Subj: One Fine Day (2)
Date: 3/25/00 3:38:57 PM Central Standard Time
From: Kallie
The 1969 top ten song, "Dizzy" was sung by Tommy Roe.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Wonderful Bob"
Just outside of Ellsworth, on the way in to Bangor, Willie's current favorite song started to play on the radio. In no time at all his fingers were tapping away on the steering wheel, in time to the beat of the music.
Dizzy, I'm so dizzy, my head is spinnin', Like
a
whirlpool, it never ends,
In a voice that would set the dogs to howling, he belted out the top ten tune with gusto, occasionally forgetting a lyric or too, and adding a few comments of his own.
And it's you girl, makin' it spin,
You're makin' me dizzy,
He liked it because it reminded him of Maggie and the way she made him feel.
First time that I saw you girl,
I knew that I just had to make you mine.
"Yeah, too bad Barnabas had the same idea". He chimed in.
The wind felt good blowing through his hair. He had the windows rolled down and the volume turned up, but most importantly he was headed AWAY from Collinsport.
But it's so hard to talk to you,
With fellas hangin' 'round you all the time.
"Like Joe Blow, Tricky Nicky and now there's this Fa B-O!"
I want you for my sweet pet,
But you keep playin' hard to get,
Going 'round in circles all the time.
His singing was interrupted for a bit when he spotted the Psychedelic van on the side of the road. It looked like a bad acid trip on wheels, with its many peace signs and other mystic symbols, displayed on a crazy multicolored background. The van had a flat tire, but instead of trying to fix it the driver had crawled up to the top of the vehicle it seemed, to meditate. What a weirdo! Willie thought to himself, taking a quick look as he drove past the disabled vehicle.
He had places to go and things to do, but the man looked really old and the further he got the guiltier he began to feel about leaving him stranded. Finally he stopped the car when he could stand it no more, squeezed his eyes shut and grudgingly decided to turn the truck around and lend a helping hand.
The old man waved at him from the top of the van, "Hey, thanks for stopping man!". Then he proceeded to gingerly peel his legs one at a time out of the torturous looking Lotus Position he'd been in. "I knew if I sent out a cosmic distress signal someone would come, and here you are man. Groovy!".
Willie didn't like the idea much of being summoned. He'd been there, done that. "The Name's Loomis, Willie Loomis" he said, watching as the crazy ole geezer scrambled down off the van. Willie thought, he may be old but he is sure spry.
The man popped up again around the front of van, seeming to materialize almost like a ghost. He looked even more ancient up close. His face was a huge network of crevices making him look like the world's oldest hippie. His unkempt hair was long, white and curly, as well as his beard. He hadn't combed his hair in so long it appeared to be matted all together. Willie wondered if anything had currently taken up residence in the tangly mess.
But other than that, the clear blue eyes that peered out at him from the leathery skin seemed to sparkle with happiness. "I'm Wonderful Bob. And man, changing tires just ain't my scene,"
Wonderful Bob? Willie had met some strange head cases while living at Wyndcliff and his guy was beginning to sound as if he would be right at home there. But still he seemed harmless enough.
So Willie removed the spare tire from the front of the van, and wouldn't you know, on its cover was a great big yellow smiley face. Then he proceeded to pry off the hubcap, which of course was decorated with a huge red and pink Krazy Daisy. Looking again at the van's intricate and colorful paint job, as he was loosening the lug nuts, he thought that someone must have had a major Peter Max attack.
Wonderful Bob watched the whole process in awe, while telling Willie about the wonders of Transcendental Meditation. Although Willie, for the life of him, couldn't understand how sitting around doing nothing but emitting weird noises could improve your life, but then again, there was a time when he didn't believe in vampires either.
By the time he had the blocks all in place to prevent the vehicle from rolling, and the van all jacked up, his curiosity started to get the better of him. "So ya live around here?" He inquired, setting the jack stand underneath the van then lowering the weight down on it.
"No way Jose, I'm a free spirit", the ancient hippy exclaimed with pride. Slapping a hand enthusiastically on the van he continued, "This boss set of wheels, that's my pad."
