A Victim of Circumstance

Our senses connect us intimately to the past, connect us in ways that most of our cherished ideas never could.
-Diane Ackerman
A NATURAL HISTORY OF THE SENSES

Twenty-five years ago today:

May 3, 1987
Sunday

Chris Cordellos telephoned this morning. It was an odd phone call.
Chris asked, “So…where were you last night?”
It was as if I owed him an explanation.
I answered him though.
“I was at my ma and pa’s.”
“Oh,” he said with a tinge of wonder in his voice.
And what if I was out on a date anyway?  Was there a rekindling between us that I wasn’t aware of?

Jeff telephoned from Hawaii with a few revelations of his own.
“You won’t believe what happened.”
“What?” I asked.
“Well, Carla caught her boyfriend on top of me.”
“You’re kidding me?”
“No.”
Was Jeff preparing me for a phone call from Carla about this confrontation? I didn’t know what to say. Whatever it was he felt a need to share the scoop. I simply reassured him.

“Look,” I said, “You were just a victim of circumstance.”

It was a Sunday and I decided to go to visit mom. It’s her day off and I needed some ‘mom time’. My niece, Lauren, was there and I gave her e a few chocolate covered graham crackers.

I fell asleep at mom’s house when Sherri and Ashley stopped by. I woke up and stuck around until around nine o’clock. I kept myself occupied during the last couple of hours by watching “THE POLICE STORY: Freeway Killings”.

I was soon in bed when I decided to give Ted Charach a call. He’s the Robert F Kennedy documentary writer/producer character. It was a mistake to call him. It’s clear he is just obsessed with young boys and a bit of a sex fiend. I didn’t like his conversational innuendo.

I telephoned Johnny Schaefer to discuss some of the weekend experiences.  He simply listened.

I went to bed.  Carla returns to work tomorrow.  I’m glad.  I need her lively personality.  I need to wake up.

To understand, we have to “use our heads,” meaning our minds. Most people think of the mind as being located in the head, but the latest findings in physiology suggest that the mind doesn’t really dwell in the brain but travels the whole body on caravans of hormone and enzyme, busily making sense of the compound wonders we catalogue as touch, taste, smell, hearing, vision.
-Diane Ackerman
A NATURAL HISTORY OF THE SENSES