Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds...

Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds…Part II

(Last week, on Ask Bob)

It’s been a loud, cold, bumpy ride the whole way.

We got a nice meal earlier.  You know, just in case.  I feel a little sick to my stomach, not from the food, just nerves…

…I think I can hold it, as long as we don’t start spinnin’ all around the place.  Which could happen if we get shot down, but that ain’t happened yet, so I guess we’re good to go!

*****

All I can remember is the sensation of cold. 

Freezing wind, numbing my, my...actually the sensation of being no longer exists, so I don’t have a sense of  “what was cold”, I just remember cold and I didn’t like it.

It’s difficult now, for me to explain what it’s like to have consciousness, but not exist.

But there I was.  I knew there was a form of existence that I experienced before, but no longer remembered.  I knew there were others.  Then I became aware of the blackness.

There I was, existing with no sensations, then becoming aware of the dark.

“This is it?” I said in my head.

“Don’t worry, there’s more.” Came the reply.

“He remembers.”  A worried voice/thought said.

“Don’t worry, he’ll forget.”  Came the calm reply.

My eyes closed and the darkness enveloped me, but I didn’t forget.

When my eyes opened again, I was walking, kinda-wobbly…heading toward stairs, when giant hands took me by my underarms and lifted me high above the ground.

“I was just going to take a look.”  I explained.

“Look, he thinks he’s talking!”  The giant said, while carrying me to the next room.

I recall lying in bed as a toddler recalling “the before time”.  The darkness, the something before, and the cold.  I kept playing it in my head, over and over so I wouldn’t forget.  It’s not much, but its more than most folks know about before and after life.

I was born August 15, 1945, the day the New York Times said the war had ended.

As a young adult, I was always fascinated by World War II.  How it started, how it ended.  Not a crazy fascination with swaztikas and guns, a historical fascination. 

It was hard to explain why I liked to sleep with my arms crossed like Dracula, but I did.  I was hard to explain why I hated cold, wind, and snow…but I do.  I can’t explain the never-ending feeling of accomplishment every time I reviewed Hitler’s defeat.  It just made me feel…good.

Sixty years later, I’m watching the WW II in HD on PBS when I see the footage of paratroopers puking on the plan, jumpin’ out, and getting shot in mid-air.  I rewind the DVR and watch the paratroopers again.  I rewind and watch again.  I rewind and stop.

Taking a drink from a Carona, I finally get it.

I press “play” on the DVR and watch intently.  A third paratrooper gets shot in mid-air…I stop and magnify.  Leaning closer, I crawl to the screen and put my hand on it.

“My God.”

“That’s me.”

COMING NEXT:  Something that makes sense!