Four - Moby Dick

The arrival of the man was like clockwork. At one minute to nine, Robert slipped through the door, turn down his collar as if avoiding scores of fans and amused Jimmy with a one-liner. This night he tossed a classic novel at Jimmy. "Lock the store, grab the bourbon and bring the book."

The kid from nowhere surveyed the book then performed his closing duties. He wondered aloud, "what's in store tonight?" Jimmy finished up with a little more vigor than previous nights and walked through the portal.

"Eh mate!" Mark was becoming attached to kid as well. The, 'eh mate', from another music giant was like acceptance into a fraternity for Jimmy who had few friends. "Have a seat, mate." He swiveled a stool out from under the sound board.

"Thanks, Mark. No David, tonight?" Jimmy inquired about the man's brother.

"No mate, he is off somewhere warm with his new wife. It's just you, me and the poet." Mark pointed to Robert tuning his guitar.

"Are you going to play when you are here, Mark?" Jimmy was reading album jackets again. He really never knew anything but country music before working at the store. The radio in his house was always set to the local country station. Reading album jackets was his education.

"We'll see. This is Roberts nickle." Mark was a producer for the Duluth, Minnesota native not his band mate.

Robert looked up from tuning his guitar to see Jimmy talking with Mark. "Mark hit record, would ya? And you! You are not reading....read! Damn kid!" He was emphatic that he should open the book and read.

Jimmy looked at Mark. "What's eating him? Read? I will read." The kid took it personal. He leaned against the wall and put his feet on the control board.

Mark took offense, "down, mate. This isn't your momma's coffee table." He pointed to the far end of the booth. "Take it down there."

Jimmy got up and kicked the stool to the far end of the booth. "Fine." He plunked his butt down and opened the classic novel and in an overly loud voice he narrated the first part of the novel, Moby Dick. "Call me Is-ha-ma-el."

Mark roared, laughing overtly at the kid. "ISH-MY-ELL. Ya really need to stop drinking, mate!"

Jimmy began once again. "Call me ISH-MY-ELL!"

"Good luck with the rest of the novel, kid. That was just the opening line!" Mark laughed as he straightened himself on the chair and began to listen closely to Robert laying down his first track.

Jimmy read aloud to antagonize Mark. "Some years ago - never mind how stupid the producer looked at the sound board!" An airborne elastic flew over the kid's head.

"You are going to be a pain in the arse, aren't you?" Mark shook his head.

Jimmy grunted. "Uh-huh! Chapter one. Call me Ishmael. Some years ago - never mind how...." The kid was actually reading in a tone that suggested he was taking it seriously. Soon his voice tailed off and the serious reading happened.

Mark did not look over. His job was in front of him, listening and giving feedback to Robert with his music. He was revisiting an old song to find something new in it. He only performed one take of Maggie's Farm for his bootleg series. Maybe he felt that was a little rushed, even for him.

Robert asked for several play backs through out the night. The odd time he coyly asked how the kid was doing with a simple head nod in his direction. Mark just gave him the thumbs up while the Jester seemed pleased with the young man.

With each paragraph, Jimmy felt the same tug Ishmael had and wanted to climb aboard in his place. He never knew of places and adventures being described. A wharf? He had never seen a wharf.

Jimmy's entertainment in the summer was running to the river. He remembered counting the steps as he ran. 189 steps at top speed with worms, hooks and a cheap fishing rod. Fishing was cheap and the odd time there would be a prize to bring home. A fresh trout or bass made a great addition to garden vegetables.

Jimmy's mind was asea and awash in the very first novel he ever read. He has carried several novels with the intention of reading. He even read a few pages, but all seemed to put him to sleep and eventually he gave in to just reading the back cover before making a book report.

But Moby Dick had Jimmy from that opening paragraph, asking himself all kinds of questions. 'What do ships from China look like? Sailors everywhere! What is this book about? Where is this Moby?'

Jimmy could not make sense of the rambling and still read on like he was going to eventually figure it out. Hours passed and his head was still down devouring page after page until he could no longer hold even one eye open. Time caught up to the kid. He was on the floor, his back against the wall, book on the floor and sound asleep dreaming of sailing on a ship at sea.

