Tytuł: Wilson Chant

• Wykonawca: Phish
• Wyświetleń: 214

INTRODUCTION
  
  Wilson
  Wilson
  Wilson
  Wilson
  Wilson
  
  Once upon a time there was a mountain that rose out of a vast green forest.
  And in the forest there were birds and lakes and rocks and trees and
  rivers. The forest was also inhabited by a small group of people called
  the lizards. The lizards were a simple people and they had lived in the
  forest undisturbed for thousands of years in utter peace and tranquillity.
  Once a year when spring came, and the first blossoms began to show, the
  lizards would gather at the base of the mountain, to give thanks for all
  that they had. They thanked the birds and they thanked the lakes and they
  thanked the rocks and the trees and the rivers; but most importantly, they
  thanked Icculus. Icculus lived at the top of the mountain, or at least
  everyone thought so, for no one had actually ever seen him. But they knew
  he existed, because they had the Helping Friendly Book. Icculus had given
  the Helping Friendly Book to the Lizards thousands of years earlier as a
  gift. It contained all of the knowledge inherent in the universe, and had
  enabled the Lizards to exist in harmony with nature for years. And so they
  lived; until one day a traveler arrived in Gamehendge. His name was Wilson
  and he quickly became intrigued by the Lizards way of life. He asked if he
  could stay on and live in the forest; and the Lizards, who had never seen
  an outsider, were happy to oblige. Wilson lived with the Lizards for a few
  years, studying the ways of the Helping Friendly Book, and all was well.
  Until one morning when they awoke and the book was gone. Wilson explained
  that he had hidden the book, knowing that the Lizards had become dependent
  on it for survival. He declared himself king and enslaved the innocent
  people of Gamehendge. He cut down the trees and built a city, which he
  called Prussia. And in the center of the city he built a castle, and
  locked in the highest tower of the castle lay the Helping Friendly Book out
  of the reach of the Lizards forever. But our story begins at a different
  time, not in Gamehendge, but on a suburban street in Long Island, and our
  hero is no king sitting in a castle, he is a retired colonel shaving in his
  bathroom.
  
  Colonel Forbin looked square in the mirror and dragged the blade across his
  cold creamed skin. He saw the tired little folds of flesh that lay in a
  heap beneath his eyes. Fifty-two years of obedient self-restraint, of
  hiding his tension behind a serene veil of composure. For fifty-two years
  he had piled it all on the back burner, and for fifty-two years it had
  boiled, frothing over in a turbulent storm inside of him. It had escaped
  through his eyes, reacting with the cigarette smoke and the fluorescent
  lights and slowly accumulating into a sagging mass. He ran his dripping
  palm across the stubble on the nape of his neck and thought again about the
  door. He had discovered the door some months back on one of his
  ritualistic morning walks with his dog McGrupp. It had started out as a
  typical stroll with McGrupp bounding joyously ahead of the preoccupied
  colonel. As they reached the apex of the hill, he saw it and he knew it
  had always been there, and felt foolish for overlooking the door for so
  long. At first, he tried to ignore it, but he soon found that it was
  impossible, and slowly his newly acquired knowledge transformed his dreary
  life into a prison from which there was only one escape. And on this
  morning, Colonel Forbin stepped through the door.