party in the streets. The demonstrations have become street festivals for most part. Of course you have the SDS’ers and the weathermen and Panthers and a few sympathizers but most folks I know go for the joints and beer. The radicals smoke dope and drink just as much as the tagalongs. Abbie and his yippies made this whole thing into some perverse circus. Before you know it you can have twenty to thirty thousand students in the streets chanting ‘Peace now.’ But the college administrators got wise and now if they get a bomb threat they don’t have mandatory evacuations and just let the students decide. When given a choice most of us usually decide to stick together. ”

 

Anxiously Jake glanced up and down at Isabella

 

“I know I am a loner of sorts but I’m no fool on a hill. It is great to get out of class. The professors usually leave too.  Howard Zinn is usually leading the parade. It is also a good way to get out from sleeping in those prison walled halls called a dormitory. So don’t be surprised if you see a large group marching down Mass Ave this afternoon or if you call me at the dorm I don’t answer.”

 

”So what’ll we do?”

 

“You worry too much. We will work it out. We always find a way.”

 

Jake tauntingly sang

 

“Well… just show me the way to the next whiskey bar….oh don’t ask why, oh don’t ask why!”

 

Sundance pulled on Jake’s arm.

 

“Now don’t sing that. Come on.”

 

The shadows of the two boys quickly disappeared over the knolls that bordered the Back Bay and the river.  Isabella quietly relocated herself almost unseen to a shady spot on the grassy banks with her blanket and books to keep her company.

 

Sundance turned to Jake as both were lighting another smoke.

 

“So, you know where we are going? We driving or walking or what?”

 

“Sure I do. Driving by the way.”

 

Sundance was concerned about the immediacy and truthfulness of the response. They jumped into Black Beauty headed somewhere closer to the concert hall. Like a bolt of lightening they had darted down the road for two blocks faster than the speed of light until the traffic in front of them forced them to a dead halt.

 

Sundance smiled that smile of relief…

 

“Bet you it’s a demonstration. We should go “

 

Sundance encouraged Jake further by pointing out a place to park.

 

“That spot has your name on it. Claim it now!”

 

Jake squeezed their over sized vessel into the vacant space and with no further words they laughed as they ran to see where the action was. Finally within a short run from where they stopped they saw a crowd gathered. Pushing and squirming their way to the front to see where the action was the bystanders stared at Jake as he yelled out

 

“Peace Now! Peace Now!”

 

As the two overexcited revolutionaries – in-training gradually worked their way further to the front of the crowd they heard the screeching blaring siren of some emergency vehicle weaving in an out of the jammed in traffic and congregating crowds.  Speechless and shocked they finally saw what everyone was looking at and stared at what looked like to be a body covered in a white sheet lying next to a smoking taxi cab that was sitting upside down with it’s roof half crushed in.

 

Sundance just pulled on the uncomfortable embarrassed Jake

“Come on let’s get outta here and find a bar quick and have a drink.”

 

Both boys were running on empty, emotionally and physically, and they needed refueling quickly if they were to make it through the night. Jake shifted to a thought about looking to find a bar he and Isabella liked somewhere near Fenway Park but he had no idea where he and Sundance were in relation to Fenway Park or to anywhere. They were officially lost. So to deflect from his own anxiety Jake asked

 

“ Hey did we ever get Kerouac’s or Salinger’s address?”

 

Sundance didn’t want to deal with any of that now. .

 

“Hey, there’s a pub or something over across the street. Maybe we can talk about that there”

 

“How do we know if it is any good?”

 

“Well, if it has beer it’s good and if it has burgers too it’s perfect.”

 

No more discussion needed as they entered the pub securing two seats side by side at the bar. Jake signaled the bartender for two beers and said

 

“Almost perfect and I am paying!”

 

“Hey!”

 

Sundance couldn’t complete his protestation. Jake forcefully held his companion’s hand as it reached for his own pocket. Sundance was always gracious and giving. He seemed to be an endless well of compassion and generosity. Sometimes that annoyed Jake but at the same time he was grateful to have a friend such as Sundance.

 

“Look, I am paying and that’s that. You always pay and you have done too much for me. So let me pay for tonight’s drinks. Just get a couple of beers and start a tab while I find the men’s room.”

 

Sundance was taken aback with Jake’s adamancy and comments and ordered two pints of Guinness just the same. He was confused as to why Jake thought he owed Sundance anything. On Jake’s faster than normal return from the men’s room Jake put his arm around Sundance leaning to whisper in his ear. Physical contact was not one of Sundance’s favorite ways of connecting with another human, especially a man. Jake knew that but did it anyway. Social scientists say we have 18 inches of personal space. Jake was good at intruding on that barrier as both Isabella and Sundance would often testify. Wriggling away from Jake, Sundance heard him say

 

“Listen, if anyone asks” Jake spoke almost inaudibly, “you are my date.”

 

Not being one who showed emotion easily Sundance changed all that as his eyes bulged out like some cartoon character completely befuddled by Jake’s comment as Jake continued

 

“Have you noticed anything unusual about this bar?”

 

Sundance ‘s first reaction was to look at the beer keg taps. Maybe they had an unusual selection of beers. No, that wasn’t it. He then scanned the prices, …standard. The menu….normal . He then looked carefully at the ambiance, typical dark dingy dive.

 

“It is a bar. It has a jukebox. The music is loud”

 

Sundance had difficulty speaking above the loud music.

 

(…“Me and you, you and me, no matter how they tossed the dice, it had to be…” blasted echoing bouncing throughout the poor acoustics of the half-lit beer odored room.)

 

“Now look at who is dancing to the music! But don’t stare, just casually look up.”

 

Sundance lifted his dark pint glass and moved his eyes to try to sneak a peek at what Jake was seemingly anxious about.

 

“Oh, they are men and a few boys dancing with each other!”

 

Jake, leaning in closer as if to snuggle to Sundance whispered

 “Yeh, this is a gay bar. If anyone asks me to dance I am going to tell them I am with you.”

 

“Well, what if they ask me to dance?”

 

“You can dance with them if you like then!”

 

Uncomfortable but thirsty and tired they agreed without speaking that they would sit and rest for a while and chug two pints before making their exit. Clinking glasses like two pilgrims on some half-baked crusade

 

Sundance elevating his drink

 

“Per ipsum et cum ipso et in ipso est tibi Deo Patri omnipotenti in unitate Spiritus Sancti omnis honor et gloria per omnia saecula saeculorum”

 

Jake’s response

 

“Amen, brother”

 

Jake cracked that crooked worrying smile as he couldn’t shake that uneasy feeling about what he would really say if anyone there would approach him to dance. He finally stopped his mental meandering and silently finished his drink.

 

Dipping their fore fingers into what stout remained in their glasses they both blessed themselves as they made their escape from the bar.

 

Jake laughed

 

“That was close”

 

Getting to be adept at stumbling they accidentally stumbled their way to the concert hall only to see a “Sold Out” sign plastered across the poster on the face of Jose Feliciano. Sundance pulled out his last two cigarettes in resignation, giving one to Jake and offered up a solution

 

“If we can find where you parked let’s just head out to Diana’s place.”

 

Sometimes it is good to go with the flow and sometimes it is good to stay put and sometimes it is good to retreat .The interventions of angels continued their surprises as the boys found the car with very little effort and the boys flew as fast as they could on the road that followed along the river back upstream.