Napping On The Beach

_ The rearview mirror, Bobby... you'll need it in the days to come so you might want to keep a squeegee handy.

_ Bobby's dead... too many un-toasted English muffins. They're bad for the liver, but don't tell that to the crew at the Ambassador where it's one of the specialities of the house; fork-split. Anyway, I traded my rearview mirror for a balloon full of laughing gas.

_ I think I might enjoy some laughing gas.

_ I'm withdrawing... I told you I've cancer, which seems a bit like taking a nap at the beach - at least as I remember napping on the beach. The distant sounds of wind and surf, gulls and peels of laughter, all growing more and more distant. Sounds evaporating into quiet. Very sweet, a nap at the beach.

_ Cancer is very sweet? Is that what you're saying?

_ Sweet... one of five tastes. A lovely lie-in on  the sand. And the world? What world?...

_ Umani... Dostoevsky... Did you know that mine good friend Fyodor has no credit rating?

_ Do you understand mind? It has nothing to do with anything it isn't. Mind is cancer in a can - it's everywhere... everywhere and nowhere; integrating and disintegrating. Is this disintegration? Is this disintegration? Do I fear a nap on the beach... a little snooze in the sand? There's not a lot of real substance to fear, is there? There's not a lot of substance to cancer...Yes? No? Are you afraid?

_ I was afraid you were going to ask that... No... no, I'm not afraid. You see, I, unlike mine good friend Fyodor, have a credit rating... and I intend to ride it down the wreckage... so no, I'm not afraid.

_ Ride it down the wreckage?... That's a heck of a 'Plan A' you've got there... I can't wait to see Plan B. I wonder what kind of eyebrows I might raise by riding cancer down the wreckage.

_ Plan B won't - will not - see the light of day. It's Plan A all the way.

_ What about the laughing gas?

_ I wouldn't say no.

_ A couple of laughs, right? Is that still legal? Can we sit around, you and me, and laugh for no apparent reason and be reasonably well assured that we won't be hustled off to the big house?

_ What do you think we would laugh at? What would strike you as funny about sitting here?

_ You never know what might be funny one minute to the next. You just don't know...

_ Overcome mind and you are in the clear. Is that what you're saying?

_ No. It's what you're saying. Chai?

_ Extra

                                                                    ************

... Alone and transcendent...

... It's what you're saying.

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