Six Foot Nine Shadow and a Mosh Pit for Two

Two Hours to Kennybunck Port and I still have another two hours until I reach Lewiston. After a pit stop to the Popeyes at exit 4 off the Maine Pike, I find myself a bit late. They have been waiting for an hour, even though I did not mention what time I would arrive. Also I am Caught a little unexpected, I figured that some one else would be driving the rest of the way. Money is tight this month and I am driving a 67 Chrysler New Yorker with a 440 and a leak in the gas tank with two feet of snow that is taking its time to blow off. But off we go, me and my shadow.

As any true shadow, he is always to be found near, slightly elongated, and always placing you in the sun. For you are always warm with him around. He is much like a Loki, a giant amongst the Gods who keep them all laughing and humble. For the joke is usually on them. But innocent as a child’s is his digs as he goes about his days with a crow feather in his cap. Later after some misdirections, miss-turns, misdemeanors, and missed comments; I realize that it was me that was missed after all. The shadow has grown, but not as much as I had expected. The sun is setting soon and the shadow is only six foot nine. He sits crouched low inside my whale of a car, and strikes up his tune. As I listen I wonder how long I have known him. At the rest stop where they caught me off guard, one son was almost unrecognizable and the other was too familiar. The fore-mentioned face kept face-shifting between three of his kin. As an assemblage of his family tree. I have chased, tickled, and instigated this pair since childhood and now in a year or two I am going to be able to share a bar stool with them. Now I look over and he is smiling. He tells me he has enough for gas money. Now I am relieved. Because now I can return him to his mother without hitch hiking.

We pull into this dirt parking lot. It had everything , including the pot holes. We sit in the car and watch the line grow to the north of us. In no time the line retains its length, but turns west like a swinging door to allow the traffic to pass. Luck had it so that it swung right to our passenger door. AJ , that’s the shadow, just opened his door and got into line. The interior of the Central Maine Civic Center of Lewiston, was more reminiscent of teamster pulls at the state fair than a Rock concert. It actually ended up being a Quad-A hockey rink. I kept expecting the heat of the crowd on top of the rows of plywood to give. With only one blow up doll (to be had as a inflatable safety device) spotted in the crowd, I think the rest of us would be in trouble.

The opening bands sucked. The first band should of kept their air guitar playing to their closet. For if God found them doing it in the open confides of their bedroom, he would had them killed on the spot. Do not pass go, sorrry! You sucked! Then there was the draw back to being tall that we both felt. Standing in any given place too long is murder on our lower backs. Some might think we were swaying to the music, but in all actuality we were switching our weight from foot to foot to ease the pain. The only Highlight AJ found was the female lead to the second band flashing him the largest cherries on melons he had ever seen. Coming from a purveyor of St. Catherine Street, It is saying something! Come to have it, AJ has been known to have a radar for these things at concerts. Eh, eh, eh breasts at 4 o’clock!Then the head liner came on, after two hours of shit where I was one of four that was old enough to drink in the room or grow a mustache. They played an excellent set that got my feet moving. Thank God for the Six foot nine shadow. For anyone to see behind AJ, they had to clear any empty lunette pattern behind him as far as his shadow would fall. Excellent dancing space for one. But eventually I had to turn it into a mosh pit for two. I had originally planned it to be more inclusive. But my freaky looks and AJ’s bulk persuaded others from joining. They just moved back and gave us a fifty foot diameter circle just to knock each other around in. Two thousand people shoulder to shoulder, back to back and we have a fifty foot diameter circle cleared just incase AJ wanted to do his crazy dance. For the shadow came this close to doing his crazy dance, but he thought better for the safety of the innocent bystanders. I am not exactly sure what it would entail, but the crowd was not taking any chances. But they gave us our moment, just to bash the shit out of each other. Something , after our concussions subsides, we can remember as our special little place in the sun.

The family when I first got involved with them as a unit was after their divorce from their father. AJ especially was kept as the fathers shadow, something you always kept the light on so as not to be seen. But AJ always had the sun follow wherever he went. It seemed that the whole family was seen by the father as only an attachment of him. And AJ was his shadow side. So I do not know what that says of the father. The day after the concert we went climbing a snow-bank unto this dune. But It was not solid, and we kept sinking into it up to our crotches as we hunted for the boulders to stand upon. As we walked the beach with my shoes-no socks full of snow, my feet stayed warm walking and talking with him. He mentioned other elders that have been placed in his life. Elders that kept him up to date on surfing, contents of mysterious islands, and the Jersey Devil. Supposedly, only whenever one of his teachers returns to Jersey is the devil spotted. For this teacher believes he is the devil himself. AJ is graced with the gift of many, I think as I watch him draw a bearded hairy happy face in the sand. Where one was taken away, many have stepped in to extend his shadow. For in Ancient Ireland, a mother would give her child to her brother and a community to foster. AJ has always been a bit ancient in his ways. An unexpected sage, of grounding advice. Advice that stays constant, no matter the hustle and bustle of whatever age he may find himself. A soul that speaks loud enough even advise from the womb. He is an old soul who had heeded Jimmy Stewart’s advice in the film Harvey, “ My mother told me long ago, that you either be ever so smart or ever so pleasant. I have tried being ever so smart and I prefer now being pleasant.”. Come to think of it, AJ is a bit of a pookah himself. There is just no ear holes in his hat. Just a crow feather worn forward. So if you ever find yourself in a large looming shadow, just remember that the sun is near and you are always welcome into his mosh pit for two.

P.s. If you ever find an old Chrysler on the side of the road, just have a gas can ready to help the serene bearded freak up the road get home in his sandals.