Sweet Awakenings

Zack Sweet met the day differently this morning. He did not shy from the light and pull the blankets up-tight. No, sir! Instead he whipped them back and sat bolt upright! Stared directly into that bright white morning light, raised his arms, and shouted, “Alright!”

There was no hurrah. No band blare. No applause. No fanfare. But there was the blue jay.

He sat for a moment, took it all in, even allowed himself a grin, then plunged headlong !

What brought on this awakening, you ask? Well it wasn’t the rooster’s call, because there wasn’t a rooster within 800 miles, and there was no alarm, because Zachary (odd-Zack…’O-Z’…his nickname)…O=Z did not believe in TIME . But perhaps what happened, is that he finally - Awoke;  awoke from a lifetime of denying himself - A Life.

What had been obscured by his own closed mind, now opened up to allow for sunshine, as if his ‘roller shade’ just snapped up in time, …and was still spinning…whap!whap!whap!whap!…..a window opened in his head and he breathed in air like it was his first breath, and, yes, just as he had way-back-then, he wanted to bawl at the sheer fear of what life had in store. But he held it all in, accepted his new challenge, and rose to meet the day!

He bathed and brushed, and once squeaky clean, he dressed in a spiffy new sweater and stiff new bluejeans. He even remembered to remove the tags this time. He sprang down the stairs, with all the spring the stiff’ish jeans would allow, and he LEAPT over the last three steps!  (For him, a ‘Wow’). Then on the landing, he landed a ‘10’, and slipped on his jacket like some secret agent, and swung open the door!

…. but here’s where it got odd. He’d never done this before. And the thought came to him, or perhaps just a suspicion, that if you set out to seize the day, then perhaps, you best have a mission. But he had no mission, no vision, other than the ‘waking, grinning, cleaning, dressing, bounding, flinging’ part.

There was no striding down the walkway, and certainly no striding in any particular direction.  There was no direction.

So he stood and wondered, now what?

With ‘time’…He became aware that his toes were going numb, then  realized he wore no shoes! He had overlooked shoes entirely.  Damn!

How could I overlook something as basic as shoes?, he asked himself, while denying inside that he had anything to do with it.

His plan was disintegrating before his eyes.

Standing in the cold doorway, a portal to the other world, the outer world, the living world, his backside warm with the heat of the house, while his breath…which he could see rising before his eyes, in the crisp morning air…only moments ago so free…

felt suddenly, Restricted.

Summoning up the courage of his conviction, he decided he had had a pretty decent day’s worth of progress and he would pick it up from there as soon as his shoes arrived. A week, or so…

He closed the door softly, pausing only briefly to admire the blue jay song. Home.

‘Tomorrow’ would have to wait for a pair of size 9 basic-brown leather shoes purchased from the internet, expected to arrive somewhere between seven to ten tomorrows via ‘regular shipping’, and having more ‘time’ than money, he could afford to wait.

 A small setback perhaps, but time well-used to cook up A Plan. Of course cooking-up-anything-at-all was a daily challenge… and ‘A Plan’ was going to be a bigger Deal, indeed.

Initially, he thought it wise to delve into the ‘downside’, and what could possibly go wrong…or right…to derail his plan in returning to Life…or rather…GETTING a Life to begin one.

While Girding for re-birth, He considered the factors:

Weather would be a factor. What would the weather be? He looked it up. It seems his luck was holding and there were at least 6 ... sunny, crisp-but-clear-days forecast for the immediate future. A tinge of regret crossed his mind as he realized weather would offer no substantial excuse for an act of failure. But the tinge soon paled as he resolved that now was no time to accept excuses. But yet, again…Consider:

Traffic!  Traffic is always a problem! Is it not? Traffic will probably be an issue when you go from here to….where?….exactly? And traffic usually runs by time, so at what time would you be attempting to travel? You don’t know, you have no clock – you do not believe in time! If you had a job, would you have to arrive on time? (Absurd, I know.) So, therefore - No jobs. Time rules that Out! Yes, indeed, Time trumps Job. With no job, Traffic immediately becomes an non-issue. Solved. So then what?