Lifting the old wheel off, Willie looked over at his skinny blue jeaned companion and asked if he ever got lonely traveling by himself. Then lifted the spare tire into position and started hand tightening the nuts into place.
The ancient hippie scratched his head as if to stimulate his thoughts, or perhaps it was just a case of fleas. "Well actually I did try the commune scene for awhile, but the chicks there had no idea of what free love was all about."
He leaned up against the van and the sunlight reflected off his metallic peace symbol belt buckle, distracting Willie for a moment from the job at hand. "Yeah man, it was a real bummer, so I had to split."
Willie removed the jack stand and lowered the van back down. "Hey, I can relate to that, I've had to leave a few bad situations myself", he offered. Then he proceed to tighten the lug nuts with the socket wretch.
Wonderful Bob then hunkered down to his level and spoke, "I bet a righteous dude like yourself has no trouble with the chicks."
Giving the wrench a real hard jerk, Willie reluctantly admitted, "You'd loose that bet, the girl that I like won't even give me the time of day. Yet, she's going out tonight with some flaky hairdresser that she barely knows." Willie sat down and start pulling his tools away, then stopped. "Ya know half the time she acts like I'm not even there, like I'm invisible or something."
He looked over at the old man whose eyes seemed to twinkle mischievously. Then the ancient mouth stretched out into a sly knowing grin, "You know man,.... being invisible can be fun."
Willie felt confused and turned away to set his tools back in the truck. "It sure doesn't feel like fun to me", he said under his breath.
"Hey man, don't make tracks just yet. Wonderful Bob has a bitchen surprise for you". Then he climbed into the van motioning Willie to follow.
Willie wasn't so sure he wanted to find out what "surprise" the happy hippie had in store for him, but he followed him in anyway.
It was a bit cramped inside. All along the left side of the interior were dark wooden cabinets, drawers and little pigeon holes to store things in. These of course were handmade by Wonderful Bob himself. The ceiling was cobalt blue, with glow in the dark painted stars representing the constellations of the zodiac. It was all set aglow by a black bulb. And the floor was covered by a hideous purple shag carpet. In the back, in a pile was where Bob stashed his camping gear and other unknown accessories.
Bob opened one of the cabinets where he kept a small safe and quickly dialed in the combination.
Willie was getting curious as to what could be in the safe but felt funny about accepting anything. "Hey you don't have to do anything for me, I wanted to help, honest". But he really wanted to see what was in that safe.
The old man lifted out a jug full of some weird looking liquid. Kind of blue and sparkly it was. "What's that?" Willie inquired.
Wonderful Bob checked out the window, then drew the curtain closed. Next he slide the van door shut, set up a mini fold up table and two chairs, then light a candle. He sat down at the little table and looked as if he were about to impart some top secret information, and in fact he was.
When he felt sufficiently safe that no one else would hear, he began, "I wasn't always a free spirit you know. I used to work for the man, you know Big Brother?" He asked Willie his height and weight and began making a few calculations.
"Yeah, I used to get real stoked on inventing things, so they had me in one of them government think tanks. But the whole thing turned hinky when the military got interested in my stuff. It was a ratty deal so I split and took my experiments with me. This here brew," He exclaimed indicating the contents of the jar, "can make you invisible, but only for a limited time."
Willie leaned forward with interest as Bob measured out a small amount according to his calculations. The old man offered him the beaker containing the mysterious liquid and said, "Here, drink this now and you will remain invisible until......." He looked down at his watch and continued, "Until around twelve o'clock midnight.
Taking the glass he held it up against the light to examine it more closely. he still was a bit skeptical so he asked, "But why share it with me?"
Putting the lid back on the jug he answered, "'Cause man, that was a far out thing you did stopping to help me. Most people take one look and think I've been smokin' the wacky weed too long and steer clear. Besides it makes for some good karma if I return the favor, dig?"
Then he displayed his pearly yellows in a joyous smile and offered, "Just think of all the havoc you could cause that Fa B-O on his date with your chick. Man it's gonna be rip city!"
Willie didn't need to be convinced any further. So he picked up the beaker and made the secret formula itself disappear, glugging in down in one fell swoop.
Kallie >^,,^<