The Hope Store
Page 17
For two weeks I knew what it was like to have hope, to have a waterfall of dopamine flowing inside me, cascading into whole new places. Once you see your own shining possibilities, you can't un-see them. And why would you want to?
I live in a brave new world these days divided into the Natural Hopers (those who only believe in the hope you're born with) and the Enhanced Hopers (those who believe in everything else). People gather around watercoolers all over the world and debate whether hope installations are a good thing or a bad thing. I, for one, think they are a good thing.
It's a new year and contrary to all my predictions -- I'm still here, still trying to find my rightful place in the world. I've learned that as long as I have even just a little bit of hope…
When I get to ground level, Otis is waiting patiently on the sidewalk for me.
We go to his place and order in, watch the fireworks on TV and cuddle on the sofa. We toast our glasses of sparkling grape juice to the future.
Out of the corner of my eye, I see a body dangling from a rope from the ceiling. It's Jada2. Her body slowly turns as if blown by a breeze. Her eyes blink open and she smiles at me. She blows me a kiss. With each revolution, her image becomes fainter and fainter until she is gone.
I will find a way to be happy this year if it's the last thing I do.
I used to think of myself as a falling star, a constellation of possibilities that would never amount to anything. And falling stars were sad because they were falling after all. But recently I googled the term. It said falling stars are also called shooting stars. How weird is that? I guess it's all in how you look at things... that make them what they are.
LUKE
44. CHOPPER
I'm getting cold up here on this roof all by myself. My smartphone sings to me its little song. It's Kazu. He's still waiting downstairs and would love to go out for Japanese food. I can't wait to tell him about Jada, that she hasn't given up hope. This store is going to help a lot of people. We're going to help a lot of people.
And while I'm at it, I should mention to Kazu how much I love him and how super cute he is and how I divide my life into two parts -- Before Kazu and After Kazu -- and how the after part is so much better and it's not like how in the movies where one lover tells the other: "You complete me" because what Kazu did, what he truly did, was give me the tools to complete myself, you see, so assembly was required on my part.
I should tell him that.
I will tell him that.
Right after I give him a big, juicy New Year's kiss.
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And now I imagine a chopper hovering over the rooftop and lifting up and away. The Bravo cameraman on-board surely will get some footage of a man on a rooftop walking toward a door. That man would be me. Credits would roll right about now if this was a series on Bravo -- and who’s to say it shouldn’t be? Clocks everywhere in Chicago have struck twelve and the reveling goes and this is what some of the people here tonight may have overlooked in the night’s commotion: the sky filling with light, fireworks transforming night into day…the birth of a new year.
ACKNOWLEDgementS
Thank you to my readers. Without you, I am shouting into the void.
Gratitude to my writing group Ouija Board (David C. Taylor, Alison DeLuca, Randy Tatano, Stephanie Baird and others) and for my beta readers: Alison DeLuca and the late JT Kalnay. For support from Michael Jones, Nancy Andria, Mary Corcoran, Jade Ham, Lorraine Harrell, Susan Namest, and many others. To Rosie Cook whose quirky personality was inspiration for Jada Upshaw. To Kazu Inoue for his friendship over the years. To my Buddhist practice for providing me the wisdom to know what to do, and the courage to act on the wisdom.
As always thanks to my manager Nicholas Bogner of Affirmative Entertainment who seeks to bring my books to the big screen. My first novel The Prospect of My Arrival was a finalist in the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Awards. Thanks to the Kindle Storyteller Contest for motivating me to send my book out into the world sooner than I would have.
The cover design was based on an image created by Acetyl "Rachel" Choline. I'm grateful to designer Bogdan Ghigeanu who worked with me to create the final image. The interior vintage brain image was by designer Cathy Hull. Special thanks to Randy Tatano for nagging me to get this novel into print. The poetry excerpts in the section headers are from my book Crossing with the Light (Tia Chucha Press).
On the subject of hope, I inherited my mother's optimism and my father's scientific curiosity and they have served me well through the dark nights. Every day we learn more about the wonders of the human brain, so I don't think my story is all that unlikely. With any luck, one day a Hope Store will be coming soon to a neighborhood near you.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Dwight Okita lives in Chicago with an imaginary cat and a great circle of friends. He also designs websites, is a professional therapeutic cuddler, a Nichiren Buddhist, and a passionate moviegoer. Dwight envisions a world more beautiful than this one and is confident we will manage to create it together in this lifetime.
Nicholas Bogner of Affirmative Entertainment, Dwight's manager in Hollywood, works to get his books onto the big screen. Currently, the author is writing a novel called EVERY TIME WE SAY GOODBYE which deals with love, reincarnation, and the gun violence epidemic.
He is especially grateful that you, Dear Reader, have chosen to read this book.
You might also enjoy his first novel The Prospect of My Arrival and his poetry book Crossing with the Light. You can reach the author at his website: www.DwightOkita.com
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