episode 2, lunch with Esmerelda

continued from last post

Esmerelda drove with Lohbado to a restaurant at a plaza overlooking the runways of Yamaville Airport. She parked her Range Rover under the shade of a lone tree at the edge of a grassy boulevard where plane watchers sat in lawn chairs, or spread out blankets to enjoy the afternoon. They were like people at the beach, only instead of being on the seashore, they lounged at the edge of the sky. Instead of watching waves roll in, they saw jet planes come in for landing, or take off.

A large dog barked from the end of a chain attached to the post of a radiator repair and propane refill sign. The dog reminded him of the wild dogs he had frequently encountered on the Plains of Radiation. Occasionally he had to scare them off by throwing rocks. Usually they were ingratiatingly friendly. He got to know some of the dogs of the Secret Desert, when he ventured out of the dome for exercise. Colleagues warned him to stay in the dome. They thought he was foolish. People died out there on the Plains of Radiation. Lohbado was glad they were afraid to leave the dome. It meant more space to himself. It was exhilarating to wander in such a desolate landscape, where a person could die of exposure, or get lost, if he or she got careless.

episode 1, plane watchers

Oppressive scenarios vanished from Lohbado's mind as the jet plane accelerated on the runway and heaved into the sky. Lohbado sank  back in the seat and gazed at the rectangles and lines of city below. A stab of pain hit between the eyes. Lohbado took a couple pain killers.

The plane went above the clouds. Thick clouds blocked out the earth. After six years in the Secret Desert, Lohbado grew to enjoy bleak, spacious desolation, vast panoramas with few forms. On windy days, sand flowed in horizontal streams, blurring the horizon and creating a dreamlike effect. He almost got used to the extreme solitude of living in the Cha Region of the Poh Valley in the Secret Desert. 

Lohbado closed his eyes and dreamed about meeting an adult friend in Yamaville. He wanted a woman for conversation, shared interests and intimacy. They could do things as a couple and talk about themselves as "we". Lohbado yearned to experience the sweetness of love again, to ease the pain of loneliness and to feel new zest and zeal. Lohbado wished to have the social status of being able to talk about him and his partner, strength in numbers. Two is double one. Together they would set up a home and face the future. Together they would actualize potential.

stop and gawk

Captain Dream

Captain Dream invites you to stop and gawk at the drama going on in your mind. Watch how the mind alternates between drowsiness, agitation, anxiety and boredom. Captain Dream resides on Planet Blop, accessible via dreaming, where everything that happens is a figment of imagination. Look at the characters who inhabit the inner landscape of hope and fear. Watch how memories play and replay, changing each time, endless new versions of something that may or may not have happened quite the way you remember, some time, way back in the faded, distorted, dimly perceived past. Watch how easily vanity is wounded when ego does not receive the treatment it feels it deserves. See how one is fooled into duality, me you, us them, for me against me. Catch the mental turmoil in action. Watch the fog and dark clouds, the psychic storms, how one is able to make a mountain out of a molehill and to obscure reality into a self-centered blur.

sunny day

The heatwave broke. It's sunny, with a light breeze. Joe and Lohbado sat outside. Joe gave his opinion. Lohbado replied: "Everything you are saying right now I take very, very seriously, seriously. What we're experiencing is a struggle that goes back millennia. It's the OOO CHA dichotomy, which in the larger picture, could synchronize into a dance-able rhythm."

heat wave

Record temperatures as usual, Lohbado experienced a floating, dizzy sensation, with a few out of body experiences while standing in line at the counter to buy a small black coffee at the air conditioned cafe in the strip mall. Lohbado woke up several times, choking during the night. Heat brings out toxic substances in the walls and insulation and thirty-year old carpet. Drink lots of water. Enjoy the visionary experiences that happens as the body goes into shock.

visions of heaven and hell

"when love walks in" p. 618 Finnegans Wake

Lohbado worked six months as an odour specialist for the Glob Theatre in Yamaville. His job was to make smell during dramatic moments. Adding smell to the special effects department increased dimension and vividness of theatre productions.

escape into flowers

Escape is perhaps the wrong word. There is no escape. Flowers is nicer. Flowers evoke calm and serene waves. Balance a wrong word with a nice word, a bad dream with a pleasant dream for new meaning, which eludes definition. During a nightmare, Lohbado realized it was just a dream. To escape thugs who pursued him in a dream, Lohbado dreamed his way into a lush garden, where he found many lotus flowers.