by Rafe Haze
The Beached Whale was awake and propped on her side as always, her pendulous breasts once again stretching down to the futon. Her eyes were fixed forward facing…
Fucking perfect!
She’d placed the Little Old Man’s painting in front of her television, so, once again, Marzoli and I could only see the back of it. Her eyes were alternately full of…of sadness…of wonder…of hope…of regret…of revelation. Her expression was similar to that of the Little Old Man’s last one. Marzoli and I were transfixed by this woman who was outwardly positioned as most of America on any given moment, but whose emotional journey was stratospheric. Where was she going? Where did she dream of going?
The sun gleamed on the gold frame and blinded us for a split second.
“Come here,” Marzoli said, pulling me back.
He walked to his pile of clothes and picked up his jeans.
I sighed. “I guess you’ve got to return home sometime.”
“You do too.”
What does that mean?
He pulled out of the pocket of his jeans an envelope and handed it to me. I opened it. In my hand was a printed United Airlines’ itinerary. He’d purchased two tickets to Sacramento, California.
“Sacramento’s an hour from Placerville,” he explained. “We’ve got to be at JFK at seven p.m. Tonight. Not a direct flight. Sorry. Unless you’ve got something better to do?”
I was stunned.
“Why?” I asked.
“A bag full of ashes. I’m ready to read my next book. And there’s an old man in a trailer who needs as much closure from you as you need from him,” he stated with that Marzoli definitiveness. “I think.”
“I can hardly make it to the stairs let alone to Placerville.”
Marzoli tossed my sweatpants into my arms and danced to the door. He opened it and tiptoed past Mrs. Abraham’s door to the head of the staircase.
“Come to me,” he mouthed in silence.
I looked at that beautiful Puerto Rican Sicilian in all his enthusiasm and encouragement and was flooded with a rush of realization. Yes, I want my brother’s ashes! Yes, I want our Valley of Adventure, our Castle of Adventure, and our Mountain of Adventure! Yes, I want Paul with me always! Yes, I want Palmer to know how much gratitude I have for his silent concern all these years! Yes, I want to listen to my Grandfather’s records and find wherever he rested to tell him I understand in the face of everything I knew he’d allowed to happen! Yes, I want our old red Swiss Army knives as well as all the secrets of our childhood with me, fully acknowledged and fully owned! And most of all, yes, I want to share all of this with this one phenomenal Puerto Rican Sicilian standing fifty feet away at the head of the stairs.
A few minutes later, I heard Minnie sounding the alarm with all her puppy perniciousness. For once I was absolutely elated to hear the sharp yelps of that little spitfire on paws, for this time Minnie was yapping for me.
There was a vast world out there. It was time to be part of it.
Yappity yap yap yap.
THE END
Trademark Acknowledgement
The author acknowledges the trademark status and trademark owners of the following places and items mentioned in this work of fiction:
2(x)ist – H. Best Ltd
American Apparel – American Apparel LLC.
American Idol – FremantleMedia North America, Inc.
Annie – Tribune Media Services, Inc.
Architectural Digest – Advance Magazine Publishers Inc.
Armani – Giorgio Armani S.p.A. società per azioni
AT&T – AT&T Intellectual Property II, L.P.
Banana Republic – Banana Republic (Apparel) LLC.
Band-Aid – Johnson & Johnson Corp.
Bic – Societe Bic S.A.
Birkenstock – Birkenstock Orthopaedie GmbH & Co.
Bud(weiser) – Anheuser-Busch, Inc.
Cheerios/Honey Nut Cheerios – General Mills IP Holdings
Cheetos –Frito-Lay North America, Inc.
Chock Full O’Nuts – Saramar, LLC.
Comcast – Comcast Corporation
Con Edison – Consolidated Edison Company of New York, Inc.
Conde Nast – Advance Magazine Publishers Inc.
Converse – Converse, Inc.
Dallas – Lorimar Productions, Inc.
