Not the oracle, part three
(in two part-harmony)
Got in from fishing and I cleaned up and lay down. For a long winter’s nap. Just as I was good and asleep, the cell phone rings.
“What are you doing? I’m here with Mom and Dad, and we’re talking about you. Because you’re not here of course. What do want for Xmas? We’ve got lots of food.”
I was in that state of almost complete sleep; I’m guessing I was about 30 minutes into a two-hour power nap. And I was hoping that I could drift back to sleep. Sister persisted.
“Here, talk to Mom. No, wait, talk to Dad. Are you sick? Why are you asleep?”
I was up before the sun, on the lake before sun-up, frost on the boat cover, barefoot at 2 in the afternoon, still fishing, and I was headed out to the movies later.
“What are you going to see?”
Doubled-header, “Santa Versus Satan,” a 1960 Mexican film with marginal production qualities, but timeless in its own right, and rendered in “better than surround sound” Foleyvision (live accompaniment). Then Purple Rain.
“Mom says she’s heard of Purple Rain. Is it any good?”
In that movie, Apollonia asks The Kid (Prince), “Are those your folks?”
He replies, “(can’t make out my notes) freak show.”
I did spend a little time unglued because the movie was so “1984.” Not in the Orwell sense, but in the sense of, “Hey, that’s my generation.” I lived through that. The style, the music, and then, at the end, the audience’s reaction, with cheering and arm waving.
I’ve seen lots of Prince video. Too much, maybe, and the music still makes me want to move. But somehow, I don’t think I ever saw the whole movie. Not that I missed anything, or, maybe I did see the movie, but I was in no condition to remember it.
Which, of course, is why I live like a monk.
As the oracle predicted, part numero dos
5:59 AM, phone rings, “Kick her out dude, time to fish.”
What was odd, I was still in bed. Asleep. (Alone: I live like a monk.) What’s not so odd is that it took about three minutes to get dressed and hustle out the trailer’s door. For some reason (Mercury is retrograde in Sagittarius – that’s my story), the alarm clock didn’t go off.
It was very foggy on the lake. Part of that was a function of the relative temperature, the lake itself was 60 to 65 degrees, and there was ice on vehicles, as we approached in the cold pre-dawn dark.
There had been much discussion pertaining to the right bait to use. I opted to listen to wiser, better-versed with this lake, gentleman’s advice. But I was also complaining, albeit in a gentle, chiding way, that the set-up might have been a set up for me to catch no fish.
“What did you catch it on? Huh?”
So he was right. So there. Proves something.
