are you even trying? - 9. the explanation

by nick nelson

part nine of 23

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> before frank told eddie his own dream, he had to explain eddie’s dream to eddie. because everything has an explanation. the town was eddie’s feeling(s) of inadequacy. the train station was eddie’s mom, who had abandoned him. the trains that were not at the train station were all the siblings that eddie would have had if he had been born 20,000 years ago. the buses were all the big animals - giant bears and sloths and tigers and mastodons that eddie would have had to run from or fight in the year 22,001 b c. the ticket was the magic spear he had been given by the wise man, osmeego, to slay the beasts guarding the castle in the black hills wait a minute, eddie said to frank, what is all this about a wise man and a castle in some black hills? i did not dream about any of those things. they were in the book, the magnificent rebel, by laura j peterson. i guess you must have forgotten, frank replied coolly. i must have, eddie admitted ruefully. i don’t remember much about the book, just the cover, and that it was one of my mom’s books. one of her favorite books, right? frank asked. i don’t remember, eddie said. i really just remember the cover, with a girl with red hair in a leopard skin bikini shoving a spear at some kind of big hairy thing - a caveman or a bear or something. it was your mom’s favorite book, frank said, i know, because it is one of mine too. if you say so, eddie conceded. and the girl with red hair., she must be the one in the red dress at the news stand. she must be, eddie acknowledged, who else would she be? i will tell you who she was, frank said. she was princess little red eagle, the magnificent rebel, leading the rebellion of the humans and neanderthals against the empire of the bear people. she wasn’t that little, eddie said. at least not on the cover. it was just a name, frank assured him. like a guy named bill green, you would not expect him to actually be green, would you? not unless he was from some other galaxy. i remember bill green, eddie said. i remember him very well. he was quite a character. was he the most amazing character you ever met? frank asked. he was indeed. except for you, of course. next