The 'Cheshire' Appears

I had just flown into the Frankfurt airport so that I could get out of the United States for a while in the hopes of just getting away from it all. For religious reasons. Just to be somewhere where nobody else in the world would know where the hell I was - not even your everyday 'rat race' types. So I figured I'd just get lost over there for a few weeks while hiking a lot of ancient trails and drinking a lot of EU beer and staring at a lot of old castles.

So I immediately hopped a random train at the airport and rode it for about two hours and finally disembarked in some quiet little rural village where my dreams of 'just getting away from it all' would surely, I assumed, begin in earnest. But I was quickly brought back to reality when a disgruntled local cab driver who was standing only yards away from me said loudly to another driver ...

“Why doesn't he just go to one of those countries that speak ENG glish!”

His advice notwithstanding I checked into a local room instead, a nice country motel, now reeling from the realization that my entire six week 'get away from it all vacation' was NOT going to happen. I never had a chance. In fact, it had just been completely destroyed while it was still only on the tarmac and in just the first few hours!

"Good thing I didn't fly into one of those Italian cities instead,"

I remember then thinking,

"those people would have just shot me!"

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The 'Cheshire' suddenly appears!

So it was later that first night, well after midnight, and the sky was full of stars and the summer breeze thing was going on and this was all silhouetted by the tops of the conifers that were nearby as I was lying outside on the outdoor patio and on a chaise lounge, by necessity, because I accidentally locked myself out of my room because for some reason I couldn't find my key. I know now, of course, and as you'll all now see, that this was all by providential design.

So I was just looking up at the sky full of stars and preparing to spend the night right there when all of a sudden …

THERE HE WAS !!!

HIS ENTIRE FACE RIGHT UP THERE IN THE NIGHT SKY.

JUST STARING RIGHT AT ME.

WITH A BIG ‘CHESHIRE CAT’ LIKE GRIN !!!

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Artist's Rendition!

Artist's almost accurate rendition

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How I would describe it

I'd say that he looked like a cross between 'Darth Vader' and one of those skeletons of WWI soldiers with their helmet's still on and the death grins still menacingly on their faces like in those old comic books. But his head piece was actually more tapered off on both sides and more Napoleonic looking and his eyes were more of a subdued red and green neon, and more piercing.

And his face conveyed a genuine childlike friendliness and curiosity which was intriguing to say the least, but his expression was also continuously reminding me of the fact that I was now on HIS turf and so please behave - but never in a threatening way.

He was very well mannered.

And he couldn't believe, it seemed to me, that I was stupid enough to be wandering around over there like an absolute idiot! And yet at the same time he had some sort of a begrudging respect … and he was even more impressed by the fact that the Heavens themselves were going to prevent my destruction. And he knew it. Somehow. Before even showing up he already knew it. It was obvious.

In fact, to be honest, I think it was the only reason that he even showed up in the first place. Because he was intrigued. And like I said impressed. I think. Actually I didn't know what to think. And I don't think that he did either.

We just stared at each other.

And for what seemed like hours.

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One wonders ...

WHO WAS THIS SUPERNATURAL FELLOW?

I REALLY HAVE ABSOLUTELY NO IDEA!

I'VE NAMED HIM 'THE CHESHIRE' FOR CONVENIENCE BUT WHO IS HE REALLY?

WHOEVER HE IS HE IS ALIVE AND WELL !!!

THIS WAS NO FIGMENT OF MY IMAGINATION.

WHAT DOES THIS MEAN AND WHAT IS HE UP TO?

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Only Berliners will know his name!

Only Berliners know the answer - they and only they - I just know it. Sometimes I just know stuff. But I DON'T know everything - like for instance his real name. Because they won't tell me!

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But now back to “Are you the American Boy?”

August '97,

City of Dicen, nation state ??

(one of them there new eastern european boundries)

So like I said a week or so later I took a train heading west out of a city named 'Liberec' in Czech and it went thru the astonishing 'Lusatian' mountains and by late afternoon a connection had to be made in a city called 'Decin' and so I stood out on the outdoor platform waiting for my connection like everybody else and I just assumed that I was now finally completely 'away from it all' and after a minute or so a young adult male approached me with a cigarette in his mouth and asked me if he might have a light.

I said 'sure' and when he finally had it lit he looked up at me and in a hushed voice and with a mischievous grin asked -

"You the American boy?"

You can't go out.

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The Arch of Triumph and Versailles!

So anyway I took trains from there to Paris and I arrived just before dawn at an underground station stop chosen at random and when I emerged at street level I was surprised to see the 'Arch of Triumph' right there in all of it's glory with the golden August morning sun just splashing all over it and so I took a seat on one of the park benches which circled around parts of the monument's traffic circle and it provided quite the view. And quite an emotion to go with it. It was religious!

And I was the only witness at first - the only one watching the show from the benches - until I noticed after a minute or two that another 'personage' had mysteriously appeared on another bench which was more to the left of mine and closer to the monument. And right out of thin air!

She was an elderly women with long gray hair and wearing a full length common black taffeta dress and she just sat there on the bench motionless while being completely 'taken in' by the same sublime show that I was. Her face I did not see.

An apparition obviously from a remembrance of things past.

Versailles !!!

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Tried England next but ...

So anyway I finally got to Cherbourg, France to catch a ferry to Ramsgate, U.K. in an attempt to get completely lost in the UK. But as soon as I arrived in Merry Old England I was then summarily drop kicked by customs back onto the ferry like I was a soccer ball. But only after first being asked by one of their immigration guys (who looked a lot like one of their PM's too btw)

"So John, what happened in the States that made you just want to flee?"

and I should have very cleverly said -

"Just the usual spy-craft stuff - I had to deflect a bunch of foreign assassins, which is true actually but the overall 'optics' weren't good!" -

but instead I just sheepishly said -

“Nothing!"

and that I just wanted to do computer stuff in the U.K. for a few years and he then said that it was unlawful to enter the U.K. simply to look for work and back on the boat I went. Although I was allowed to get drunk first in one of the local Ramsgate pubs. You see, they're nice people!

And besides, I really just wanted to see that 16th century manor house in Chelsea that Sir Thomas Moore had cleverly stolen from the then 'realm-of-the-day' and thereby reclaim it. But …

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A Strange Twist of 'Fates'

And it was just a week or two later (Aug '97), interestingly enough, when a current living member of English royalty was killed in an awful car crash. Not to be a spoilsport, but I guess they should have just given me the deed to the 'Beaufort House in Chelsea' instead!

Refer to the 'Lost Tudor Crown Jewels' to further your understanding.

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A little Orwell humor

(early September, 1997, Morehead, Minnesota motel)

Just before flying back to Minnesota at the end of my 6 week trip to Europe - that was both fascinating and a nightmare at the same time - I was drinking one night with a local fellow in a little French town somewhere near Saverne and he asked me strait up ...

"What's the U.S. really like?"

And by now I had grown tired of telling people the usual "It's OK" so I responded with

"The truth? You want the truth? It's an Orwellian nightmare!"

And then after landing back in the states a couple of days later I checked into a cheap motel in a small Minnesota town - mid afternoon - and I at once turned on the TV set and as soon as it came on the guy in the TV suddenly stopped what he was saying and then, after pausing for a second, looked right into the camera and while looking right at me very sternly said ...

"It ISN'T an Orwellian nightmare!"

It then returned to it's regular programming without delay.

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