Life As An Elevator
A Novel
By D. Witt
Chapter Fourteen
He suddenly appears in the alleyway, running in our direction with a
brick in his hand holding it above his head. "You a**hole mother
f*ckin' son of a b*tch, you come over here into the alley and I will
say it again to your face." He screams at a group of thugs from the
neighborhood who hangout on the street at night. "You piece of sh*t,"
he yells. Now the gang slows their pursuit as they notice that Roky is
with us. We duck into the fire escape alleyway cubbyhole refuse as he
throws the brick in their direction and they give up the chase.
"Hey, man. What's happening?" Roky asks almost casually. "What's going
on, man?" I shout. "It is about time that you show up. We have been
waiting on you. We are scheduled to start in just a bit just as soon as
Z Z Top gets finished with their set. Are you ready to play? Where is
your guitar?" I asked.
"I don't know because there was this guy dressed up like Jesus with a
white robe and no shoes who took me to score some really good orange
barrels." he responded. "He was carring my guitar in the case for me
and that is when these guys showed up and started chasing us. The guy
dressed up like Jesus took off running in another direction with my
guitar, so I don't know where he or my guitar is," he continues, "but
we did score this." He proudly holds out his hand palm open revealing
five clear gelatin capsules which contain white powder. "Psylicybin?" I
ask. "Yeah, mushrooms." he replies as I secretly think to myself how
badly he needs to trim his fingernails. Roky never cuts his
fingernails, especially the thumbnail on his left hand, the hand that
he uses on the guitar fretboard. His thumbnail was getting so long that
it was beginning to curl and turn yellow. Tommy took two of the
capsules and gave one of them to Clementine. I took the other one.
Mushroom halucinations are a little easier on the nervous system than
those that acid cause. As we swallow the drugs, Tommy says to Roky,
"Danny was telling us about his water balloon "you"." "Yeah," I chime,
allowing my speach to slow in an attempt to create a more serious mood,
"shapes and edges are only a perception because we are always evolving
through the everchanging environment of time and space. We are at the
mercy of our surroundings." Roky seems interested in what I am saying
so I continued. "The balloon in the center is "you" and the crystal
sphere is the edge of life, you know, the limit. The balloon is "you"
in the here and now and the space around it is filled with feelings
like pleasure and pain. The balloon rattles around inside the crystal
sphere of life experience." I explain and continue because I know I
have their interest, plus Roky was listening, which he rarely does when
I talk. "So the best state of existence is balance when the balloon is
perfectly centered. The idea is to enjoy the transpositioning between
pain and pleasure to achieve the ultimate clarity." I concluded. "Isn't
that a John Lee Hooker tune that Billy is playing upstairs in the
club?" Roky asks. We hear the music that Z Z Top is playing in the club
echoing off of the walls of the alleyway as we start to halucinate
while sitting on the steps of the old wrought iron fire escape.