Entanglements of readers with writers: Recent Episodes
Dolphus
The reading of a book in progress as it slouches toward publication. The host shares comments and suggestions, introduces guest reader. The reader reads each chapter, there are 25 chapters. With the reading of the final the chapter a completed hard copy or e-copy will be made available.
Thom arrives at school before the bell rings, and discovers a short period of time, where the students are relaxed and laid back. He's aware of eyes upon his new hair style, and likes the attention. He hears laughter from the classrooms as he walks toward Miss Magazine classroom, where encounters Mr. Lowtower who fully recognizes him from yester day.
Meanwhile, in Miss Magazine classroom, there is a riot of fun, led by a popular girl by the name of Betty Snail. The funs ends soon after Thom arrive and the bell rings. It's like the cry "attention" to a group of solider.
Ms. Magazine is not in the mood to teach when she reaches the school. While she prepares to read the mail from her faculty mail box, it all falls to the floor, and as she gathers it up, Mr. Lowtower appears. As a jokes she invites him to tell her what is in the mail. It is mostly monthly reminders. The only new information concerns a school board ruling forbidding boys from wearing shoulder length hair. The idea of the boys at Lincoln, causes Ms. Magazine to laugh out loud. Mr. Lowtower stares at her indigently, questions her laughter and hints that is racial. Ms. Magazine reminds him that there aren't any white males students at Lincoln; and therefore, the ruling would appear not to apply to the male students there.
Mr. Lowtower storms away, slamming the door behind himself.
Thom endures the pain of chemically straightening his hair, it is worse than pain he endures when his mother combs his hair. Thom leaves the barber shop, with his hair processed, and the feeling of being a somebody.
Thom hears familiar music as he nears the gym, it is the same song he had listened to in his room. There's an organic concert in progress! Thom manages to reach the first row of student spectators. He sees a young entertainer called Billy Bam, who trigger's his imagination. Although Thom does not possess the entertainers' talent, he's convinces himself that the adoption's entertainer's hair style, was a key to the admiration he sought.
Thom runs to beat the ringing of the high school bell, and runs straight into the hands of a high school teacher with a reputation for being nasty towards students, especially teen age boys. Thom is literally saved from being hauled to the front office, by his home room teacher, Miss Magazine.
Thom attends Lincoln High School, which was called new Lincoln in reverence to the former high school, now called old Lincoln. Miss Magazine is Thom's home room teacher due largely to social changes and political unrest.
Our protagonist gets caught again, but refuses to snitch on Son Bolow, He is released by a bull, and ordered from the yard, instead of jailed to await prosecution for his trespass on rail road property.
As our protagonist makes his way back, he sees the train, that he would have been aboard, He laments his fate as he hears the whale of train's whistle, He decries his failure, and not what he had learned in the process. He watches until last car of the train his disappeared into the darkness, He hears the whistle again, but this time further up the line, the whistle sounds like it says, so long friend until I see you again.
Freedom lies across river, and our protagonist believes he has learned enough to make it across without Son Bolow.
The speed of "the hot shot" en route through the night to El Paso lugs our two wayfarers asleep . Joe is jerked awake in the early morning hours to discover, the gondolas had been detached, and the one he rides is at the bottom of a rock pit, on the very verge of being filled with rocks.
Joe considers his trails and tribulations thus far, and concludes for all his efforts he is at least a little nearer to the promised land,
Joe sees hope in Houston, and like in Jacksonville, he considers embracing the freedom he seeks in the promised land, where he now stands in Houston,
Our protagonist meets a seasoned hobo, who appears to be a wise contrast with Son Bolow
Our protagonist starts his day with a goal in mind, he achieve the goal, but fail to get the prize, when he realizes time is not on his side. He resolves to retreats "to the Sally" for a hot shower and food to eat. While in line and holding a spot near the front, close enough to see the door. He is startled to see Son Bolow.
Things began to look good at last, but when least expected our protagonist is left at end of a long as he waits for food and hopes for a warm place to sleep.
