I had just moved into my new “studio”
apartment with the detritus of 70 years of living and collecting. It is called downsizing. In the end downsizing meant putting a lot of
stuff into the alley that I would have kept, and bringing too much stuff
that I knew was essential at the time but now I find is not. I am still making slow progress in establishing a comfortable space in the 150 square feet allotted
me
The only thing new I had was
my cell phone which I had had for two months.
Now, I came up on a farm in Indiana
and the telephone was a black metal box with a mouthpiece on the front and a
receiver, a black metal cylinder that hung on a hook on the side. You picked up the receiver and a woman’s
voice said “operator”. Being a telephone
operator was work that at that time reserved exclusively for women. You then told her what number you
wanted. Our number was 713-M. The M meant that we were on a main or a party
line. To make a call to a girl was an
impossible mission. My mother and my
sister would be in the house listening and every housewife in Soythistle Township
would have the receiver off the hook, listening. Forget it!
Before I got a bed in my new
claustrophobic living space I was sleeping on a mattress on the floor. I hadn’t been feeling well, the result of a
fall from a ladder that would have killed a lesser man, so I went to bed with
my new cell phone next to my pillow in case I needed it in the night.
I was sleeping the sleep of
the just when somewhere in the gloom I vaguely became aware of a buzzing noise
that was getting louder. Groggy with
sleep, I opened my eyes and saw a whitish / bluish light glowing from the side
and just below the level of the mattress.
I thought I had died, and was awaiting the voice that said “Folllllooow
the light, Folllllooow the light.” Or perhaps it was the
Rapture. Maybe Billy Graham would come
and take may hand at any moment. As I
became more aware, I thought “Wait a minute, when you die your spirit goes
upward, toward heaven.” This was coming
from below me. “OHMIGAWD, I’m going to
Hell” I learned long ago that you don’t bargain with God. So that was it.
I finally leaned over and
reached down, fumbling with my fingers, and found the source of the
trouble. My cell phone had fallen off
the mattress and had landed in the only thing within three feet--------A glass
of water.
THE
SHADOW--------STILL RIDIN’ AGAINST THE WIND
