Kastle Combs
Short story?
My man Kastle writes like a man possessed... because he is!!!
tuesday _ 4/13/99 dear diary: got up somewhere between 3:33 and four this morning. ate 2
bowls of fruity cerial and slowly walked to bus station. on the way there i saw what at first
looked to be two elderly ladies sitting in an idling car. then i realized that nothing was open at
five in the morning and this was the only running car i'd seen so far. it was parked across the
street from the academy of music on main street. i took a second look at the car and the
passengers, themselves... and realized that this was a 1999 ford crown victoria ltd with _No
Whitewalls!_ i couldn't believe the two passengers were actually undercover cops dressed
like ugly, stocky women - for what purpose i had no idea! then i looked at the car parked
behind it - a normal looking blue car with a guy asleep (?) w/ the seat all the way back, behind
the steering wheel (definitely not a cop). i figured the undercover dicks were maybe running a
license check on sleepy guy, prob'ly cuz they had nothing better to do. i got to the station five
minutes before the bus was scheduled to show up and waited twenty minutes after it was
scheduled to show up before i called the bus company. (the waiting area/ticket counter
opened in another two hours.) the agent on the phone told me the 5:20am bus only runs on
saturday and my next bus would come around in a couple of hours. i had anticipated
something like this would happen - (my feeling was that i would somehow not end up on this
bus, due to purposes out of my control, but instead end up taking the 7:20 which would make
me about an hour late for work.) so, i went back to my-soon-to-be-new-home and made
some coffee for myself and r______ . i found e_____ either hiding or suffocating himself in
the plastic bags in the kitchen closet, so i let him out and shut the door behind him. r______
was up and smoking an o.g. and when i brought her some coffee, her response was
something like "what are you still doing here?" non-accusational, just perplexed as to why i
had woken her up two hours earlier just to be back again serving up joe. after a nice, hot
shower, i felt sorta better and went back down to the bus station (which was open by now). i
saw on tv that dr. jack got 10 to 15 years for doing his thing. i later learned that he plans to
starve himself to death in jail. i hope people are listening. i hope his (planned) death won't be
in vain. i hope he doesn't get hurt too bad in prison. *sigh* i fell asleep in the station and
awoke to find people boarding "my" bus. i got on and was greeted by a very friendly,
non-sleazy non-effeminate gay bus driver about my dad's age. what struck me most was that
he had really kind eyes. i was just going back to sleep when ahead of me sat a guy (going to
nyc, i overheard) that i saw in town over the weekend. when i saw him previously, he was
with about half a dozen men and women all between the ages of 26 and 32. they also had
about four kids with them, considerably younger... and seemed to be like some type of
punk/hippie communal family. totally happy and totally out of the norm. the guy and me made
eye contact and any other day, i would've turned him into my bus riding companion - i was
kinda intrested to learn about his group of friends - but today i was more intrested in the
sandman and i was asleep before i gave it another thought. i woke up in my dirty, disgusting
hometown and found we parked next to a bus that was completely white - no markings at all.
it seemed to have come directly off the lot. i figured they were going to put one of those
"full-bus ads" you see on vehicles these days but hadn't gotten around to it yet. it reminded
me that on friday the bus driver told everybody we were on a brand new bus - first time on the
road; i could only assume that this too was a brand new bus. but for some reason, it
reminded me more of the white lodge in twin peaks (or was it the white horse...) and with that
i fell back asleep. i didn't get up again until we hit our destination - and by now i was ready for
an egg & cheese bagel from d&d with a cup of crappy weak coffee to go. i went to the d&d in
the terminal and immediatley knew i had made the wrong choice. there were two guys
teaching this one guy how to make a hot beverage and some other guy taking forever to get
another hot beverage for this one guy in front of me. it's like time went backward standing in
line here... side note: i have this theory that boston has the worst service of anyplace ever. at
least anyplace i've ever been to. it doesn't matter if you're in an overpriced, fancy restaurant
or a greasy auto garage - you will get the worst service in the world when you come to
boston. and this was no exception. after much delay (the guy in front of me was already gone)
i said my usual request _EveryTime_ i go to d&d: an egg and cheese on a toasted sundried
tomato bagel. nope. too much to ask. i could _See_ the bagels behind the guy, but instead, he
pokes his head underneath the counter where they keep the "to go" bags and says "nope. no
more." i go "no more." and quoteth the bagelman yet again, "no more." i knew this fucker had
no idea what i was talking about and i look at the other three guys standing next to him for
some glimpse of alertness, knowledge or understanding in their eyes only to find confusion
and disdain. there was a line behind me and i was starting to see red. there are _No
Competent Service People_ in that city of boston! i wasn't even awake yet and the first
interaction i had with someone had to be this. i thanked him for all his help and left to go to
work. i got there only forty minutes late instead of the full hour i had anticipated (it's only
10:40am). all the jobs were done for the morning. looked like i missed a bunch of crap on my
extra day off yesterday. i go in to my boss' area, sit down and he asks me if i'm there or not. i
tell him that if it's alright with him i'm gonna come back and work 3pm to 8. he can't believe
this - but let's me get away with it anyway. i go back to my apartment and find my roomate
d____ who i thought didn't live there anymore in kitchen asking me "what's up? you going to
work today?" oh man, i hope i don't look half as bad as i feel. i need some real sleep. and this
is where my day got wierd and i can't stop thinking about this... i did get to sleep and that was
okay, but i got a third visit from "the thing at the foot of the bed". this one was wierder than the
first two because it spoke to me this time. again, i was just waking up - but definetely not in
dreamland. the form again was female, but i couldn't see it this time. this time it was (again
tall) but all shadows and only in my periphial vision this time. the form had a woman's voice.
non-sexy, and kind of similar to someone from my past. the form whispered "are you taking
me with you?" and "you'll forget about sleeping beauty". i didn't know how to respond and i
didn't know what it was talking about. i interpreted it to mean: am i taking the spirit with me
when i move? do i have a choice? and i interpreted the latter to be a reference to r______
who was sleeping when i left this morning and i got all freaked out and wanted to call her
immediately, but thought that was totally paranoid and irrational (...as if...) and decided against
it. i'm wondering if i'll find the ability to interact with this spiritbeing before i leave or if i'll be
haunted for years to come... i think i fell back to sleep again. i woke up in time to get
dressed/shave and get a bagel sandwich from the d&d near my house. i felt better as the day
progressed but the "visit" was heavily on my mind.
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KASTLE