The Return of...Allison! (Allie)

And here we have the magical Mzzz Allie, recently returned from a two day stay in the hospital.  Her friend Maggie embraces her, unaccountably hiding her face.  Two of my favorite people on the Walkabout, the Vision Quest.  Mentors. Maggie has this incredible natural sense of fashion.  No matter what she wears, it looks great, organic, emerging out of her own personal beauty to simply enhance it.  I tell her that and Allie says, "What a beautiful way to put it.  There was this really creepy guy--remember him, Maggie?  Walks up and leers at Maggie and says, 'I like yer style, Babe.'  Now if he'd said it the way you said it, it would have been kewl.  But..." and she drifts off into silence.

Allie's jaws are wired shut, but she speaks easily.  Of course can't chew a thing, so it's a liquid diet for our Miss Allison.  The food truck came last night, so I had a little container of milk I was able to send her way.

I really do like Allie.  She is truly a free spirit and I have this sense that right now she's going through a transitional time. There may be those who think she drinks too much, smokes too much mota or what have you, but I'm of the opinion that she is negotiating a path that is hers alone, and that she has everything needed to find her way.

This, then, is Allie.  Beautiful, darling Allie.  She, along with the saintly Smiley, are the givers down here at Street Level.

Quick story--or two stories.  We're sitting down by the creek, right at the water's edge, and Allie is sharing some "kine-weed." Maggie says to me, "The first time we talked it was about butterflies."

Ahhhh.  Yes, I remember.  I was at McDonald's and this gorgeous butterfly came down, lit on my napkin, and went up to the rim of the coffee cup and did the "Rim of Fire Walk."  That is, she walked around the rim of that cup filled with steaming hot coffee, wings atilting this way and that as though on a tightrope, and made it.  Flew off into the wild blue yonder.  Happy ending.

Maggie's story:  "Allie and I were together and here came this beautiful butterfly and I said, 'Allie, look!' and just then the cat did one of those leaps and flips in the air or something and caught the butterfly." 

And?

"And ate it."

Jeez.  Maggie is staring off into that vast pool of the interior where memories and what-might-have-beens are stored.

So my butterfly made it.  Theirs didn't.  Same day, different butterflies, different outcomes.

Then Skratch speaks up.

I'm sorry, but I guess I've not introduced him to you as yet.  He's one of those young blond hunky guys who orbits around Maggie.  I have the sense that Allie is a bit leery of him, and perhaps with good reason.

He tells the story of being out in the Green Belt, around a campfire with some homeless person.  The other character is a feral cat who hangs out with the guy, there on the edge of the firelight.

"I don't feed him," the homeless person says.  "He just likes to hang out with me."

Just then an owl swoops down and takes the cat in its claws and flies off into the night.  Skratch all freaked out, Homeless Dude companionless once again.  Cat flying high but definitely not in first-class.  Cargo is more like it.

So this is what emerged from Maggie's memory of our first meeting being about butterflies as we sat there on the banks of Barton Springs Creek.

Skratch.

I really should have his picture, but haven't gotten around to it as yet.  It's a hassle.  Unpack the netbook, boot it up, wait and wait.  Go to the webcam function.  Get the cursor positioned just right.  Then frame the picture.

You see?

But I will put him on the list.

He's interesting in the sense that he began talking about how he came to be called Skratch.  With a "k," he hastens to inform us.

He's says it's the name of an "entity" which possesses him when he goes into a blackout.

How Jungian.  Jung would call that entity "the Shadow."

He says the entity is very creative but sometimes does things which gets him into trouble.  Apparently Skratch emerged the night before and he's been wondering if all is copacetic with his friends.

Was I..inappropriate? he wonders.

He says the entity has been with him since childhood, and that he's now trying to stay "in" Skratch fulltime.  Except the only time Skratch emerges is during blackouts.

Hmmm.  Hamlet said, "Oh, let me not go there. That way lies madness."  Or was that King Lear?  Whatever, you get the idea.

So Maggie hangs out with Skratch, and Skratch...well, who knows where this character is going?

But I would think that the beautiful Maggie might well be a butterfly and the aforementioned Mr. Skratch might well be a cat.  Or Maggie might be the pussy cat and Mr. Skratch the owl?

Puts an entirely new spin on "The Owl and the Pussycat," eh?

Can ya diggit?

Peace, aloha, prudence,

Elijah