Thursday, March 15, 2007

Stepping Into The Twilight Zone With Dr. Richard Kimble






Back in 1989, the sign in the first photo read GAGE PARK FINER FOODS, and I marveled as I read the words from impossible angles. The break in the traffic in the second photo shows where I was standing, on the yellow line. It was 11:11 AM. When I hit the ground, everything in my mind split open and outward; the best that I can explain this is by thinking of a wet handful of sand hitting cement. I was unconscious for 20 minutes, and when I woke up, the first thing I heard was the Pakistani grocer calling out "Not to touch! Not to touch!" I could not see my arm, my head was bleeding, and in some only-Wayne-could-do-that way, after my arm broke, my own fist knocked four teeth out from behind my left jaw. While I was gone, because I to this day KNOW I was no longer part of this life, I was in a grey fog, like the false dawn an hour before the sun rises. I recall looking around, shrugging, and walking forward. There was no light, no flashing neon, no wisps of blackness swirling around my ankles. I walked for awhile before he came into view. I swear on the Polish Bible on my shelf, I came face to face with David Janssen, Dr. Richard Kimble, THE FUGITIVE himself. Dead at the age of 49, on Valentines Day, 1980. Kimble was always on the run, looking for the one-armed man who killed his wife. My subconscious was still functioning, trying to tell me I had one arm now, at least for the next 68 days. Kimble had this quirky smile, he'd use it when someone like Ed Asner or Terry Savalas said that he looked familiar. He stood before me and I could not pass him. He gave me that smile, somewhere between Elvis's sneer and Etain's smirk, and said that it wasn't time yet. Nothing about my Creator, my Higher Power. There was nothing around us, no deserted streets, maybe it was false dawn because The Fugitive was filmed in glorious black & white. I am sitting here, my chin in my palm, recalling the image. He put his hand on my shoulder and patted it, as if he knew I was going to make it. The television doctor, my emissary. And then he was gone, I was staring at gravel in my eye and listening to the Pakistani man. Not to touch. Not to touch.

7 comments:

James Robert Smith said...

When I was in college just after high school, there was a retired Air Force pilot in one of my classes. He recounted how, during a heart operation, he KNEW that he was floating above the operating table looking down on his own body and the physicians and nurses.

A classmate said, "Man! You had an out of body experience!"

And the pilot said, "No, I had a goddamned hallucination, you dumbass."

Janssen was great, wasn't he? No one has had that aura of pained understanding until Bill Pullman came along. Just think...if you'd been smacked down like that twenty years later, Pullman might have been your angel.

Drizel said...

my goodness Wayne....this is so intense.....I want to say sorry, but not quite sure why it would help.....I geuss I can say we all get what we need, and everything happens so we learn:)
HUGZ

Stealth said...

Wow...I am ...speechless...and my tummy has knots..

I am glad I came over here (the speechless doesn't last long, I know)

You are hardcore.

-Stealth

RK Sterling said...

Yikes.

Sorry, but I had to laugh at the punching out of your own teeth. :)

Glad Dr. Kimble sent you back.

Charles Gramlich said...

11.11 has appeared at odd times in my life as well. And that in itself is freaky. Glad the fugitive turned you back.

Billy said...

very interesting.

Steve Malley said...

Another beautiful and lyrical tone poem. Well done, sir!

And Wayne, I guess my favorite Pelecanos is Right As Rain. That, or maybe The Night Gardener. Sorry it took so long to reply, but it's a really, really hard decision...

Glad you're still among us.