The crowd

Sometimes it takes a genius to light a fire, and sometimes it doesn't...

Once upon a time there was a genius who walked the land far and wide and with his big brain he set to rights all the wrongs he could find. And then one day the government got hold of him and turned him into an idiot and put him to work in the coalmine.

When the coalmine closed all the miners were let go to go home and complain to their wives until one day they all turned into painters and decorators, all except the idiot, he walked off into the sunset.

When the idiot came across a motley crowd gathered in one place and silently staring at something he couldn’t see he pushed into the crowd and causing murmurs the idiot made his way to the front where he found the tooth-mill fairy about to turn the crowd into frogs with her magic wand she’d stashed in her left boot so as not to lose it and was now in her hand.

Immediately on seeing each other and looking into each other’s eyes they fell in love and decided to go drink coffee by the camp fire together where they looked deep into each other’s eyes.

The crowd became bored of staring at them and broke up into disparate groups that went this way and that and occasionally glancing at the love-struck couple by the fire who were now so deeply in love they were forever more joined and would from that moment on be known as the fairy and the idiot whenever anyone referred to them.

By now the crowd were a large group with more joining them every day and the government raided them often and stole all their tents; but they stayed together and put up with all the hardships.

Soon they became a movement with their own political leader who had a horse that was put to work and became most useful.

Some hardy types who seemed to know what they were doing built a barricade that the government knocked down with a tank that had a big smoky engine that belched out fumes that began to choke everyone. So it was decided to move everyone to the mountains where tanks couldn’t go. They found a cave big enough to hold everyone and moved into it and set up home.

The rich man who owned the mountain didn’t like this and wanted them out so he sent his bullies up to evict them all.
Nobody wanted to fight a war and so the bully boys were ignored and kept waiting outside of the cave mouth where they were afraid to go in and so called their threats and menaces into the cave mouth where they fell as heavy dust that the wind blew away.

After a time they went away with promises to come back tomorrow but they never did; the rich man went out of business and sold the mountain to the fairy who was in disguise when she bought it for a song, and for all anyone knows they all lived happily ever after in their cave, all except Master Ying, Blue-Jane and some of the crowd who didn’t want to live in a cave so they made a raft out of old postcards and set off down the rapids to the ocean where they were just in time to steal a boat on the evening tide and get back to being pirates again.

FLYING DOWN THE RIVER

Life makes its own pathways and needs no interference and so the cry must by: “Today we shall fly where we cannot fly and tomorrow we shall fly a little bit further.”

This is not seen in the mirror overly much but can be detected when falling out of the tree of the daily routine into the spark of a romance or an unexpected adventure that has no timetable but what is made when it happens and is so unduly in its nature it catches you unawares and flips you upside down to turn you this way and that until you can’t say whether you’re coming or going most of the time.

Creature comforts are of no use and will only slow you down until you make up your mind to go with it and it is then that you find your sea legs and start rowing in tune with it to the detriment of all else that may come in the way.

The nature of this is enough to drive you crazy and can find you doing things beyond your limits and saying things that make no sense to anyone not in the same boat, and even then sometimes.

So if you see someone grinning and going whoopee then move aside and let them through for they are on their way to their promised land and need no help but for you to get out of the way.

Flying down the river on their raft and safe from government interference for now, Blue-Jane and Master Ying with the crowd were making great progress and were flying their pirate flag for all to see, but there was no one else around but them which suited them all just fine in their adventure to the ocean and freedom; and free of all doubt they were unstoppable in their determination to get there before anything could stop them.

In the distance of their fear the ghost gang were chasing them and getting closer so they rowed harder down the rapids and sailed far over the falls until they reached the sea and felt they’d made it.

And indeed they had, for there riding on the swell was the most beautiful boat ever made by the hand of man, or anyone else.

On a sign by some bushes where the secret agent was hiding were the words: “Government thieves are watching you.”
But when the crowd looked around no one could be seen on the beach but a mermaid flicking pebbles into the waves with her tail, her wireless nearby just in case.

“CQ,” called Master Ying wandering over to her.

“Master Ying,” said CQ looking up.

“Nice day for a sail,” said Master Ying with his finger in the wind.

“I thought you’d like her,” said CQ pushing off into the wet water that absorbed her without complaint.

After they’d all swum over and hoisted themselves aboard, Master Ying gave his first command: “Hoist them sails ye scurvy looking lot.”

“Where we going cap’n?” asked one of the men who was the bosun.

“Out there,” said Master Ying pointing towards the horizon of the vast ocean.

End of part 8

Image from Pixabay