8/1
For the second time this week I am escorting a blind person across the street. He comes from Capitol Hall. Is wearing a dashiki. And one of those African hats. Like Deacon James wears, who I just saw at the coffee vendor’s stand. As we cross the street, he’s excited about going to tonight’s Lincoln Center Out of Door’s festival’s Festival au desert..a celebration of music form French West Africa. I wish I could go with him
When I get back, Marie comes in with Rick and Mike and her son Zachary.They want a tour of the building. See what we’ve got. Talk about what’s possible.Zacahary is having a reaction to the building. We get into a conversation about whether buildings have souls. And the ghost sightings we have had here.
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| What happened to Pastor Downner? |
While we’re talking, Keith looks in, sees we’re busy and walks out.
As we finish, a man with an intense look on his face is sitting and waiting. The look in his eyes should tell me. Soon he’s off on one of those amazing rants that roll like a rap and have the sound of sense but are completely somewhere else. He lays out all the cards from his wallet like pieces from a mad man’s game of CLUE. Nothing adds up or makes sense.
He gives me his sister’s name and last known whereabouts. I go to the Internet. Nothing there. Then he tells me it’s been 20 years since they’ve spoken. Oh.
Stories of marriage. Betrayal. Children. Accusations. A stream that keeps flowing. There’s only four people God has not fucked with, he says.
Buddha.
Jesus Christ,
The fickle finger of fate.
And the dinosaur.
Well all right, then.
He’s going to tell the President that he’s got to stop with all this Steamboat Annie bull shit and declare his independence of George Washington’s dollars with their tell tale pyramids. And that he will do so as a Jew, goddamn it.
I ask what he wants. And he asks for a donation. I tell him the church has no money. I have no money. All I have is $5.
I’ll take the 5, he says.
I wish I could help you find a place to go, I say.
Find a place to go? Can you do the fandango? Scaramocuch, scaramouch will you do the fandango? Thunderbolt and lightning..
And I reply, very, very frightnening..
And he goes galileo, galileo...
And I say, enough. And he says, here’s your 5 back. And walks out. With the 5. Well, he says, I can be a handyman in Central Park. On his way out, he says, Like Sister Sledge , We are family..
And I say, I’ve got all my sisters and me..and he’s gone. And I’m thinking of the 1979 Pirates. Willie Stargell. Dave Parker.
