My God. I haven't been anywhere like this in such a long time, not since my first small town County Fair, the summer before I began High School. It's so...so innocent, so quaint, so inviting. So Nice. It's a flashback to that long-ago time, before gangs, before drugs, before politics, before punch clocks and responsibilities and deadlines and mortgages, before infidelities, before positive biopsies and negative feedback, before dreams were dashed and unlimited possibilities were squandered, before my weakness let fear eat its way into the inviolate and irreducible core of my heart. It's such an epiphany to see through these eyes once again, I love it. Thank you for inviting me Amos.

The afternoon meanders into evening and the sky takes upon itself a deep blue hue more imperious than the sea's. The lights strung above begin to glow a warm, embracing yellow-gold, not that damned urban pink of today. But the crowd jostles, and even tho Neil reminds me "all my friends are there," it begins to feel lonely. Then I see...her. Long brown hair with bangs over her brows, exquisite, probing brown eyes that in an instant lock onto mine stripping away my armor of self delusions, and yet, tho leaving me defenseless, seek not to wound, but instead hint at approval. Of me (of all people), of the Real Me.

Emboldened, we explore together. We fearlessly walk the Not Quite Totally Tuned Twelve-String Tunnel of Terror.We put a nickle in, then stand on, the Pentatonic Scales to get our weight and the little card with our fortune on it. At last we make our way thru the Big Brazilian Forest over to Rick Fielding Field where we find the nightly ball game stuck in it's Suspended 7th Inning Stretch. We spread a blanket out under the stars. Sleep comes easily, and with it the chance to dream some more...