George
never did run into little Adam-zad again, little Adam-zad having a
dislike for white men, probably because for the most part they were
just too capitalistic, and careless. George tried for a time not to
think of his dream. He sorted through the bags of R-20 insulation
which little critters and bugs had enjoyed living in for the past
many years. He put a triple layer on his ceiling which he nailed out
with poly and 3/8” plywood. Building went much better now with his
handsaw and some nifty saw horses. The walls were insulated and
nailed out with plywood over poly and the window and a few other
cracks were caulked. He built a door with 2x4's on the flat,
insulated and covered with plywood, which swang real well on the
orange hinges. He had two large totes of nicely dried berries, sort
of a mix of mostly blue berries and saskatoons. The rice had been a
lot of work and he had ended up with four big sackfuls, after all the
chaff had been blown away in the breeze. His Acme Wood Stove got
moved inside and he made a coned flashing for the roof from an extra
piece of the stove pipe using some geeky little snips in his new tool
box. He had some lettuce and green onions sprouting in a little
greenhouse he had patched together out of slider windows on the end
of his deck under his window and was wondering if it would be warm
enough to keep them growing when it got cold if he cut some vent
holes through the wall for heat. The triple glazing was a bit of
overkill for a greenhouse and he hoped they'd let a few UV rays
through. He even scooped out a little privy one day and built a
three sided shelter with a bit of a roof over it and a throne, over
which he had to chuckle every time he sat on it.
But that
trickster spirit had vexed his mind and that dream nagged at him. It
had to do with meditation, or some sort of a stupor of the mind he
had gotten himself into. Somewhere deep in his silly head he had
entranced himself until this horrible hairy bear had taken over his
being. He knew he had been trying to achieve some sort of
enlightenment, the way the mystics did, and he was rather amused at
himself as he mulled over reverberating with umm, umm, umm, umm, umm.
He remembered candles, yes that was it, a candle flame and staring
at it for hours and hours till his mind became one with it and it was
the only thing which existed in the whole universe, and then he would
have visions, beautiful visions, of worlds beyond our own were life
beat to a different drummer and he was filled with a euphoria beyond
expression. Then suddenly this horrible hairy beast of a bear had
begun invading his ecstasy with his hateful cunning swinish eyes,
grunting and chuckling at him for his blissful exultation. I had
driven him to despair. And yes, he remembered that book on self
hypnosis which he had used it to try to forget it all. He remembered
meditating over and over and over... I remember nothing, I remember
nothing, I remember nothing... and the horrible hairy bear just
grunted and chuckled.
They had
told him in the hospital, after they brought him out of his coma,
that he had been walloped on the head by the mirror on a half ton
truck as he wandered aimlessly onto a busy road. The scans had shown
some significant damage to his noggin which might or might not
regenerate itself in the coming months. So they sent him away with a
worker who got him a home with a throne and some sort of monthly
disability benefit which paid his rent and bought him his needs. And
now he was here, on an island with his buddy Mottles, and life was
good. He still did not want to remember anything although it was
becoming hard to avoid. It just seemed too consuming.
The first
snow came peacefully. George spent his time fishing and cutting up
sound deadfalls nearby which were much easier to bring home now on a
little sled he crafted with 2x4 runners. The fish he cleaned and
froze in a plank crate outside which was soon filled to the top. And
so the lake froze over, the shallow parts first, and then the whole
expanse, and George was left in a world of white to his horizons. It
fervored a smallness in his wonder world.
(To be
continued)
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