PART IV: NOTES FROM THE UNDERGROUND AND CERTAIN DEPARTURES / 36

PART IV: NOTES FROM THE UNDERGROUND AND CERTAIN DEPARTURES

or "memoir masquerading as metaphor, a deeply meaningful allegory of sorts"

Chapter 36

There are many ways a person can be awakened. A sort of a continuum, if you will. The most agreeable way is the gentle kiss of a beautiful woman, accompanied by, well... Next would be the sweet melody of a songbird in the front yard. Somewhere in between is the utilitarian beep of the alarm clock, full of annoying possibility. Blaring street work, nuclear blasts, and the like top the opposite side of the spectrum. That, and the repeated pounding of a tack hammer on the front door. And this is how I was awakened the Tuesday morning following the evening's 'town meeting'. The annoyance was over before it began, to use a trite cliche. So I went back to sleep, figuring nothing would change between now and whenever I decided to get out of bed and investigate. And I was right.

When I did decide to bravely embrace the day, I found a note nailed to my front door. It was scrawled on a crumpled sheet of paper tattooed with tire tracks and was in a print of desperation and resolve and poor penmanship and it said this:

Brody-
I've been doing some thinking about [unreadable] and I do that sometimes when I need to figure something out out. Thank you for trying to help me [illegible section].. I have disided to [unreadable] for to the money You may htink [illegible section] cats, dogs, and other amimals that are in need, as I understant it. [what!?] to do that. It's like I was chosen or something to make a diferinse. Not to menchon flowers, And I will. [more unreadable section]
Sorry so sloppy.
I'll see you when I get back.
Ethyl

She had nailed the note to my door...with a tack hammer, like she was an understudy of Martin Luther. She could've just knocked. After reading it, I can't really say it cleared everything up for me. In fact, I was left with more questions than answers. One thing I did get was that Ethyl was going on a journey, possibly in more ways than one. I wished her my best, folded the note and dandelion-twirled it onto the couch. Then I scuttled into the bathroom to take a shower. I had to be at EcoCares by 10:25. Hopefully, I could finish editing the Cincinnati manuscript at some point during the day and get that in the mail. Neseccary? Necessary? Nessicary? Important.