Pool_1

>> The Piper 1 <<

The ride home was derivative of his complete mindless distraction. It was not clear where he was going, as long as fresh outside air blew steadily on his face it didn't matter. His direction, on the average, pointed home, but only on the average. A recurrent thought, "I am meant for something," kept cycling in his head, "..not rats .. not swill .. something .. next level .. of what?" his head drumming with confusion. There were questions of not knowing and all the time the world outside just passed lazily by in a colorless blur of irrelevance. Things that he didn't notice were the billboard cigarette ads, a triple X bookstore with bricked in windows, used car lots with notice-me flags and bobbing balloon clusters hovering over get a great deal screaming posters. There was a fire engine quietly heading home. It never occurred to him to wonder where it may have just been. He did see someone stop their car to secure a large wandering obviously lost dog sniffing along the curb dragging it's leash with no master in sight. If he had stopped to secure that same dog, one wonders how it might have gone. With his food-gone-bad odor, maybe the dog would kill him. His own smell was the only intruding reality. He was about to mutter for the thousandth time, "Jeez, I stink" when his eyes froze. There it was, the brakes suddenly getting his full attention. The Piper. The Piper. Children? The Piper... children... THE PIPER ! The Piper ice cream company! The Piper trucks mean children. "I am here for a reason! This could work," his mind vaulted as his judgement about timing faulted. He was nearly naked and smelled worse than rotted dead rats, but the associations were too strong. It is inconceivable, to a child, or childhood memories, a summer without the far away and