honea byrne

  9 “A memory of someone else.” “Poor Painting on a wall across from Ground Zero Blues Club in Clarksdale Mississippi. dog hit by a car,” Catalina said looking out of the van window. “Damn it’s getting smoky in here,” Fred said, then proceeded to press buttons that rolled all of the windows down.   “That smell,” Peter said in a monotone, still sounding trapped in a hallucination. “Open your eyes,” the voice said. Its face was bright and shaded. Every three seconds the face turned black, then back to shiny gold. “To know.” Peter said. “What is going on with him?” Judas asked. He was concerned. Judas, was hardly ever concerned. “Wake him up,” Samuel said. “No, he has to go through it. Think of it like waking someone up from a dream. It will kill him,” Mammie replied. “She’s full of shit,” Fred retorted. Catalina turned her head and looked out the window at the smoke coming out of the van, made it look like the van had a tail.   “Who are you?” Peter ask...

  8.   “This is where it happened,” I kept saying that over and over again. Carlton turned up The Verve album “Storm in Heaven.” The Arias sounded like I was in some sort of tunnel, where I could feel the reverb. I started to cough hard. Carlton hit the button to bring my window down-I came to…   “What’s going on?” “Dude, you’ve been talking to yourself for hours.” “Were we in a graveyard?”   There was no traffic on the road. They followed Samuel across the street. They all heard a strange buzzing. “Highway eight,” Peter said. “You hear that buzzing in your ears? That means the devil is near,” Mammie said playfully. She looked at his fearful facial expression; then continued, “You know an 8 on its side is the symbol of infinity.”   “The dead have a different sense of time than we do.”   “You want a cigarette?” Carlton asked, as he handed me a cigarette. “WHAT THE HELL!?” He exclaimed as he swerved to avoid hitting a group of peop...

    7. “What if I were to tell you that everything you know now will change?” I heard someone calmly ask. I looked around. My eyes fixated on an angel statue.    “Dude, come on!” Carlton screamed as he grabbed my arm. I could hear him yelling, I could feel his life force. But there was something. Something interfering. It reminded me of when I tried to do something I wanted to do, there was always negative talk in my mind. That made me not do it. Negative self-talk like “You are going to fail,” “They are going to hate you,” “You’ll be alone.” I think of dreams that I once had of doing something in the arts; like being a writer or a musician. Not a sensible thing in the upper-class families. You need to do something that will pay you money. Be an accountant, or a banker.   The interference followed me viciously. At dates when I would be socializing well. Then the interference came, “She’s just feeling sorry for you.” “When she finds out who you really a...

             6. Links Surrounding Divinities “It’s gotta’ be a sign.” “It’s a sign alright.”   Peter got all excited when he saw the sign that said “6 miles to Indianola, 66 miles to Clarksdale.”   “Well. They do say that is the number of the beast,” Mammie goaded. Both Jude and Samuel had their own road atlas. Fred was driving. He was always in the responsible role.   “Exactly, we’ve got to be close to seeing some supernatural stuff…”   “How long have I been on this trip? I must be at home. What time though? “Is the army recruiter going to pick me up? What time is it now?” “Dude. Are you okay?” Carlton tapped me on the shoulder. “Agh,” I moaned from the cigarette burning my fingers. “You’ve been standing here looking up to the sky,” Carlton said. I then looked at the statue of Jesus again. The Red Moon’s light projected a red hallo above Jesus’ head. I think I was walking to Jesus. Th...

Disclaimer: the story about Elvis and BB King are fiction.                5.   “Anyway, Elvis and BB did a concert at a bar that overlooked The Singing River. If you don’t know, Native Americans haunt the river. These Native Americans walked into the river and drowned themselves, rather than be forced to take on the white man’s ways.                Whites that had wanted to change them. Whites that wanted to enslave them. On this particular night the veil separating the living and the spirit world was non existent. Elvis and BB King were jamming together as a mysterious fog lingered over the river. Every few seconds after that Elvis thought he saw some one walking toward him in the fog. This lasted for about five minutes. Then Elvis looked at BB. Then he looked at the crowd cheering. Then he saw the man in the crowd. The man appeared to be European. He had long red hair. Had on a velvet colored...