Tar Beach

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willli
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Tar Beach

Post by willli »

Tar Beach was boiling hot, and the visibility was next to zero, and lugging all our stuff onto the beach was problem enough given that we kept losing sight of each other, and the shape of the beach didn’t help, owing to its slope and height, mostly round and long, like a huge half round slab of pipe that disappeared cos we couldn’t see anything more than our feet and they were starting to stick if we stood in one place long enough, sure sign that we were where we were supposed to be. Well we didn’t want to be there on the crest of the beach, I mean there are tons of places I’d rather be than Tar Beach at 3AM, sunny places with warm off-shores and nice looking women on the beach to distract your gaze, but we had a hole to dig, and it was getting hotter.
It’s not like we had anything to hide in the hole yet un-dug, but more like one of those onerous tasks we didn’t want to break our backs completing, and we had a 2 cycle gas engine to help with the digging, only it wouldn’t start. Big Bird said it was cos we couldn’t see sh!t and we should just leave, but Bagel said he was full of crap, that the choke was probably too full, and keep stroking the cord, but in his frustration Big Bird pulled the cord so hard it broke, so there we were, no power, just the silence of three men contemplating what to do next.
Off in the distance we could hear the rhythmic whine of pumps at work and the low sounds of men cussing in a manner of practical speech, but they seemed far removed from our predicament of no power.
Tucked into the background noise and off to our left in the pitch nothing we heard a sound, a muffled “crack!” followed by a sort of low rumble rolling toward us. Bagel smacked my shoulder simultaneous with yelling, “RUN!!”
We left everything we carried lying on the beach but took ourselves as fast as our feet could move, the intensity of the rumble churning our insides and the hot wind rushing past our ears crackling our brains, pursuing us as we ran for our lives. God the sound was awful, like 100 freight trains chasing us, and the footing got softer and fell away behind us till running blind full speed we ran smack into a knee high wall, falling over and away from the onslaught behind us, rolling down next to the wall only to see a hundred foot demon explode in fury behind us, consuming Tar Beach in its wrath.
Can you beat the Devil at roulette? Big Bird broke his leg falling over the wall, Bagel fell on top of him to boot, which he heard about for the next year from Big Bird, feigning a limp every time he wanted to make a point, but Bagel would have none of it, insisting Big Bird got in the way of his own fall on purpose. They say that building fell like a huge wave, crushed 5 parked cars, bow trusses dragging each other into the abyss, and three firemen racing certain death along the crest, saved by the dividing wall to the adjoining building. But the lone surfer among this trio understood something deep and disturbing with none of the taste of resignation the cubicle multitude express, that despite his original plans to work till he put together a money stake then leave this madness for Maui, he would never leave. He was hooked. He would marry a fine woman and raise children and go to life risking work in the greatest city in the world, and love every minute of this life apart from the center of the surfing universe.
Where but NY could you find a wave like that?

PS: It took some time (deaths) for the fire dept. to recognize the dangers inherent in truss roofs. The incident above was an abandoned factory. The chief who ordered us on to the roof to “cut a vent hole” collapsed with chest pains at the sight of it going down, “like a wave”, convinced we were dead.
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Headwax.
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Post by Headwax. »

Hi Willli

grand story,

oddly enough. this morning as I was driving back from the bank manager's office, I had this thought of starting this thread "Hey, has any one heard from Willli.?"

you know, I guess I was starting to get worried about you

glad to see you are still around :)

cheers from Oz
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