(Searching for) SOLID GROUND a novel by Pete Shanks Advance Praise for (Searching for) Solid Ground “Coruscating intelligence” Yaw n Upchuck “Darn good yarn” Capt. W. E. Johns, dec’d. “Probably libellous” George the First, ret. “Not enough naughty bits” Penile Wrath “Not enough drugs” Gwen Queasy “So beautifully written” Rushda Judgeman “I don’t understand” Yawn Minor (Searching for) SOLID GROUND a novel by Pete Shanks S E S C, CA: to Stacey, Alison & Jane for years of inspiration All the bad people are imaginary; all the good thoughts are true. Copyright © 2000 Pete Shanks wordsontheweb.com Thanks to Robert Hunter for giving me permission to quote from his lyrics for “It Must Have Been the Roses,”“Uncle John’s Band” and “Ramble On Rose,”all of which are published by Ice Nine Publishing Company. There are brief quotations from other works; I encourage the reader to seek out the originals, most of which I would prefer, but for possible legal restrictions, to quote at greater length. επαµεροι, τι δε τις; τι δ’ ου τις; σκιας οναρ ανθρωπος. αλλ’ οταν αιγλα διοσδοτος ελθη, λαµπρον φεγγος επεσιν ανδρων και µειλιχος αιων. Wills-o’-the-wisp, what are we? What are we not? We are a dream of a shadow. But when the pure light shines, Radiance rests with us, And a gentle life. Pindar, Pythian Odes, th century ... I am he as you are he as you are me and we are all together … GOO GOO GA JOOB John Lennon,“I am the Walrus” (“No you’re not!” said Little Nicola), credited to John Lennon–Paul McCartney, published by Northern Songs, owned by Michael Jackson, & recorded by The Beatles for their Tragical History Tour (S ) S G 1 I am this world and I eat this world. Who knows this, knows. Taittireeya Upanishad, ca th century ... , a hundred miles . that scared the living daylights out of everyone Lbelow the Forest of Nicene Marks State Park in two days after the Loma Prieta Earthquake itself. California, the great turtle on which the earth What was terrifying was the cumulative effect of depends flexed its carapace. Eased by the action, it five thousand separate aftershocks in the following slowly settled into comfort and dozed again, to lie month –– one every eight-and-a-half minutes on almost still and silent till some other irritation of average, much less near the beginning, longer later, growth or decay should urge it once more to wake- but stretching on for months, maybe years. fulness. After a couple of weeks, the survivors learned to On the surface the shock was palpable. Houses remember to forget, like novice sailors finding their on the ridges that worshipped Loma Prieta were sea-legs, but then Cal-Trans reopened Highway blown off their foundations, to land where they and shoppers could drive to the better-stocked would as ruins and rubble. The downtown districts stores of San José. In the new routine, they opened of both Santa Cruz and Watsonville, the centers of their car doors and braced themselves for the tiny each end of the county, were devastated. A hun- adjustments that the quivering land continually dred miles north, by some quirk of energy trans- demanded … and shook themselves because the mission too subtle for the scientists, the landfill of pavement was still. San Francisco’s Marina District pulsated, the Bay They were out of sync with their world. Bridge partly fell and the Oakland section of I- Everyone always is, to a degree, except for the collapsed. odd ecstatic mystic and the occasional artist surfing At . on the Richter, the Quake of October th, the zeitgeist to immortality, but most of the time , was a Pretty Big One. Half a dozen residents most of us resonate closely enough with our uni- of Santa Cruz County died and thousands more verse to ignore the anomalies and accept the mun- lost millions of dollars worth of things, from trin- dane realities of everyday life. We accept the kets to palatial estates. Some fled but most paradox of a shared culture of individuality. We remained, shocked but determined to remake their know that molecules are mostly empty and the lives, their towns, in the face of catastrophe. In the earth barely more substantial than the vacuum of eerie, candlelit evenings that followed there was a outer space but still, when in need of balance, we grim sense that they had taken the blow they half- say we ground ourselves. expected, rarely acknowledged and always feared. Solid ground is a convenient approximation, a There was anger, fear, grief, and occasional bleak useful