How late is thy morning hour


After a shower, I came downstairs and was seated at the right-hand of the table.
Eat your eggs, said John in a glowing tone, as he moved things that were on the
counter to the table, and things that were on the table to the sink. I sat there looking
down at two sunny side up eggs crackling in a brushed white dish. The albugineous
color made the eggs appear only slightly appetizing. The slimy layer which adhered
to them made them very unappetizing, for they now looked like a Bulldog had drooled
saliva on them. "Eat 'em, what are you waiting for?" He then left to enter another
room. "They're cold now anyway."

His voice was extracted from the bowels of a windy living room,
as the air conditioner blew the drapes in and out.

I touched the middle of one egg without breaking it and found the center to be cool.
I smiled as my head nodded forward, like a rocking chair gently pushed, for I now
realized that the answer to all of life's problems was solely in my mind.

It's not the rain that makes a person sad, but ones own inability to
absorb the light which radiates down from Heaven bringing peace.



Slowly, I managed to gently scrape as much of that clear mucus coating from my eggs
as could be expected, before I went to work on them. Not really interested in eating
the sunny yokes, I cut away as much of the white as I could and slowly ate it. When
I was done, two bright orange eyes stare up at me from that plate. John walks into
the room and sees them. "Hey, nice job!" He used the top end of my fork to roll
one over. "How the hell did you do that without breaking them?" That's a good
question cause, I have no idea! You want one? "Yeah, why not." He opens the
drawer to remove a vegetable spoon and then proceeds to dip it in the fat from
the bacon grease. John then puts the egg in the spoon as Barbara walks into
the kitchen. "Watch this, come on!"

We follow him into the backyard where he begins a series of deep breathing
exercises. "What are you doing" asks his mom in a mildly acerbic tone,
"auditioning for the Special Olympics?" "Here we go" shouted John, ignoring
his mother!" With that spoon he shoots the egg into the air and magically
catches it under his tongue. It was almost as though it happened in slow motion.
Wow, I said totally unable to believe it, for it had to go a good ten feet in the air.
"That's the one thing my son can do like a pro, eat!!!" "You got that right" said
John, delighted! "Your turn." You know I can't do that man! "Come on Charles"
said Barbara, "it's the least you could do for waking me in the middle of the night
like you did!" Okay, I said and John ran into the house to get the other yoke. No
sooner would he pass through the doorway did he stroll out of the house balancing
the egg on the spoon like he was walking on a sidewalk that was beginning to freeze!

                                                                               Pg 261
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He handed me the spoon with the xanthous yellow globe
and I really wasn't sure what I was about to do with it.

Okay, here we go. . .

I launched that egg yoke perfectly into the morning sky, and it had to go about thirty
feet! As it started to come down, I became over-anxious, and I misjudged it. Just then,
I twisted my ankle on one of those cumbersome stones separating the garden from the
yard and that egg landed right in my eye. In that brief instant, I saw swirling stars! Like
an uncoordinated fool, I was unable to retain my balance, and so I charged like a linebacker
over several tomato plants and straight through John's parents dry rotted backyard fence!
There were a couple of flimsy metal stand up suitcase tables set up in his neighbor's
backyard, one of which I took with me into Fran Cohen's in-ground pool.



Thank God I wasn't more to the left! Had that happened, I would have careened head
first into the six foot concrete statue of a woman casually drying herself off with a
towel. How appropriate I thought, that this particular statue be placed by a pool.

As I hit the water, after flipping over the table and landing on my back, the giant
Rottweiler who was abruptly startled tried to kill me! Lucky for the pool or he would
have! As Fran came running out with her hair up in curlers and screaming at the top
of her lungs, I saw her waving what appeared to be a large sheet of paper in one hand!
I was just bobbing up and down peacefully while trying to keep myself afloat. After
bringing that vicious dog in, she was back and screaming louder than ever!

Yes, I was surrounded by a floating section of broken fence that had probably
punctured the pool's liner. Paper plates and plastic forks that rose to the surface
where the water seemed to turn a brownish black, and oh yes, let us not forget
the long backyard table that had gone down like the Titanic and was now resting
peacefully at the bottom of the pool.

"What the hell are you doing?" I looked at her with egg yoke running from my
throbbing eye. I'm sorry, I fell. "Fell? You crashed through the fence! Look at
my yard!!!" *Waiving her hand around like she was Italian* I could hear John
reveling in this with that laughter of his. I... I'll fix it. "Fix it? How are you
going to fix it? I'm having a party today!!!"

