C-4
The past had passed...10 years in fact having receded in the rearview mirror, where nostalgia and other objects may appear closer than they are.
Alexia Dyslexia had bloomed in the rose garden of modern and ballet dance where her sheer determination and innovation elevated her to the pinnacle of performance art in New York, Paris, Berlin and London. London! Home of Big Ben, the Tower of London, The River Thames, Monty Python, Jack the Ripper and fish and chips.
She lives in London where she maintains her modern dance studio where young people who want to break into ballet, choreography and strip club pole dancing flock as lemmings ready to leap off the novice cliffs in hopes of landing a professional position with The American Ballet Company or perhaps as a dancing Puerto Rican in yet another incarnation of “West Side Story”.
In fact, she had successfully choreographed and directed a modern dance topless version of “My Fair Lady” that opened recently at the Top Hat Mens Theatre complete with Eliza Doolittle performing a lap dance for Professor Higgins. Higgins, played by the Rex Harrison’s grandson, belts out a version of “Why Can’t a Woman Be More Like A Man” with a bevy of bisexual and in some cases trisexual transvestite dancers.
As for Kathleen Morphine, she now resides in Key West as a world class documentary filmmaker and photographer. In addition to producing diverse documentaries that range from the educational “Why Pelicans Date Rape Flamingos” to “The Life Cycle of Land Crabs” to her Academy Award Winning Docu-short “Is That a Conch Shell in Your Pants, or Are You Happy to See Me?” the definitive exploration of the wild thing swinging singles scene in Miami Retirement Communities where geriatric wheelchairs and walkers become the Centrum Silver version of “The Fast and the Furious!”
National Geographic had just given a freelance assignment to go Africa to expose the horrific ritual where live Pygmies are used as human bowling balls, basketballs, and hood ornaments on luxury automobiles in Cape Town.
T Rex Fitzgerald no longer had to make a living writing fortunes to be implanted into fortune cookies for the Shanghai Fortune Cookie Company. Confucius was confusing enough. A Western writer posing as a Tibetan monk expounding one sentence one hand clapping Oriental “predictions” was ludicrous.
He had finally written his great American novel “The Not So Great Gatsby” that sold millions. He travels frequently now from New York to San Francisco performing to sell out crowds his one man stage play portrayal depicting through spoken word the life and times of Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera as the split personalities who inhabit the psyche of Doc Yucatan, a noted gynecologist to the stars. He plays all three parts.
T Rex had never left Boston. It was home...it was comfortable and he now lived high aloft in a Penthouse overlooking the city giving him a birds eye few of night time muggings including the murder of Louie the Gimp, small time hood, hustler and carnival worker in charge of the Tilt-a-Whirl. Seems Louie had crossed the wrong wise guys getting caught trying to pick the pocket of John Gotti who was in the crowd in the park during a Monkees Reunion Tour.
Every now and then, T. Rex would wander to the old industrial neighborhood where he, Kathleen morphine and Alexia Dyslexia were all neighbors in apartments in buildings that were once factories that made everything from buttons to genuine voodoo dolls. The neighborhood had undergone gentrification and where once on the corner was a noted Boston mob bar, there was now an Amish Party Supply Company selling balloons and buggies and bonnets.
The old liquor store midway down the block where no bottle of wine sold for over $1.98 had been transformed into a drive through Catholic confessional. You had to be 21 to confess any mortal sins.
The old neighborhood had changed except for two things. Long Wangs Chinese Restaurant where the three of them would go for chicken fried rice, egg rolls and fortune cookies, and The Vinyl Jungle that had always and still does carry vinyl records. The good stuff.
He decided to go in one afternoon and while browsing the Oldies Section he came across a classic Standells album that included the song, “Dirty Water” He, Alexia and Kathleen used to sing along to it and were proud as hell Bostonians. He bought the album nd that evening he put on “Dirty Water” and epiphany time….IT IS OUR HOME. Screw London...Screw Key West!
He made up his mind then and there...call Alexia and Kathleen for a Boston hometown reunion to catch up on each others lives. It had been 10 years since they were all last together, and although they kept in touch by Skype and Email there ain’t nuthin’ like face to face with a bottle of wine and some egg rolls at Long Wangs.
He made the first call to Alexia in London and turned the volume up on the hi fi so it would be playing the background. Music as bait!
Dirty Water lyrics, copyright by Ed Cobb
I'm wanna tell you a story
I'm wanna tell you about my town
I'm gonna tell you a big fat story, baby
Aww, it's all about my town
Yeah, down by the river
Down by the banks of the river Charles
Aw, that's what's happenin' baby
That's where you'll find me
Along with lovers, buggers and thieves
Aw, but they're cool people
Well I love that dirty water
Oh, Boston you're my home
Oh, you're the number one place
Frustrated women (I mean they're frustrated)
Have to be in by twelve o'clock (oh, that's a shame)
But I'm wishin' and a hopin', oh
That just once those doors weren't locked
I like to save time for my baby to walk around
Well I love that dirty water
Oh, Boston you're my home (oh yeah)
'Cause I love that dirty water
Oh, Boston you're my home (oh, yeah)
Well I love that dirty water (I love it, baby)
I love that dirty water (I love Boston)
I love that dirty water
(Have you heard about the Strangler)
I love that dirty water (I'm the man, I'm the man)
I love that dirty water (Owww!)
I love that dirty water (a come on, a come on)
I love that dirty water (come on)
I love that dirty water (I'm in love with Boston)
I love that dirty water (Aww yeah)
I love that dirty water
I love that dirty water
I love that dirty water
