Friday, September 25, 2009

...isn't that?

I was in the parking lot of Mills Fleet Farm and this woman was pumping gas into a goofy looking car. Three men were coming out of the grocery store across the road, laughing. She was younger and reminded me a lot of my roommate freshman year. The guys voices were coming closer. They had accents. I asked the girl about her car and she said that she was driving with this band across America and their next stop was Michigan. Why are you in Brainerd I asked and she didn't know why. That one guy looks a lot like John Lennon I said. She asked which guy I meant and I showed her a photograph of another guy I knew who looked a lot like John Lennon and isn't it funny I said how much guys can look like John Lennon if they just try. She stopped pumping gas and said that one guy is John Lennon and she's traveling with his band across America and their next stop was Michigan. The laughing was very close now. I looked from the picture to the men to the girl to the car to the picture and then this man came over to me and asked what I was looking at and I said this picture in my hand and he said oh that guy looks a lot like me but funny that he isn't me. I said yeah that is funny but hey aren't you John Lennon aren't you a member of the Beatles and aren't you touring America right now and isn't your next stop in Michigan. And the man remarked that yeah he is John Lennon and he is touring America right now and he is stopping in Michigan next and what else would I like to know. Can I travel with you I asked because you see I'm going to Wisconsin and need a lift there and since you are here and going through there could I go with you there please. And he said yeah and I got in the car and a man named Paul said hello and a man named Ringo said hello and I said hello and wasn't there somebody else and they said yeah. The girl began to drive and the music began to play and we began to laugh and the car began to move toward Michigan but I was getting off in Wisconsin but when I got to Wisconsin we were in London and I had missed my stop and missed noticing months weeks days hours minutes seconds moments go by if they had gone by at all. And we shuffled onto this little car and moved through the cobblestone streets and high arched windows and brick face buildings of this city people called London and we laughed as we went along because we saw all these things and it seemed a little funny to be with these men named Paul and Ringo and John and not that other one and this girl and we were going to this place that was supposed to have been Wisconsin but was really London and now we were on a roller coaster that was taking us up and these men seemed familiar but the rush of air and the pitch of the wheels and the turns and loops and swings and jerks that led us through a tunnel made of sheets of red and blue and white and red. And we reached the top of this coaster and emerged from the tunnel of sheets and I went backward because I wanted to see it again and so I reversed everything and went backward again and went forward again and when I stretched my head of the tunnel of sheets I saw children playing and families eating and people singing and strangers taking pictures of friends and friends laughing and people screaming and this tunnel made of red and white and blue and red sheets stretching over a river between a city and a big clock and this spiral over the river with railroad running under it and cars traveling and then we were back at the top of the tunnel and our cart was slowed to a stop. We were in a parade and it was me and John and Paul and Ringo and the girl wasn't around anymore but there were hundreds of people surrounding us on both sides and then the girl appeared behind us and she was driving this car which was my station wagon from high school which explains why it was so comfortable and she started playing some music and it was familiar and these men began to dance to it but I was not ready and so I copied this man named John because he was trying to help me dance with them and it was funny that this was all happening.

1 comment:

Be constructive. Not destructive.