As I pulled myself out of the pool and rose to my feet, I could see John lying
on the grass and his mother clinging desperately to that barbecue grill to keep
herself from falling! For no obvious reason at all, I found that I had just waved
to her. "Did you just fuc-king wave to me? Are you retarded?" I don't know,
I said trying not to laugh hysterically, I might be! Her last words were, and
I quote "I'm calling the cops on you sick mot-her fuc-kers!"

With that I heard the loud sound of a barbecue grill hitting the concrete patio
and all the little rocks spilled out everywhere! Barbara was now down for the
count as well! (And I smiled) "Wherever Charlie goes, he leaves a path of
destruction and debris in his wake," said John in tears! "Like a white tornado,"
his mom added, also in tears and crying!

                                                                               Pg 262
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A half hour later Armand returns from the store with milk, eggs, juice and an
assortment of bagels. He comes into the kitchen and sees me sitting in John's
oversized pants with a soaking wet head and a big purple shiner on my forehead.
What the hell is going on here, he asks while puffing on an unfiltered camel?

*Barbara speaks*

"Remember that fence, I've been begging you to paint for the past six years?
The one you've been avoiding cause you're so busy all the time. She points
to the backyard and Armand's jaw drops! *His cigarette falls to the floor*

"Gee that's nice, we just lost a fence and now you're gonna burn down the house!!!"

He held his head back and we bust out laughing! Even Armand found himself
tickled by the whole patheticalness of the situation!

A short while after this, the cops arrived with their little notepad and John hastily
escorted me into the linen closet. There I stood like Anne Frank in the darkness,
hiding. Listening in fear as they began to interrogate Armand.

"Look, I wasn't even here, I don't know what the hell happened!"

The officers then began questioning John and his mother. "We weren't here
either, we just got in the house" said John. Well, that's not what Mrs. Cohen
told us. "Excuse me," said Barbara, "but that woman is a raving lun-a-tic!
I wouldn't be surprised if that psychopath sent someone over here to destroy
our property! Do you know how many problems that witch has caused us
over the years? Plen-ty!!!" When the voices faded into the backyard,
I made like Houdini in the great escape!

Halfway to the street, I heard a female voice scream
"You  ly-ing  bas-tards!!!"

I smiled smugly as a song began to play in my head.
It was the visit by Keith West, and in my brain it sounded
better than it did on my Polk Audio system!



There is a place in the mind where every thought, every emotion, and every word
ever spoken is kept. A small vault that cannot be opened with a key. One that is
roughly the size of a humble loft, built on the ruins of a shanty town which was
once a thriving empire for two decadent and over-privileged souls to explore.
An empire which has long since crumbled. Within the quiet room that houses
each and every utterance, a change was taking place. Memories were dissolving.
I realized the time for moving on was now, for all the obstacles that had once
cluttered my path had been swept to the ocean and carried out with the evening tide.



As I entered the dawn of a new day, the sun was shining brightly
in the horizon, expanding out and over this wonderful town of mine.

Halfway down the block, I paused to study a single bee
which had entered a bright yellow tulip, before turning
to smell the fragrant purple flowers of a garden heliotrope.



All the excitement that had come to a head over the past
six hours had now culminated into a feeling a total peace.

As I rounded the corner, I saw a beautiful lady come down her front
steps and get into a jet black sedan. Upon seeing me, she immediately
smiled, and I smiled back. As she sped off onto the main roadway
and dissolved into the fabric of the day, I thought to myself quietly.

"No different are we than the flowers that grace the land.
 We are here for a short time, and then we are no more."

Looking up I saw a tiny jet in the furthest regions of the stratosphere.
He must be smiling, I thought as he left a fine white trail blazoned
across the morning sky. If you factor in how fast he was actually
going, and how long it would take him to go from point A in the
heavens, to the end of the sky when I can see him no more would
probably be like me going from here to the Bahamas, but who
am I to say. I am only an observer of time and space.

As I continued on down the road, I wondered what the plans
of the future held for me. Indeed I thought, this world is mine!

                                                                               Pg 263
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Reviews for chapter 41

Joe Kessler - What a long strange trip it's been


"Worthy of Publishing" reviews for chapter 41



Sylvia H. Mullins - nice... I liked this ALOT!!!! I havent checked your profile
                             yet but I hope you got more books!!!  *rating = 5 stars*

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PG 261) Water droplets by Chema Madoz

PG 262) Breakfast on the Lake by Vladimir Kush

PG 263) Sounding silence by Michael Cheval

PG 263) Pieces of a dream by Raceanu Mihai Adrian

PG 263) The life of the bee from LIFE Magazine Aug 11, 1952