Finally aboard a freight train with renewed thoughts of reaching Los Angeles in seven days.
Our duo's night repose in burned out ruins yields a few rewards, and to an unspoken fear.
The hunt for the tracks is resolved and so is one of the fears, our protagonist faces in his struggle to reach the land of freedom, Los Angeles.
Our protagonist, in view of his failure to locate the yard, realizes he had not partook in his usual pursuit of the drug, and considers himself drug free. This consideration clears his head. If he could free himself in West Palm beach, then he could repeat the process in Miami. In this new moment of clarity he decides to test his resolve to remain free from the clutches of crack cocaine by returning to streets of Miami.
Our narrator experiences a come to his senses moment and decides to return to Miami and fight for his freedom there, instead of looking for the yard, which seemed not to exist.
The narrator of this tale sits deject at a table in a park that closes at dark.
He reviews the events that had led to this moment, and considers a return to the city he had recently left.
Our protagonist resolves internal issues and sees the retribution he received, although at first he believed he was railroaded, as reparations for all his bad moves, until he received an incidental message from Memphis.
The heat is on, our protagonist is slapped to his senses and forced to face, red taillights.
The Crown Victoria runs out of gas. In a reflective moment as he walks with an empty gasoline can, our protagonist decides to kill his step father, and the duo comes close to being caught.
Our protagonist finally face the foes who face the consequences of what they did to him. Indeed they remembered their clean get away from the men's room in the bus station.
Our protagonist experiences a sense of power as he cocks the hammer and pull the trigger of a long barreled Colt 45. It is in this frame of mind he enters into a dark deadly deal.
Our protagonist the truth of the pistol used against him and set out to turn two wrongs into a right.
The opening of the podcast minus the reading of the work. Error on my part didn't want to start over.
Our protagonist dives deep into his thoughts, and believes on a higher frequency he has received what he deserved as he prepares unknowingly to visit God's Country.
Our protagonist faces the price of the vengeance he seeks, and tetters on the verge of cutting his loses and moving on.
Our protagonists meets Josephine, the older girlfriend of Willie James. She exposes him to Gainesville, and shares some her beliefs through words and actions.
Our protagonist finds himself entangled in a different family setting, with similarities to his own, but strange as a foreign language to untutored ears. He is appreciative of the aid he is given, especially the opportunity to shower. He emerges from the shower, as one from a baptism, naked and washed clean of his former stench to see a young girl preparing to take a pee.
Our protagonist is robbed and stripped of his clothes in the men's room of the bus station, but refuses help from a Priest who suggest the filling of a police report. His refusal is noted by station manager, as an admission to willful participation in illicit activities, and bans him from the bus station.
Our protagonist is finally on his way to Miami Florida, but there an unshakeable feeling that this was partly a fantasy.
Our protagonist attempts to escape the bored imposed by the purchase of a bus ticket, leads to an exciting adventure on State Street.
The protagonist in this piece, runs away from his home in Chicago. In his mind, the mind of a fifteen-year-old adolescent, he had to run to save himself from an undesirable situation which was growing unbearable.
In this episode, our hero is fired on the spot. And slowly finds himself, on the road to being stuck inside Chicago with the Memphis blues again.
This episode is deep and long in its meanings. I considered breaking it into parts that perhaps would have been easier to digest. But it is what it is.
This saga is a soup of surprises, indeed a switch from the ordinary and the final resolution to go with the flow.
The story continues, but in this episode a new love interest arrives, as if there are not enough torments already.
My Saga continues but this episode introduces a major player, retrieved from letters written but not mailed.
Our saga starts at bottom, during moments of devastation with no end in view, yet ends on a high note that leaves us hopeful.
This is the turning point in the telling of my story. The project started nearly seven months ago; and to finally be on the road is an accomplishment for me personally.
The first leg of a long journey toward to completion of my soon to be published book: Stripped Naked in Chicago. My story is told, and in a sense relived from my journal entries, my unmailed letters, and all the thoughts I typed or wrote down with pen or pencil for practice as I sought to become a writer and Chicago became my nemesis.