umbilical chronicles - part two

read Umbilical Chronicles - Part One here

I'm operating on some kind of involuntary and primal level as I quickly follow the man I believe to be "Jimmy" down a dark city street crowded with vehicles, debris, snow and ice. A helicopter slicing through the snowy sky can be heard overhead - somewhere.
"Where are we going?" I frantically ask.
"My Caddy, it's down here. I didn't want to park too close to the apartment," he yells in response.
I don't know where I'm running to.
I don't know what I'm running from.
I can't get obese woman's words out of my head.
Another helicopter chops overhead.
Snow continues to fall.
The panic smothering this frozen night is real and I don't ask questions. I simply follow "Jimmy's" lead. I spot a beat up 1969 red Cadillac glowing under a dim street lamp when "Jimmy" says, "Right here. Your door's unlocked."
The cold chrome door handle stings my hand as I open the heavy door. The Caddy rolls and rattles as I slam the door closed. All of this dead weight. It's everywhere.
I try to collect myself on the cold leather seat and I'm not sure if the fog escaping my trembling blue lips is my breath or a silent ghost chanting muted warnings about some kind of impending doom.
"All right, man, here's the deal," "Jimmy" begins as he navigates this red beast over shiney sheets of ice. "Franco's on the phone trying to score us a one-way ticket out of all this when three guys in ski masks come busting through his front door with big fucking black guns. I do a Flash Gordon and bolt for the back door when I hear POP! POP! POP! and never look back. I hear someone yell, 'You can run but you can't hide, Tyler! We're everywhere!'" - Tyler? Did he say Tyler? If this isn't "Jimmy" then who the hell is this Tyler character and why am I in this strange car with this stranger, this Tyler? - "I'm pretty sure Franco is a goner. FUCK! I mean, I heard too many shots and he was right there like a deer in headlights. FUCK!
"This is insanity, Jake. Pure insanity. We are the few, the unmedicated, the sane" - if sanity means being a stranger in no man's land then please give me a straitjacket...Is this actually happening?...Where am I?...Who is this man?...Who the hell is Franco? - "Crack, Viagra, heroin, Oxycontin, meth, Xanax, pot, Vicodin, legal, illegal - what the fuck is the difference? They killed Franco because he was trying to get us out of this fucking zoo, this insanity, this country - Amerikira. THEY FUCKING KILLED HIM! But if he stays home doped up and comatose, that's fine. Don't think, take the pills from Uncle Sam and watch the moving pictures on television - The Amerikiran Dream. Jesus, man. Where did we as a people go wrong? Pfizer, they say they're dedicated to 'humanity's quest for longer, healthier, happier lives.' GlaxoSmithKline, 'do more, feel better, live longer.' Merck, Eli Lilly - they all pulled the chemically laced wool over our eyes and we never looked back. Oblivious to the Suits and Black Robes in DC as they removed 'freedom' from our collective vocabulary. I bet you didn't know that, did you? Look up 'freedom' in the dictionary, Jake. You won't fucking find it, man. But I'll tell you what you will find: Millions and millions of Amerikirans waiting in line for 21st century's definition of Utopia - numbness. Every morning - pill. Every evening - pill. And now we're trapped. Trapped in this country. Trapped in ourselves. Oh, to be that fetus floating in the ether."
Tyler's voice fades from my cold ears and as we pass a clean and glowing billboard (Happiness is Blissphoria®! Have you taken your yellow pill today? with a smiling and tanned yuppie) I ponder my past. From fetus to infant to child to - my childhood? Why can't I remember something, anything from my childhood? Father? What was he like? Father, where did you go? Mother? "Warmth" comes to mind. A seed in her warm belly - and then what?

TO BE CONTINUED...

mc