Reflections

Such things over there as you already know. Never will be. Done. Stories as told from a Carib-Jamericanadian perspective. In richly blended language mix of; poetry, nonsense talk, sensational spelling, double entendre, and Jamaican Patois. Yes, wordplay is the order of the day around here.

There came a time when another conversation was overheard in a distant realm. It was happening between the then forcibly retired and shipped home Shadow Needleman and another who we’d supposed, was his friend, the great one himself, King Liam. It was somewhat on this wise that the conversation came through to us. While we were sitting idly by, out there on the bus. “So, buddy, how was your trip?”

“Hard, much harder than was expected.”

“Oh Lord! How so?”

“You know! It gets really hard out there at times, it was like, like, different. Like for instance, you know. Those times when those searches along the way felt as if they were leading me nowhere, or even worse than that curse, like, when it seemed to me as if they were leading in the wrong direction, away from here”

“Did it happen that way often, did it happen a lot like that?”

“A few times over the centuries as a matter of fact… You know! I thought that you were always there looking out for me, and for my greatest good. Just like you had said to me when your word was good. Did you not say that you would have been watching over me, or at the very least, that you would be there for me? I thought that you would have been there for me man like, whenever things and times get rough and tight. Which, by the way, happened a lot.” He was quick to say this, and that. “…Or at least some of those times, like, when I was locked up in that rotten jail, for instance. You should have been there to help. But you were not, ever. What happened? How come you were never around?”

“I never promised you a rose garden, those flowers are grown. I never promised you that I would ‘always’ be there watching over you, did I?”

“I beg your pardon! What…?” “All I said was that I would be looking out for your greatest good and for your safe return home, and as you can clearly see for yourself even now; look, look at it. You’re in fact, home, and safely so. No?”

“Oh — man… and look at what you made me do. If only I knew that you weren’t there hovering over me all the time, I wouldn’t have…”

“You wouldn’t have what? What did you do out there that I still don’t know about?”

“Nothing, nothing at all, man — oh man.”

“What now? What did you do? Tell me, or not do for that matter. As it would seem to me like the latter is the case here?”

“Never mind me, my dear King. What was done was over there with them, and him. And it’s already done you hear, and it’s, it’s all behind me now.” Pause, long pause.

“I… I had to do what I had to do, and I did, and that’s all there is to it now. What else can I say? What can I do now? It was all done in order to push and steer you away from the edge anyhow, the very one that you were about to fall over…”

“Mi blow-wow! So you-you, you mean, you were there ‘pushing, or pulling,’ or whatever else you were supposed to be d… trying to steer me away from the edge! What edge — man? eh! What edge?”

“Some things are best left unsaid Shad, and yes, you should be glad, that too was for your own good, and for your safety.”

“Well, what — ev-ver.”

“Whatever? What kind of talk is this?”

“I got used to saying things like that quite a bit,” said the shadow man, blaming these things now on his finger-flips, and on his rolling hands between those rolling folded-up palms of his. “…I-I picked it up on the job you know? No, you wouldn’t know. Things are different out there. Much different than they are here, but you wouldn’t know that either, would you? No, I don’t think so, you wouldn’t.”

“I ee, I do know quite a bit — Shad, more than you’d imagine as a matter of fact, much more.”

“Alright, alright, of course, you do, I got you. ‘Yeah right!’” he whispered this part from behind his lips, tooth tight. More pause.

“So, what really happened Shad, tell me. How come, how is it that you were not able to get the job done after all this time? I mean, you’re ‘the man,’ aren’t you?”

“If you would have sent Bookie T along with me, you know, my trusted weapon and the master key? Like I didn’t ask you to, same as how I didn’t ask you to toss me in without even bothering to discuss it further with me. Like, just sit down and talk to me about it, and ask me first before the bug-fit, or talk some more with me about it first, before stuffing me all the way into the purse. You wouldn’t need to be asking me this now, would you — Nurse? Together, Bookie T and I would have been up to the task. As we have always been. Both of us, together. It would have been done. But-but?”

“But what?”