Three a.m. came and Robert walk into the booth happy to see Jimmy had crashed. "Hey Mark, how long was the kid reading?"

"He made it to two before I heard the book hit the floor. He was like a machine flipping page after page." Mark looked back to Robert. "He had a rough start but he seemed to figure things out. Tell you the truth, he surprised me."

"I better wake him up." Robert felt happy the kid was actually reading the classic novel but he was gonna feel it in the morning if he stayed there. "Jimmy. Hey kid, come on time to get off the floor. He reached down and gave him a little excuse me shake.

"Whaaat?" Jimmy waved at the open air.

"Hey, Kid. Come on." This time Robert pulled his arm. "Up...you...come."

Jimmy now realized the situation he was in. "Oh yeah. Okay. How long was I out, Mark?" He asked with his head still foggy.

"About an hour, mate!" Mark was happy he was heading back to his hotel for the night. "Cheers!" He was gone out the back door.

Robert slid a stool out for Jimmy. "Have a seat." He watched Jimmy plop down. "How's the book going?"

"Strange messages inside this book." Jimmy frowned as he opened the book.

Robert half laughed. "Tell me."

"Like how a person should not just go through life as a passenger. You should get your hands dirty." Jimmy was actually getting the message the book intended.

"Continue." Robert agreed but wanted more.

"Getting angry about being told what to do has more to do with pride than anything about the work." Jimmy realized more about himself in the first ten pages of the novel than in the first eighteen years of his life. "And each person chooses their path differently. But I think the author must have been a crazy person. Or a genius, I don't know! Half the stuff is like gibberish to me even after reading many pages twice."

Robert gave a light hearted laugh. "Yeah, it is not the easiest of reads."

"No, it wasn't." Jimmy frowned.

"What do you mean, it wasn't? The book is nearly 400 pages. You can't be finished!" Robert did not believe Jimmy.

"I mean it was interesting and crazy Ahab just couldn't see how lucky he was that the whale only got his leg. He took it way too personal!" The kid was understanding what the book had intended. "I mean, Captain Boomer, the guy who lost his arm, was happy to get away with his life, why couldn't the crazy captain?" Jimmy looked at Robert for an explanation.

"We have too much pride as humans, kid. Sometimes we are driven mad by trying to settle scores." Robert pointed out. "Family feuds can eat people up."

"Yeah, I hear you with that one." Jimmy looked down in dejection.

"How could a kid at your age know about families feuding?" Robert looked at a crushed eighteen year old kid.

"I had a fight with my mom before coming to the city. I was not a good son the last couple of years, Robert." His head still down, Jimmy continued. "I missed my dad, I know mom missed him too. I thought I was a man trying to drink my pain away, but now I know I looked like a big baby."

"Well, better to know that at eighteen than forty-eight." Robert made a good point. There was time to walk away from the crazy, hell bent on personal death Ahab role and find a better way through life. "So how is your mother? Ever check in on her?" He spoke solemnly to the dejected kid.

"I doubt if she would want to even look at me. I am an embarrassment." Jimmy looked up at Robert. "You know I drink a lot and I would fight even more. What a screw up!" He scrambled to his feet and was ready to bolt from the room.

"Hey." Robert grabbed the kid's arm and repeated. "Hey! You have nothing to be ashamed of. What's done is done, you can't change that. Whatever people thought of you then doesn't apply now. You hear me?" He tapped his index finger on Jimmy's forehead. "This is a powerful tool you have here. Use it for good! You figured it out and you are eighteen!"

Jimmy broke free feeling less than powerful that night. Filled with remorse for treating his own mother like he did that August morning was like a heavy rock in his stomach.

It was painful to literally wake up to the realization he was a horses ass, and to his mother no less. He was embarrassed and ashamed balled into one. His pride was hurting, no damn different than Captain Ahab's.

Losing his father was like Ahab losing his leg. Captain Boomer losing his arm was like his mother accepting the same loss of his father. The difference was Jimmy tried to bury his loss with fighting and booze. His mother openly wept and in time found a way to move forward.

The irony of the novel was not lost on Jimmy. Lesson learned.