fiction, part of the consensual reality that we humor, mixed with collective love and determina- agree to honor. tion into a roiling mess of feelings encased in a Solid ground is a cliché. sense that the way onward was up. Solid ground is a myth. What followed was worse. Not the dozen or so (Searching for) Solid Ground is a quest for right . or greater quakes that hit in the first seven living in a wrong world. hours; not the ninety measuring . or more that It’s also a love story of sorts, but then what tale came in the next thirty days; not even the lengthy worth its salt is not? 2 Only connect! … Only connect the prose and the passion, and both will be exalted, and human love will be seen at its height. E.M. Forster, Howards End, ’ ,” said Annie, trying not to wrinkle “You wha’?” I her forehead. “I just hit a time-warp.” “Really. It’s official. I did the MMPI tests when “Forward or back?” asked Brendan casually. I was getting career counseling at Cabrillo and the “Back, definitely,” she nodded. “That’s how I instructor told me. I thought she meant I was nuts know it’s a time-warp –– it’s weird but it’s sort of at first, I was really worried, but actually that’s not familiar. If it was a forward time-warp it would what it’s about.” only be strange, right?” “Yeah?” “Unless you hit a place where time went back- “Yeah, all it is, is I don’t follow rules just ’cause wards. Then you’d jump forward to the familiar they’re rules, I’ve gotta know why.” and back to the strange.” “Oh, I get it,” Brendan cut in, “Of course. Your “Well it’s back to the strange, all right, but I answers deviate from the norm of conformity. remember it anyway,” she explained confusingly. “I Hell, that’s what I’m saying.” haven’t felt this way for twenty years.” “You mean I really am alienated.” “How?” “ ’Fraid so.” “I dunno exactly. It’s like, I’m the only one in “Alienated. Darn. Just when I thought I was step. You know? There’s an entire universe out getting over it. You don’t have to be young, huh?” there that’s completely out of its tree and they can’t “Nope.” Brendan usually had the answers. see it and if I say so they say it’s me and I say it’s “How about hungry? Do alienated people eat them and … the whole thing’s crazy. But I know dinner?” I’m right.” “Only if it’s vegan; vegetarian at least.” She widened her eyes and inspected her beer. “How about Seychelles?” They were perched on bar-stools at the Front Street She meant the restaurant of that name, though Pub in Santa Cruz, California, sampling the Light- no-one who knew her would have been too sur- house Lager and wondering where to have dinner. prised if she’d made a bid for hustling off to a tropi- Brendan took a solid pull and smacked his lips cal island. Exotic warmth had become her favorite noisily before setting the glass down with an air of coping mechanism, her drug of choice at the end of decision. the muscle-bound eighties. They drained and dis- “I know what you are,” he announced, pausing mounted, tipped and left, laughing in the warmth for effect, “You are alienated.” of a summer evening in Northern California, and “Oh no I’m not,” she laughed. “I’m a psycho- floating away again from darker insights, slowly pathic deviate.” coalescing underneath. 3 Titles are but nick-names, and every nick-name is a title. Thomas Paine, The Rights of Man, W K in you out. Price was not a big deal –– shit was so B the days of the weasel king. They added im- cheap that negotiations were on the basis of say-a- measurably to the gaiety of nations, not least buck for yay-much –– and everyone was happy. It’s because of their outfits. Blackie had a black cor- a rare privilege to find yourself doing so well by duroy safari jacket, with belt and large patch pock- doing so good. ets, that he wore with matching cord Levi’s and a This activity cannot have passed unnoticed. charcoal T-shirt, while his mate had a tropical suit Indeed, nothing whatsoever in Kabul passed unno- that, from a distance, in the late afternoon with the ticed, which seemed to be an unstated keystone of sun behind him, looked rather like one of Tom their local marketing plan. Back in those halcyon Wolfe’s cast-offs. Even the French freaks dug the days of the late sixties, the most remarkable things gear; for a pair of Limeys, they were striking. were available in the bazaar, at competitive prices Everyone knew them by sight and nobody dictated only by the invisible hand of classical capi- knew who they were.