Entertainment.  Rather, the ‘seeking out’ of entertainment. Pleasure. Laughter. Participation. Interaction. MINGLING!… Frightening concepts involving Socialization. Involvement. Commitments. Obligations. Ah, yes….there it was …obligations. That’s what he did not need. End of discussion.

Entertainment offered no reasonable reason to escape his abode. Here, he curled up, so comfy and toasty and utterly at home. He could be entertained….I mean, TV and kitty? Hello?… just sitting in his comfy throne, or finding pleasure in his own small yard, without a car, but a bike and the cat, and no need to go very far. Nothing wrong with that! And think of the environmental impact! None whatsoever. O-Z, the Invisible footprint.

The doorbell rang and startled him awake. He had fallen asleep on the sofa, sitting upright, again…just nodding off for a wink, worn out while thinking so hard. A nap is a portion of the rejuvenation time he allows himself each day, often taking a sequence of short ones in the midst of his daily activities, limited as they may be, but keeping him sharp and focused in-between. Brilliant men have been midday nappers. But focused…for what?.. he did not know.

The bell rang again, this time with some persistence. Perhaps his shoes had arrived! Had it been 10 days already? He was cloudy, sensing that wasn’t right – it had been a mere threes naps ago, not even a full day. He rose and shuffled quickly to the entry. Peering out through the hole he saw nothing, but opened the door regardless, and found there a rather stout man glaring up at him. He did not seem to be happy with Zack. In fact, Zack sensed outright annoyance, verging on hostility, emerging from this put-out little fellow.

“What do you want?” Zack asked.

“Get your ass out of the house,” the surly grump growled.

“WHAT?! Are you mad?!”

“No. I am the new owner and I’m kicking you out.”

“Wait a second, Mr. Russell…”

“Mr. Russell, may he rest in peace, passed away yesterday, but left a decree.”
“And this decree involved me?”

“Indeed. It was his wish that once he passed on to the great beyond, that you do the same.”

“Pardon me?!”

“Not that beyond, but beyond this place, into the great world beyond here, before you stagnate and die, like he. That was his last wish and his biggest fear.”

“He feared for me?”

“He felt he enabled you into this disability, and wants me to set you free. He could not bring himself to do so, so that responsibility rests with me.”

“But I have no shoes…some on the way…be a few days.”

“No. No way. Take mine.”

“I take a size nine…”

“I take a ten, but they’ll fit just fine…”

“YOU take a ten?! Oh…Oh, yes, I see…”

“You’re staring at my feet? Do you have an issue with oxfords?”

“Noooo….but, those are some paddles! Hahaha!!!! ...oooommmphhh!! ”

“You making fun of my proportions?”

“You…you…punched me in the b-b-balls…ugh…”

“Couldn’t reach your nose, but if you want to bend over I’ll be happy to accommodate. In fact hold that position and I’ll take care of it right now!”

“NO! Wait! What the hell is going on?”

“Your uncle wanted you out of the house, but couldn’t do it himself, so the task falls to me, his executor.”

“Why wasn’t I the executor?”

“Oh, I’d venture to say, because you won’t leave the goddamn house?”

“I am NOT taking directives from some gnome! …ooooommmmppphhhh……”

“Believe me, short or tall the pain is the same. What say you?”

“Fuck yoooooouuuuuu-ooooooo…..goddam, man, are you crazy?”

“About as crazy as you are lazy, so one of us will have to ‘give’, and by proxy the law is with me, so move yer friggin’ ass out !”

“But how?”

“There’ll be a truck here in the morning.”

“Going where? I have no idea!”

“That, sir…nephew to my best friend, is exactly the problem your Uncle wanted you to have.”

“Fuck…”

“Face life. Move on. Your uncle did. Take a chance.”

“Oh, yeah! So…You and who is gonna make me?!”

“You don’t know Gulliver?”

“Shit.”