3.25.2009

bear's dream


Bear comes with the Goose. He lives across the street in the house where he was born, the youngest and smartest of some 12 kids. The house has no plumbing or electricity or heat, so Bear pretty much hibernates in the winter. "At least he doesn't have dirt floors," says Dale, the plumber who came out to dowse for my septic tank. "I went to school with a kid whose house had dirt floors. The plumber, 55, didn't have indoor plumbing or electricity himself until he was 11 years old.
Now Bear would like to go on a trip. At 45, he has never been out of his home woods. Maybe, he thinks, he could go with me when I leave, go visit a nephew in Maine. He has some money saved up from his job at a small sawmill. "How would you get back," I ask. "I could take a plane," he suggests. "I never been on a plane. Or a bus, or a train." It's about three-and-a-half hours to the Memphis or St. Louis airports.
I feel guilty now, that by blowing into town on a whim I have altered Bear's perception of reality. "You give him hope," says Elaine. But I'm not so sure that's a good thing. I may have made Bear (whose real name, alas, is Randy) dissatisfied with his life—especially since he met my beautiful friend Carly from Kansas City. He is a lonesome Bear, and he wanted me to tell her "hi." "I am afraid having me here has made for him a chemical reaction of longing for places and people he cannot have," I wrote her. "You inspire the same chemical reaction in me!" she wrote back. "How strange. . . Say hello to Bear."

7 comments:

  1. Like I said, it's The Petrified Forest Syndrome.

    The Chemical Reaction line is a good one, I admit.
    I think you should call up your pal Travis Tritt and get him to write a song about it. You know, it could go:

    My Chem teacher he told me
    "Son these chemicals you see
    Surely have the power to amaze both you and me.
    But they can't hold a candle to the
    power of a girl.
    Some day a girl will come
    and she will change your whole damn world."

    And, as I said yesterday to you during the First Major Disaster,
    Thomasville ain't seen nothin' yet.

    Wait 'till your bro, Wolfen, Chris
    Erin, Flip, and the other members of The Chem Class get there.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Wow, B, you're amazing!
    I can hear the hook!

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  3. Leili just added you as a friend to her Facebook.

    So.. check it out.

    We are here, and I am showing her what a Blog is.

    Bitchin' mais non?

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  4. you are about to alter everyone's perception of reality in Thomasville Missouri...lucky them!

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  5. O.K. You could use bunsen instead of candle. How's that?

    I was going to write you another song, to Neil Sedaka's Next Door to an Angel:

    I’m living right next door to a chem lab
    And I just found out today
    I’m living right next door to a chem lab
    And she only lives a house away

    I used to be fine in this sleepy old town
    But with my Bunsen on fire, I’m a burnin’ it down
    I’m living right next door to a chem lab
    And I’m gonna make the chem lab mine.

    But then I found this, and thought, "Why Bother?"

    http://www.cduniverse.com/search/xx/music/pid/7396510/a/Country+Chemistry.htm

    Check it out.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Out here that means a meth lab.

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  7. Is Bear also a nudist? I don't see any clothing and the truck seems to be strategically placed?

    DR in NJ

    ReplyDelete