Please excuse my ignorance of recent postings. Health has kept me away.

My Heart is breaking.

We all have our ways of dealing with sorrow. Mine is to imagine. Imagine…

Over the trolley tracks and just around the corner is a Jigger Shop where confections of all sorts can be had and if you’re of a mind, a hard drink or two. I’ve never looked up to see the name above the door but if I had, it might turn out to be something like, The Callahan-Gavagan-White Hart- Seven Poor Travelers’ Jigger Shop. There’s a flicker to the light in the room coming from the warm fire in the hearth and there are lots of folks at the bar and tables. Some real and some imagined and some living and some beyond that.

Round one of the tables, Louisa May Alcott and Jane Austen seem to be winning an amiable argument with Sam Clemens and James Fennimore Cooper. Damon Runyon is at the bar having a few with Broadway and Madam La Gimp and a few stools down are Hemingway and Poe having a serious discussion about something or other while Vincent Price pours them drinks. Over on the far end near the window the sun is hot on Raymond Chandler’s shoulder and he has to squint when he looks out to see the two men approaching from the park across the street. Stephen King has been doing pretty well with tips working the door all day and he opens it now to let the two in.

At a table near the door sit two other men, both in their thirties. One with glasses and an infectious smile and laugh and the other a thoroughly fine fellow with no glasses and an equally infectious smile and laugh. They both get to their feet when they see standing in the door a young Ray Bradbury and Pip. All is silence for a moment until Ray says cheerfully, “Look, Pip. It’s Steve Alan and Charles Dickens. Let’s have a conversation.”

And so may it be.

Imagine. An author who will live forever…

Thank you Chapter 31. I really needed something like your post this morning. I woke up today & thought I'd feel better, then I started poking around & reading more about Ray & got upset all over again. Your post made me feel better. Thanks.