- This is a Tale of Two Dreamers.
-
- The first Dreamer is Chet the Unhandyman.
He and his DVD movie collection have lived on the mountain with Gwen the
Beautiful and me for two years. He came here to start a new life because
his old one had gotten away from him.
-
- I've known Chet for 15 years, and tried
to help him even though he's difficult to like. Chet's sarcastic and cynical
and thinks he's the smartest man he's ever met. He lived in the trailer
we call our "Annex" for over a year before trying to get a job,
and regular readers know what's happened to every job he's gotten.
-
- That's right. Gone in three days. Because
not only does Chet never seem to get his work - whatever it is - done,
he drives people crazy while he's not doing it, mostly by relating everything
that's happening around him to everything that's happened in movies.
-
- At 56, it's as though the only things
that are real to him are the films he watches over and over and over again.
-
- Can't find Chet? Look in front of the
TV, where he'll be dreaming dreams of himself as a character in "Casablanca"
or "Citizen Kane," or the little boy in Shane calling, "Come
back!"
-
- Dreaming dreams that aren't his own.
-
- The second Dreamer is Burl Jr. Until
I saw him in Paradise yesterday, I thought he was still in Bristol, Va.,
where he'd gone searching for love. But here he was, pulling me into the
Music Store and showing me an old acoustic guitar. "Beautiful, isn't
she? Listen to the tone."
-
- He strummed a couple of chords so perfect
they sent shivers down my spine.
-
- His boss, DW, looked over at me. "Burl
bought that guitar from the father of the girl he went to see. Guess what
it cost him."
-
- "It cost me the girl," Burl
Jr. admitted. "Brittany."
-
- He picked out a blues that sounded as
innocent as he is.
-
- "I found her where I met her, at
the Golden Corral. I told her straight out I'd come back to be her man.
Then I moved into Motel 6 and started going to Brittany's house everyday.
Met her little girl and her mom and dad.
-
- "The old boy's a musician. Been
touring 40 years. What a guitar player! He and I played music on the front
porch every night. He gave me this guitar, and that's when Brittany took
me aside and asked what I wanted to do with my life.
-
- "I told her I had several possibilities,
but wanted to be like her father. And she freaked! She said he'd been the
worst dad in the world, always gone, always broke. She said she'd never
let herself love a musician, no matter what!
-
- "I was dumbfounded. I sat in my
car and started picking at the guitar, and realized that making music about
how I felt was as important to me as loving or being loved. Maybe more.
-
- "Next day, I drove back here. I'm
renting a room, and as soon as I've saved enough money I'm hitting the
road to make it or bust."
-
- Burl Jr.'s dream stayed with me as I
drove home. I stopped at the Annex, where Chet's been holed up since he
broke his foot. The doctor had said he could get back to his Cloud Creek
chores this week, so I asked what his plans were.
-
- "Oh, I think I'll take it easy for
a couple more weeks," Chet said. "Don't want to turn into 'The
English Patient' here."
-
- And he turned back to "Jaws"
on DVD.
-
- A few minutes later, I was dialing the
Music Store. When Burl Jr. answered, I asked if he'd like a free trailer
to live in. "All you've got to do is feed the animals and look after
things when Gwen and I are out of town."
-
- "Wow," Burl Jr. said. "I
could build up a real nice nest egg that way. End of the month OK?"
-
- Now, I've got to tell Chet the Unhandyman
it's time for him to move on. Because the way I see it is this:
-
- Two dreamers. One represents everything
I've worked hard not to be. The other reminds me of my hopeful self once
upon a time. Which dreamer would you rather see across your clearing every
day? Which dreamer would you rather help fill with the sweet fire that
is life?
-
- Me, too.
-
- Copyright C 2006 by Larry Brody.
- For permission to reprint this column,
please write to LarryBrody@cloudcreek.org.
-
- ******
-
- Author Larry Brody's weekly column, LIVE!
FROM PARADISE! appears on his website, www.larrybrody.com. He has written
thousands of hours of network television, and is the author of "Television
Writing from the Inside Out" and "Turning Points in Television."
Brody is Creative Director of The Cloud Creek Institute for the Arts, the
world's first in-residence media colony. More about his activities can
be seen on www.tvwriter.com and www.cloudcreek.org. He welcomes your comments
and feedback at LarryBrody@cloudcreek.org. Brody, his wife and their dogs,
cats, horses and chickens live in Marion County, Arkansas. The other residents
of the mythical town of Paradise reside in his imagination.
|
