Restless Intentions

**(Subtitle: Who Brings a Good Luck Charm To the End Of the World). Originally written for the "It's the end of the world as we know IT! contest, but then it got a tad long winded, so I pulled it.

The italicized song lyrics are "Another Christmas Song" by Jethro Tull.**


"Hope everyone is ringing on their own bell this fine morning"...

Caught in the recline of some nowhere, nowhen upon the back of my America; with a fresh beer  and just enough cigarettes to get just  a tad beyond another ominous hour

"Hope everyone is connected to that long distance phone"...

For yet again, we must all be doomed.

While I cannot offer any evidence  to the contrary, neither my ol boy Throttle, nor I were entirely convinced that was actually going to happen.

Not yet leastwise.

"Old man is a mountain"...

"Baby, this is kind of like sequel to Y2k," Tee chuckled as he kicked back and rested upon his own, old hoss.

"Old man is an island"...

"You forgot about the doomsday meteor Partner," I reminded him. "And global warming."

"Old man, awaking says"...

"Yeah, but nobody ever set a hard time for those things to come. That was just some kind of someday maybe bullshit. Are they down there buying water yet?"

"I'm going to call"...

"Water and candles Baby," I grin, as I glance down the steep and slippery slope that seems to assure that nobody is going to be able to get too close too quickly for both of us to ride on, and begone. "It's a doomsday tradition."I said, and Tee chuckled and then shook his head.

... "Call all my children home."

"I wonder if the bars will still be open," Tee asks. "I mean, there's nothing quite like a good stiff drink, when you're facing down against the end of the world. Maybe even come across
some stray li'l thing that wants to go out with a bang."

"Hope everyone is dancing to their own drum this fine morning"...

I shake my head, but can't keep the smirk off my face. Kind of an awful thing to say, but mostly harmless really.

"The beat of distant Africa"...

"There could be zombies," I suggested, and Tee just rolled his eyes.

"Or a Polish factory town"...

"You been down by the park lately Bro? Apparently that has become the new asylum for what should never be," he said, and then stared down into his bottle. "Zombie is apparently one of those alternative lifestyles for actually having to do something about something; and ground zero is apparently somewhere near DC."

"Old man, he's calling for his supper"...

"Heh-he," the chuckle is punctuated by a nice long pull from the cold of brown bottle, with a  small promise of at least temporary painlessness.

"He's calling for his whiskey"...

"So what is it that is actually  s'pose to happen?" Tee broke the silence, and I just shrugged.

"Calling for his sons and daughters"...

"Hopefully something you can fix with water and candles," I suggest, and the guffaw that follows is merely Tee's way of strongly voicing his concerns for his fellowman.

Or something near enough like it.

... "Calling all his children 'round."

"I hear that you all are seceding," I turn to catch his own shrug, his mouth full of suds.

"Sharp ears are tuned in to the drones and chanters warming"...

"I know that it would take more than paper to make that sort of dream come true," Tee said, his tone somewhat subdued."There's quite a bit of talk about what some anybody are willing to die for. And that's pretty much just how it will all end--with a lot of talk about what should have happened,what shouldn't have happened.You notice that nobody really knows what to do next? Little wonder these poor fuckers are chasing after the end of the world."

"Mist blowing 'round some headland"...

"Better duck your head Partner, I think I thought I seen a low flying meteor blowing in towards town," I said as I cock back my head, and gaze toward the heavens.

"Somewhere in your memory"...

"Think I can kill it with a .44 magnum?" he asks, and wins himself another shrug.

"You might just piss it off," I grin without looking over towards him. It is the sort of humor that you are not real sure why it is there, and it doesn't stick around very long.

"Everyone is from somewhere"...

"What about you Bro? What are you going to do when the wars are over?"

"Even if they never been there"...

"Grow a beard and tell war stories," the beer in my mouth was something of a mixed blessing. It gave me time to think,and yet marched me a few steps closer toward the edge of senselessness. "I believe it is going to require quite a bit of embellishment to keep anyone's attention for long, but that's about the only cards I have in my hand--at least in the ways that fortune-telling tends to work itself in from some imaginary beginning, toward some pre-destined end."

"Take a minute to remember the part of you"...

"There is some subtle appeal toward becoming civilized again. Everyone will ask you why  you did what you did. They'll usually have their own pre-cooked answers  in their head, making anything that you may have to add either too spicy or too bland to keep them sitting at the table long enough to realize that you aren't jus' sipping at their soup."

... "That might be the old man calling me."

"Yeah Partner, here you go." Tee says as he hands me another beer. "You wandered out  a little too deep, but I've got your back."

"How many wars are you fighting out there this fine morning"...

"So, when does all the rape pillage and looting begin?" I am grateful for the change of subject.

"You mean it actually stopped?" Tee opened his own next round, as he rolled his eyes. "Somebody better call the papers and tell them to quit printing all those lies they seemed to like to tell us about who and what we are really about."

"Maybe there's always time"...

"I've got an amen for you there my Friend. Strikes me like a dog trying to cover its own scent, if you ask me. Always rolling o'er into something bad, and believing that they're doing some good. I noticed that more than a few of them were stirring at the sauce about this fresh end of the world theory. Must be a shortage of blood and mayhem."

"For another Christmas song"...

"You never really want to get know someone who has gotten their name in the papers," Tee agreed.

"Old man, he's asleep now"...

"It's getting close now," I say, lighting another cigarette "You got any fireworks?"

"It didn't seem appropriate."

"I dunno man," Tee said as he sat up on his bike. "I mean, if I've only got  a couple minutes left, fireworks would kind of be like a big ol' eff-you. If not... well, we pulled  through on another one. Fireworks are always good for shit like that."

"Yeah."

"He's got appointments to keep now"...

"Well, I wonder if the doom-keeper remembered to wind its watch," Tee said as we both glanced around toward the town below.

"Or maybe it goes off an entirely different calendar." I checked to assure that someone, or something, had definitely missed their appointment.

"Dreaming of his sons and daughters"...

"Fuck me, now I have to get up in the morning." Tee said, and I smiled.

"Yeah, I s'pose that we do. You sound disappointed." There is an emotion that he seems content to hide behind, so I do not push it. "You ready to go?" I ask when he does not respond.

"Good as it gets," Tee said as he dumps the rest of his beer on the ground. "Catch you at the next  apocalypse Brother,"he said, and then sped away on his old Harley.

I crushed out my cigarette as my eye fell back down upon the town.

... "Proving that the blood is strong."

I rode home alone.

Uley