Pop A Top Again
Thursday, December 14, 2006 at 16:17 Total exhauston. Went to bed late, up early, needed to catch the PATH train to Manhattan. Peter Boyle on my mind.
Strange men were on the PATH train, gay or straight, no idea. Ambiguous sexually, not alpha males. New York news radio talked about the gay marriage fight in New Jersey. The only winners in this legislative battle is for the divorce attorney community.
I think Janet is stll annoyed with me.
Strange night last night. My mom, Pich Blackness (more on him later), my business partner and I went to our local Irish pub and then had sushi.
Joe is breaking me into country music and I have been trying, on my own, Alan Jackson. Country Music mistake number 1. Joe told me last night "I hate new country." Shit, there is such a thing as New Country? Who knew. Do they sing about newer cars rather than older ones.? I am already hooked on that New Alan Jackson Country Classic "Pop a Top Again." 
Pop a top again
I just got time for one more round
Sit em up my friends
Then I'll be gone
Then you can let some other fool sit down
But back to the PATH train, one guy reading GQ but he did not get off at Christopher Street. Still has been guessing.
My boy Rudy Giuliani is running for President, the woman next to me on the subway was crying pure white tears (the color and consistency of White Out).
Walking down 57th Street a guy rammed into me again and then, shockinly, stopped to apologize. Took several business meetings and walked to the crafts fair in Columbus Circle. Still was waiting for a return call from Janet to hook up with her today. With no call back, I was in midtown limbo.
Could not achieve a festive mood, even though it is was and still is a beautiful, sunny, mild day in New York. I need my best friend. A craft vendor tried to bully me into buying his brother's second rate art work, so I had to seek refuge in the Time Warner building.
Called Joe, stuck my foot in my mouth when I suggested a wheelchair as a Christmas present for someone in his life. Suddenly he announced he was driving his truck through a dead zone, and that was that, call ended. No chance to even ask him if he took his vitamins.
Then, a vibration in my coat pocket. YES, YES, it is Janet from another planet. Come over an play with the kitties. I obey, walk down the stairs and catch the "1" train (Number 1 in name only) and it hurtles me downtown at a somewhat rapid pace to the stop where the World Trade Center used to be. Without the twin towers, I can no more find Janet's house than Osama Bin Laden. I get lost, reorient, look for her corner diner and the futuristic McDonalds now lodged on her Tribeca street, and I am home free.
Writing this from Janet's house now, jelly beans in hand to give her.
Reader Comments (7)
Shady was anxious. Terrified, in fact. Three days locked in his apartment, unable to escape, feeling queasy after running out of food and having to drink from the toilet, his predicament was growing hopeless. Soon he would have to try to claw his way through the door to face an uncertain fate nine stories below on the winter Chelsea streets. If he could make it past the tenants and the doorman, that is. On the other hand, maybe he’d get lucky and be handed over to the animal shelter. At least he’d be fed for a while.
As soon as he felt the regression begin on Friday night, Shady placed an online ad offering, “…a healthy, mild-tempered, house-broken, male Japanese tanuki… to a good home, free of charge.” He included contact information for his apartment manager who he hoped would handle the transaction. Unfortunately, the timing was bad. The manager had left town for the weekend, and wouldn't return until Tuesday evening. Posted three days ago, the ad had received no response, and Shady didn’t know if he would be able to reply coherently to any enquiries if they did come. It was becoming difficult to reason properly, and he feared he would soon be unable to type out the details of his situation.
Resolving to sleep and regain strength, Shady curled up on the sofa for a short nap. Exhausted, he drifted away and dreamed about his birthplace back in Motegi, Japan. His old friends were assembled with him in a snow covered clearing near the foot of Mt. Kamakura. The beautiful early morning light, the sight of his friends’ frosty breath mingled in the cold air, and the resonance of their happy voices made it seem real.
“Hey, shouldn’t you guys be sleeping?” Shady asked, surveying their eyes closely. Everyone laughed.
“You should be careful”, his friend Kayonuki scolded, “Humans might make a coat out of you!”
“Or stew” Mayunuki said, laughing gleefully despite Shady’s distressed look.
Pointing to a frozen stream that lay in the woods behind them, Kayonuki casually changed the subject. “Remember the fishing spot?” The group went to the shallow bank lamenting the cold, but happy to be awake and together again remembering old times. Shady suddenly realized that someone was absent. “Where’s Atsunuki?” he asked, looking around at everyone. All of Shady’s friends knew how head-over-heels he had been with Atsunuki, and the circumstances that prevented him from winning her love. Kayonuki broke the short silence.
“She left to join the humans a year after you did.”
“I know she went to Tokyo and drew anime for a while”, someone said. “We heard she moved to California, and married a highway patrolman. But that was a long time ago.”
“You’ve been gone a long time too, Shady-chan”, whispered Kayonuki as Shady wondered at these reports of his old flame. “We hoped you were okay, but because you’re always so dreamy, we worried about you.”
Then Shady remembered his predicament. “What can I do? This is awful. Suddenly, I can’t take human form at all!”
“It was that doctor you visited last week. He’s a clever fox, and he has something against you”, said Mayunuki. “But don’t worry. You’re going to be alright.” Mayunuki and Kayonuki glanced at each other in agreement and gave Shady a reassuring nod. Kayonuki rubbed the side of her face affectionately against Shady’s, and gave him a gentle kiss on the cheek while Mayunuki looked on, laughing.