Downton Abbey – Carnival Film & Television Limited
Drano – Drackett Company
Excel – Microsoft, Inc.
Firebird – General Motors Corp.
Formica – Formica Corp.
Fresca – The Coca Cola Company
Gap – Gap (Apparel) Inc.
GrindR – Nearby Buddy Finder, LLC
Hostess – Interstate Brands, Inc.
Hot Wheels – Mattel, Inc.
Huffy Bicycles – Russell Corporation
Hugo Boss Jeans – Trade Mark Management GmbH & Co. KG GmbH & Co.
iPhone – Apple, Inc.
Jacuzzi– Jacuzzi, Inc.
Jeep – Chrysler Group, LLC.
Jell-O – Kraft Foods Holdings, Inc.
Knight Rider – Universal City Studios, Inc.
Lego – Lego Juris A/S Corp.
MAC Cosmetics – Estee Lauder Brands, Inc.
MacBook – Apple, Inc.
Macbookair – Apple, Inc.
Macy’s – Macy’s Department Stores, Inc.
Manhunt – Online Buddies, Inc.
McDonald’s – McDonald’s Corp.
Nike – Nike, Inc.
Old Spice – Shulton, Inc.
Orangina – Yoo-Hoo of Florida, Inc.
OshKosh – OshKosh B'Gosh, Inc.
Palmolive – Colgate-Palmolive Company
Pottery Barn – International Designers Group, Inc.
Quaker Oats – The Quaker Oats Company
Red Bull – Red Bull GmbH LLC
Ringling Bros. – Ringling Bros.-Barnum & Bailey Combined Shows, Inc.
Saran Wrap – Dow Chemical Corp.
Sony – Sony Corporation
Spongebob Squarepants – Viacom International, Inc.
Sprint – Sprint Communications Co.
Starbucks – Starbucks Corp.
Styrofoam – The Dow Chemical Company
Superman – DC Comics
Tarzan – Edgar Rice Burroughs, Inc.
The Dukes of Hazzard – Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc.
The Little Mermaid – Disney Enterprises, Inc.
Tide – Procter & Gamble, Inc.
Tinkerbell – Disney Enterprises, Inc.
TiVo – TiVo Brands, LLC.
United Airlines – United Air Lines, Inc.
Velcro – Velcro Industries
Verizon – Verizon Trademark Services
Vogue – Advance Magazine Publishers Inc.
Volkswagen – Volkswagen Aktiengesellschaft
Walt Disney’s Cinderella – Disney Enterprises, Inc.
Disneyland – Disney Enterprises, Inc.
Winchester – Olin Corporation
Windex – S. C. Johnson & Son, Inc.
Ziploc – S. C. Johnson & Son, Inc.
Rafe Haze
A mysterious, erudite force of nature? God, no! I was the kid left behind in the classroom as the accelerated students went on the school field trips to awesome places around San Francisco. I was the galumph who could never complete an essay by the time an exam ended at UC Berkeley. I had my first man on man kiss with Mark in the music practice rooms under Morrison Hall as much because of my fascination for the foreignness of his intellectual aptitude as his - ahem - other aptitudes. But, standing south of the elites, writing helped me find freedom and organic truth. No ivy walls to imprison the creative playground; no pressure to impress those I’ve no possibility of impressing; no shifted verisimilitude of true north. Just fluttering, invaluable moments of pain, joy, love, anger, confusion, and intuition. As my twin brother said to me: “When you write you’re still that boy I found alone under that pine tree in the Sierra Mountai
ns, escaped from Boy Scout Camp, lassoing the sky.”
I’ve found New York City to be an apple best consumed when juiced for its sweetness rather than bitten for its bulk; thus I am continually grateful for all the small bits and squeezes of creative support and adversary I’ve received here that make me a braver and freer writer, composer, listener, learner, watcher, doer, loser, and winner.
I love, love, love dialogue, pro and con: [email protected]