A while back, an old friend of ours from junior high named Karly began to play around with her identity. She was involved at the time with a fellow named Karl, who was native to the place and knew about all of the local wilderness areas. If there was one thing we enjoyed back in those simpler days, it was visiting wilderness areas. No local area worth the name went unvisited. Karly said no to non-identity politics. A sand mosaic, a bean mosaic, a glass mosaic, and a mosaic of shingles barely worth mentioning because of the shoddy workmanship and planning went with the others into the back of the storage unit. A long term storage unit. With planning and workmanship that poor, the shingle mosaic probably didn't deserve to get made. But it did. The indifference shaded off into impatience, then anger. The clutching and shaking of the fist, and then eventually both fists. The song People are People was covered by Willy Joel and Bill Nelson at the big to-do in Yosemite. This just might make the emotional investment worth it for once, their agent added. During the interlude the song Once is Never Enough was covered by Egghead and the Benders. The crowd didn't seem very interested and talked among themselves enthusiastically, leaving Egghead to wonder if maybe he had made some bad decisions earlier on when crafting the set list. The Benders, his backing band, didn't seem to care one way or the other. I wouldn't be surprised to learn that some of them were under the influence of alcohol or other recreational chemicals. Particularly the bassoonist. She had a very faraway look in her eyes. Karl was off to the side, as usual, bobbing his head and tapping his foot to the rhythm. Some of the other patrons who were there ostensibly enjoying the music asked for a more committal gesture but it was another firm no from Karl. Bev insisted it was an outgrowth from the more primordial appellation of Arl, a name which the young people joked about when they thought they wouldn't be overheard. The origin of our feathered friends was not taken into account. This proved to be an error. A big one, although it too, because of the slapdash planning and scholarship, went with the others directly into the back of the storage unit. The clutching and shaking of the fists, the desperate pounding of the fists on brick towers. No response forthcoming, confusion and panic ensue. The madcap Karly continued playing around with her identity. Karl's passenger pigeon Maximilian took off with the next batch of instructions. Cinema was not the trump card, neither was the balloon lift nor slideshow. These things were regarded as glib and pointless by the Benders. With the lights out, it's less dangerous. Here we are now, entertain us, all that. If there was one thing we all agreed on, it was those wilderness areas. Facts cannot speak for themselves.
