With a sigh she eased back in her chair and put her feet up on her desk. She kicked folders of contracts off her desk without too much concern. She looked out the window and could see the faces of the people below. She closed her eyes and was quickly at that special place ...as long as her eyes stayed closed.
She was there for quite a while when she saw a filthy man sitting on a concrete block. He had his legs crossed. He rested his arms on his thighs looking very comfortable. She was too excited to be comfortable. She became more excited from the distraction and wondered ---is this place where I’m supposed to be?
She didn’t want to get disorientated. She was in the mountains, in a foreign land, and knew it could become …quickly bizarre. These mountains splintered in all different directions. Cuts seemed hacked out of the land with trees living on the edges, over a hundred feet high. It was, indeed, the place she dreamed of.
The mountains and the foreign land were like a drug to her. She was happily smashed. It was hard for her not to be inappropriate and suddenly laugh. But now, her third day in the mountains, completely alone, she finally had an obstacle: The filthy comfortable man.
She had to be sure this was the place where she was supposed to be, she approached her impasse and spoke, “Hi,” the man just waved and smiled. The names are unimportant if not irretrievable.
“Hi,” she says again. The man smiles, again. So now she really needs to know ---“Is this the place where the bus stops?” -She asks. She needs to get out of here, now! She sees huge rain clouds climbing the mountain behind her. “Is this the place where the bus stops? Please Sir!” The man just smiled. Now she’s irritated. “Sir? Sir?”
The man stood up, and bowed. He cleared his throat, “you shouldn’t worry about the rain. This happens. It visits me here in these mountains, this time of year almost every day.” He opened his arms wide and took a deep breath---collected himself, “The bus comes here, yes, but maybe not today.” He sat back down.
Of course now she’s worried. The filthy comfortable man took notice ---stood up and started talking:
Today Miss, thousands of feet above the sea, the clouds collect greedily in the east waiting to do their life’s work. This is what they do Miss. They wait until conditions are perfect and start their way to the sea, west, with understood purpose. They coax and then overrun the weak to form a strong unified front. They’ll need indescribable strength, because they’re artists, starving, for one last chance to display their talents. Growing, their form turns almost orb-like. With incredible power they change moods and the topography below. And then the light show follows with thundering lyrics. The plants all stand erect wanting more.
She stood erect, her back stiffened, “You recite a poem you wrote to me? It's because you care. Don’t you?” The man smiled again. Just then a “Roar” was heard. She jerked. It wasn’t a bus, but a passenger van roared into view. Their world darkened too as the rain came pouring down. The man bent over to shield the young traveler.
She and the filthy comfortable man jumped aboard. The passenger van roared off amongst the rain, the other people inside, the filthy comfortable man, and the woman that needed to leave ---right now! The man turned to the woman, and smiled, as the rest of the travelers stared at the driver.
The driver of the passenger van quickly turned away from the road to a person on his right, “now it’s all by memory. Now with this rain,” he said with a slight shrug, “it’s all by memory!” Spoken while reaching for a Coca-Cola bottle without any breaks in his words. But still, he reassured everybody ---somehow?
All the people in the passenger van, on the margins traveling fast, were thankful that man had his hands on the steering wheel. This is what he did. He brought people where they had to be, safely. He could prove it 'one more time', he thought, and just smiled.
The End
