Beverly-The Hippies Devolve

Beverly
-The Hippies Devolve

fiction
edward w pritchard

Please see related stories first- by same author
Statistical Prediction of the Future by Artificial Intelligence
Commentary on the Kent State Shootings of 1970

Beverly finished at the piano and went up to Hank's third floor loft to crash for the night. She dragged the plastic globe chair to the picture window overlooking the Cuyahoga River, wrapped up in Hank's old green army jacket and fell into a light sleep.

Beverly awoke at 1:30 AM to Hank coming in from closing the bar. Laying still with her eyes closed Beverly listened to Hank's nightly ritual. Hank filled a large heavy glass with 5 ounces of Whiskey, found a CD and listened to the chosen CD through an expensive pair of headphones. Hank then dragged out his sleeping bag and laid across the bean bag chair. Opening her eyes Beverly also saw that Hank had lit a candle.

Hank had owned the downtown Kent, Ohio bar since 1968. Hank had played guitar with a local group that had cut a couple of national records in the 1960's and with his royalties he had bought the building and bar. Through a series of investments Hank now owed the local bank twice what the Bar and building were worth. Hank had earlier tonight asked Beverly to look at the foreclosure notice from the Bank so Beverly decided to get up and review the loan documents since she couldn't get back to sleep. She used the lava lamp for light and quickly read through the letters to Hank from his bank.

Hank's loan was an unusual 40 year amortization interest only loan from April 01, 1968 to April 01 2008. On the latter date the entire balance plus interest would be due. Since Hank hadn't made many of the interest payments the loan had negative amortization and Hank now owed nearly twice the original $150,000. Hank had also taken several additional draws of money beyond the 150,000 from time to time with the Bank's permission. Hank had compounded his problem with his loan balance by getting several six month extensions on the loans over the last two years and not paid any interest during that time. There was a polite letter from the Bank dated March 01, 2010 that the balance of 297,555. was due by April 01 2010 or the Bank would take a cognovit judgment and foreclose on the building. Since the original loan was for a business purpose in Ohio confession of judgment was legal.

Beverly knew the building and the bar were all that Hank had and without them he would be desperate.

Despite the gravity of Hank's situation Beverly was fascinated by the notes and pictures Hank had attached to the dull amortization schedule. Hank was planning to send a copy of the amortization schedule to the Bank President in a few days with a letter asking for more time to pay.To prove his case Hank had pasted pictures and notes to the right of the page after page of amortization schedules. Each month he would have a comment or picture that typified his life at that time.

As Beverly began flipping through the pages the date May 01, 1968 caught her eye:

The caption from Hank to himself read:
Hank the Hippy 1968
I join a mass movement
I went to a party and I have been at it for over a year now.
There was a photo pasted here of Hank in the Green army coat that Beverly now wore
Hank looked happy and prosperous and had a nice smile in his eyes

end part 1

Part 2

Beverly continued to review Hank's notes on the right of the Amortization schedule
It read:

October 1971
Hank the Lady's man
page after page of Hank with different beautiful elvish women followed.

Jumping ahead
Beverly read
October 02, 1981
My women are gone and I had better save something for later, I should pay down my bank note
Hank no longer looked happy. He had lots of comments in his notes about being alone and referred to himself in the second person as the shut in.

Beverly became aware that Hank was looking at her and smiled over at him. Hank nodded got up went to the dresser, took out an odd shaped glass globe, placed the burning candle in the middle of the globe, screwed the two sides of the globe together using his hands and turning each half a turn in opposite directions and went to the window, opened it, and leaned far out to throw the globe. Beverly ran over, scared and held Hank tightly about the waist from the back as he threw the lighted candle and globe toward the Cuyahoga River, about 40 or 50 feet from the building. The globe bounced and bobbed but the candle stayed lit as it floated downstream.

Hank was older than Beverly's Father and had scared her when he leaned out the window. He didn't seem drunk just groggy. Beverly got Hank to sleep in the globe chair and dozed off her self in the sleeping bag.

Beverly's dream.

Beverly dreamed she was back in the cafeteria in Junior high school. She was sitting with a boy and he was holding her hand. Slowly the boy became very flamboyant wearing a pink Boa, and silk clothes and an outlandish high hat. Then the boy was Jimi Hendricks and he looked at her and said you got me expelled. Next Beverly was helping him with homework, exponents and he said 2 to the zero power is not nothing it's one,-- get it Beverly. Then Jimi Hendrix' arm was a guitar and he reached far out of Hank's window and the guitar touched the candle Hank had throw from the window and the candle began to double over and over, growing exponentially until the entire river was full of burning candles floating in both directions.

Beverly awoke with a start and she ran the few feet over to the window and the candle was still in view about one hundred feet down river. She must have slept and dreamed only for a few minutes. The head phones were on that Hank had been listening to earlier and Beverly could hear it was Jimi Hendrick's playing Villanova junction the piece from the end of Woodstock. Beverly had heard the CD as she slept and concocted a dream around the music.

Beverly was working at her laptop as Hank slept. She put Hank's business loan problem aside and continued the poem she had began when she first came upstairs after Gabby had left and after she finished at the piano on the floor below in Hank's building.

Beverly's poem was about endings and seeing Hank's nightly routine had inspired her to write some more.

end part 2

Before she continued the poem Beverly looked at Hank's amortization schedule again curious to know what he had wrote on April 1, 2010 the last day to pay before foreclosure on his building.

Hank had written a note to himself

It read- "Hank, what do you do when the music stops?

Beverly balanced her laptop on her lap and began to compose"

Things had ended like a lush pear hitting the side of a brick building. The impact annihilated the pear but the changes to the building were subtle and took time to work out.
The Pear
First went logic- gone in an instant
Then went sensation- a massive shock of pain was felt
Last went experience- experience hung on for a few extra moments and passed something on through the heart
then the pear was gone
The building
the bricks in the vicinity of the pear's impact absorbed the sugar from the pear and attracted bees and inspects
bees and insects attracted birds
birds nested in the holes in the bricks
in time all evidence of the pear's impact was gone
the building is still there
no worse for wear from the impact with the pear
except for a few nesting birds
who lay very tiny turquoise colored eggs in the spaces between the bricks

end part 3

Part 4
Beverly
It was Monday May 06, 2010. Beverly had just successfully negotiated Hank another six month extension on his loan. The bank was easy to deal with. Hank had balked a little but she finally got him to agree to sell his Gibson flying V guitar, just like the one his guitar hero Jimi Hendrix played sometimes; and with the $75,000 of funds from the guitar sale to be consummated later today, the Bank had agreed to another extension. Hank had promised Beverly he would work to pay down the loan some more but both knew he wouldn't. He had just wanted a few more months before the changes started in earnest.

Beverly had read the fax from Gabby when she first got to her office this morning. Now that she was done with Hank's loan problem she wanted to help Gabby get the word out on the 2020 shootings in Bloomfield Michigan. She wasn't sure if there was any reality to what Gabby's computer had predicted but she wanted to help get out the word all the same. For Chief Bigfoot at least, and the dead students in the other pictures.

Going to the social network site Face book Beverly posted her poem about the pear hitting the building and at the bottom, under the poem she posted:

Save the - Bloomfield, Michigan Eight- May 2020- pass it on

As soon as she posted the poem and message the tally of hits for the poem began to grow exponentially, but starting with one. Her initial post was 1 and it began to rapidly double as people began to look at the message. 1, 2 , 4 , 8, 16 .. 268.

Beverly walked down to the Starbucks for coffee wearing the old green army coat Hank had given her for helping him. The old coat was warm and offered good protection from the cool wind.