“It’s still just one of me, you know, up against all of them. As for them, they didn’t come out empty-handed, no sir, never. Which leads me to my next question: what are you going to be doing for me? Seeing that, as things are, and is, I’ve got nothing but nothing, and the quiz. I’ve got nothing in this whole kingdom but him. No, I mean, just me. What’s now left of me that is. As you can clearly see, it ain’t even much on me. Lucky on you though, you’ve still got everything going for you in the homely row, in spite of everything, you’re well on your way to getting your son back to the king, no? Come on, let’s sing, like so. Sing along with me now: back to life, back to reality, back…”

“Cut that out Shad, drop it will you?”

“Okay, what can I say? Your son will be okay soon though. Yes, and thank you for guessing, and even so, there are one or two more guesses left to go. Thanks again for that, and this, guess who’s this? None other than yours truly: me, the Shadow Man to be, as usual. And guess where I’ll be when all this is truly over and done? Not with the new gal, no, not even one, not with any of them but, yes. In the shadows again, as usual… damned am I.” Pause. “How is he doing by the way? How much longer before he will be out of intensive care for the day?”

“Who, what? What intensive care are you…?”

“There you go again, gone, to the distant lands, here but not quite here. Do you know what I think? I think you’re beginning to get a bit senile over here, or maybe you’re tired and sleepy. Go to bed man and go p…” Pause. He had to hit the pause upon the bad-looking eyes of the king’s looking glass through the eye-bag. But, at last. “Look,” he said, “I, me, people like me, like him, that one even, like them…”

“Don’t point -Shad, you don’t have to point at them — my friend.”

“Okay, I hear what you say, but still. Look this way, just look at them across my thumb. Not my pointy finger this time per se. But come, just look at them, like, this way, can you see them now? Those people there, they’re just like me, and all the others out there that you may see. Those out there in the humanoid world spheres too: we’re not like you remember? We’re not you, we’re liable to expire… and even if by some special provisions one’s time should be extended somewhat, as seems to be the case now with me and the little brat.

“What? What was that?”

“No, not to worry about little things such as that, it’s just the way we sometimes talk over there when we chat. But, as I was saying, even if our time should be extended somewhat, it won’t be forever, we’ll still all end up wasting away in the end, only much slower than that, and them. But, but.

What about that trucker? The one whose ashes I had was to sift my way through. Imagine that! I sat there all night, sifting through dusted remains of that mother of… you know, Mister Tucker. Like, like, doing it for you, for whatever reason. Doing the sifting shift in order to separate his burned remains and hence the residues of the Genodes, yes, them again oh, da… In order to separate them from those of his burnt-out rig and the cargo that he was transporting to go on and close out the gig. And all this, in search of the long-lost Genodes?

What is to become of him? And those? Then there were those daughters or guards of yours. Whichever they are to be found coming in after me through the doors, in fact, or going off on hidden scores, playing craps. Those wonder women who had shown up as if they were friends but were not. ‘For my good,’ they had said. And what’s up with all that, that thing, with me having to suffer the indignity of being thrown into prison for thousands of years?

Maybe more, like, tens of thousands on the scores, and being made invisible to the eyes of those humanoids while I was in there and walking the floors, and by whom? By none other than your own ‘brother’ who, by the way. You never bothered to tell me about him before this day, how come? How come I never learned anything about that score, of you ever to have had a brother on the outdoors? Or daughters for that matter, and sisters, and, and. And how come? How is it that: what’s ‘good for me,’ always seemed to hurt so much on my backs…?”

“Hey! Watch it.” He shot the shadow man a scalding hot glance, like this. It stopped him halfway in his tracks, off-balanced and hissed. “Watch your mouth, mister,” he said.

“All right, all right: I’ll wash my mouth, and-and, and go to bed.”

To be continued.

That’s it for this excerpt. Be sure to join us again tomorrow or any time thereafter, for more of the series, as we continue with these stories. Don’t forget to like, share, and comment. We sure would appreciate it if you’d subscribe and follow us somewhere too, thank you.

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Just an excerpt from my book called “New Hiking Trail Cast Shadow on the Tattooed.” A Novel: Real Inky Trails Series.

By writingelk, All Rights Reserved.